A small but mighty GoodGym crew of Farzeen, Emily, Saber and Jana headed to Staywell New Malden for an hour of gardening. The task was to tackle the weeds around the Staywell information sign and along the hedge at the front of the driveway. Farzeen and Saber got stuck in near the sign, while Emily and Jana started working along the long flowerbed under the hedge. After all the recent rain the soil was very wet and sticky, and the beds were full of wriggly earthworms – great for the soil but a bit messy for us! With time running out, the whole team joined forces to finish the flowerbed and were proud to clear the whole stretch together. Along the way Jana unearthed an unusual find buried in the soil, what looked like an old nappy pin! To top it all off, Staywell kindly left us some Ferrero Rocher chocolates, which were very gratefully received after a muddy but satisfying hour of weeding. Great teamwork all round!

Today goodgymers from several different areas brought and dropped items for the food bank.

It was lovely to visit a new venue in Kingston for Tuesday's week's task, for all that we've all walked past Hestia's office without knowing it was there. Hestia has an enormous site up a few flights of stairs on Eden Street where it runs the Good Energy Club, a community project created to help people with mental illness or issues with low levels of mental wellbeing through physical and social activities.

There were acres of surfaces to wipe, around table tennis tables, music rooms, conference rooms and offices, dealt with by cloth from Anna, Tom, Rachel, Jana, Emily, Laurel, Sabir, Sekar and Jonathan.

Meanwhile Luke and Marcos performed heroics with a hoover across never-ending carpets as Dave, Louise and Levita refused to allow the thorough cleaning of the kitchen to beat them.

Perhaps the highlight of the whole evening was our host John, who supplied us not only with good humour but Pepsi Max, sweets and biscuits, and might even become our newest GoodGym recruit. While some of the gang headed off for a well-deserved drink for our monthly social at The Albion, we'll all look forward to coming back to a great spot very soon.

Tonight we had the great opportunity to go to two different charities as both could only take a limited number of volunteers. So that's what we did, we split the group in two and went to Refugee Action Kingston and Growbaby.

Levita reports about the task at Refugee Action Kingston

Louise, Sekar, and Levita supported the team by sorting through donated clothes and separating items suitable for those seeking assistance. Saber worked with the girls to create a peaceful and clean corner where refugees could read the Quran whenever they wished. Dave and Jonathan gladly used their strength and handyman skills to repair the bulletin boards, making them neat and presentable. It was indeed a fruitful and rewarding evening.

Emma reports about the task at Refugee Action Kingston

A crew of GoodGymers made their way on bike or on foot to Growbaby, rolling up our sleeves to bring order to the wonderful chaos of donations they have recently received.

A key job was to pack away the winter coats and set up a rail of spring coats and wellies - ready for some April shower puddle stomping! As a charity which provides free clothes and equipment for little ones aged 0–5, some of us were needed in the stock room to match up tiny shoes - always a satisfying task - give the nappy and milk stores a proper tidy, and sort through bags of new donations to get everything ready for the families who need them.

Better book in our next seasonal trip for the summer hat and sandal sort-out?

9 good gymers did their good deed today, whilist thinking off others, they dropped their donations off for their local foodbank.