Today, 4 Goodgymmers went to St Faiths to help out at GROAD (Get Rid Of And Donate).

We organised lots of clothes and bedding and put them on display, ready for an open house tomorrow. This week we had the added distraction of filtering through some inappropriate donations(!) but apart from that we managed to sort through all the donations within the allotted time and so we finished a bit early.

A change of start point last night as we all made our way variously by bike, running or even walking to the task so that we could get an early start as there was plenty to get on with at Holy Trinity Church.

The nights are drawing in but we brushed that off and were looking forward to meeting Nicole and Adam to help paint the newly built eco hall which is annexed onto the church. We were also in celebratory mood as Lambeth has just completed 1000 Community Missions and AA Yianny just had his birthday so there were sweet treats for all at the end!

We were delighted to welcome a long lots of new faces, Daisy, Will, Emma it was great to have you with us, although if you think it's all indoor tasks and cake at GG you are in for an interesting winter....! Fi it was lovely to have you back with us as well.

As everybody changed into their painting clothes (no GG t-shirts were harmed during last night's task) Nicole explained that the walls of the hall are compressed straw covered with clay while interior walls were gypsum board so we had both clay paint and emulsion to contend with. Marie-Noelle and Paul were aproned up and on emulsion duty while Frances, Daisy, Michael, Nathan, Fi and later Will on clay paint (glad to have your extra height Will!)

Daryl had bravely chosen to run over from Peckham for his first Lambeth session and arrived in time to help AA shift some gypsum boards. With every board at c. 40kgs we shifted 640 kilos in total - not bad at all.

Paul then headed over with Adam to stack hundreds of chairs ready for this weekend as well.

Holy Trinity's priest Richard also paid us a visit to see the work in action and gave us a score of 60% for painting technique but 100% for effort and application so we'll take that!

By 8pm it was time to pack up and get stuck in to some cakes, brownies, cookies and non alcoholic fizz and blow up a few balloons to boot. A huge thank you to all for coming out and the ongoing efforts to getting fit by doing good.

See you next time.

As Sam opened up St. Faith's Community Centre, Ivar just arrived to help him prepare the room by removing chairs and bringing in the tables.

We welcomed Chiara who cycled to St Faith's for her first good deed after seeing an advert for GoodGym on the Gram.

Nathan, Shannon and Fi all arrived at the same time, just as Sophie and Sandy arrived by car with the food donation from Albrighton Centre, so that was their first task - to empty Sophie's car and display the food on the table.

Chiara and Ivar emptied Shed 2 and the porch area, which had donations from King College London students. All the volunteers inside unloaded and sorted the items into categories per table.

Daryl and Maria arrived shortly after as they were at Edward Alleynian Club sorting out donations there. They helped the team where they could.

After an hour and a half, most of the items had been displayed with just a few more clothes to hang up. Everyone left, but Chiara, Maria, Sam and the GROAD volunteers as they finished up the last bits.

All the puns at Thorlands have already been done to death...

We wish the bindweed had too, but those pesky roots are persistent. This Saturday the team divided into two: John, Javier and Fi tackled a patch of weeds on the "stage" (also the home to some wandering foxes). They also removed a layer of soil that had been built up there.

The rest of us: Daryl, Nirmay, David and I went on to turn an area of soil on the path we had created months before. The bindweed had gotten out of control and we had to be very thorough in picking out the roots. Hopefully that will be the last of them... 👀

Last night you could feel something in the air down at Papa's Park, not figuratively but literally as a group of boys were letting off fireworks in the streets and showering us with sparks!

Appropriately we also had a community meeting against anti-social behaviour in the hall meaning we had plenty of company at our introduction.

With Kaz and Will's bikes safely locked together we were able to set off on a pleasant evening run the flat way through Brockwell Park to our venue at Trinity Rise. We were met there by Marie-Noelle, Paul, Alice and one of Nicole's committee volunteers to give all the greenery a big old haircut.

With a decent sized group we set about trimming, cutting, pulling ivy, avoiding spiky bits, barrowing wood mulch and raking it all into place. By the end of the hour a huge amount of green waste was bagged and ready for collection by the council (see pics) and we would head off in different directions with only AA Yianny, Kaz and Will heading back to Papa's and the rest off home for a well deserved rest.

Thanks to Nicole for providing all the tools we could possibly need and see you all at the next one!