Honor, Chris, Ken, Anita and run leader Liz achieved best possible performance on Monday’s group run task combining quality, speed and humour to transform seven benches in Buccleuch Gardens at zero cost.

Before and after shots of all the benches taken with added zest!: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKtzvMrI9_e/?igsh=Y3d1c2JxYmVsa2R4

We were greeted by Jane (Head of Therapy) who introduced us to the Purple Elephant Project. Its focus and core values behind an intrinsic nature of supporting families and the key message being that 'children should be heard'.

In quick succession, we got down to the list of prepared tasks. The major areas included tidying up the garden and indoor play therapy centre, filled with toys, art materials, sand trays, and other creative tools were located. We also had senior play therapist Tracy on board, who performed an initial assessment with us to identify what sections needed tidying up. A stop and think exercise before tackling a job was a good shout. Our mission was to create an environment where therapists could reach out to the objects in those sections, that would later help the children to express their emotions and process trauma. We agreed and got cracking with the jobs.

Honor went guns blazing and took care of the therapy garden (and bringing along her own mower) whilst Mazin helped inside. Some of the tasks required fixtures and fittings to doors, shelves, units, a new screen along the fence, a replacement garden hose, the cooperative outdoor games, bedding, planting, mowing, general cleanup etc.

It certainly looked holistic by the time when we were done. It was a magnificent show of support from the entire team including our young special guests, Esra and Felix who helped create a magical atmosphere! Their bursts of role-play and act out scenarios clearly on display meant that everything was tickety-boo. The adults continued to tackle the rest of the jobs and before we knew it, it was close to lunch.

A job well done!

A night of rolling out the wheelbarrows at Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts. A peaceful jog along the riverside under a starry sky led us to the scout base where task owner Russell was ready with shovels, barrows and bags for one group to shovel soil that had collected on the driveway and bag it up to use elsewhere at the site, while another pair lifted and shifted some heavy concrete posts from one spot to another! Sea Scouts always means a good workout of some nature and tonight was no exception!

We are back there later this month to help further with outdoor tasks.

This evening we welcomed Daisy for the first time as well as Honor returning for the second time as well set off from Richmond town centre to INS in Twickenham. A round run trip of nearly 9km, the run gave plenty of time to chat as we ran down Richmond high street, across th bridge and made our way to Twickenham, collecting Monika and Honor on the way.

Arriving at INS, task owner Sarah showed us a storage cabinet that needed to be emptied and moved from room one (with a very small doorway) to room two while a desk needed to move from room three to room one, a chair needed to move from room two to room one and another desk needed to move from room four to room two!

It all called for a lot of pivots, some good upper body strength and some sensible manoeuvring. But many hands do indeed make light work and we were done ahead of schedule, ready for the run home!