A neatening evening in Richmond town centre as we headed to St Mary Magdalene churchyard where the grade II listed war memorial needed some tidying up. Under the watchful eye of task owner Ken we weeded the bed and tidied up the slabs that surround it before Ken blew in with his leaf blower and cleared away the loosened weeds, moss and grass to leave the whole thing ready for remembrance.

An unexpected start to the evening as four members witnessed then helped with a traffic accident before handing over to police who arrived at the scene with blue lights on!

Thankfully the task itself was just around the corner where the rest of the group had already started digging holes to plant bluebells in the graveyard area that Ken has been working on.

After some careful digging in the dark, the group headed to the nearby Angel & Crown for a Taskforce catch-up, full of ideas and appreciation for what everyone does to make GG Richmond something special to be part of. ❤️

Busy bees at The Hive

What a cracking evening at The Hive in Kingston – GoodGymmers rolled up their sleeves and got to work on a task that had graffiti, cobwebs, and plenty of rubbish to tackle.

⭐️ A big cheer for our team: Lordi, Tenko, Anna, Emma, Jana, Jonathan, and Ken (and a very warm welcome to our new GoodGymmers, Lordi and Kento – great to have you with us!).

Jonathan and Ken wasted no time taking on the toilet walls – not the most glamorous job, but definitely a satisfying one. Buckets, rollers, and brushes in hand, they soon had the graffiti-covered walls and door looking fresh and clean with a smart coat of paint.

Meanwhile, Emma, Tenko, and Lordi took to the streets for some litter-picking action. Cobwebs didn’t stand a chance either – Emma took particular delight in banishing them from the lights. Before long, the trio had filled two whole bin bags of rubbish. Gold medal standard effort!

Over by the wooden wall, Anna and Jana led the charge against some seriously stubborn graffiti tags. Armed with sprays, brushes, and plenty of elbow grease, they scrubbed and scrubbed until reinforcements arrived. Soon the whole team was joining in, proving that many hands really do make light work.

By the end, the toilet walls were painted, the tags were scrubbed away, the cobwebs were gone, and the area looked so much better.

👏 Top job, team – a real hive of activity at The Hive!

Keeping cool at KVA

Dave, Rachel, Levita and Marcos met at KVA to move a fridge up the stairs. We took a dolly to do the hard work but didn't use it in the end as there was a n awkward corner. So Dave and Marcos flexed their muscles and carried it up the stairs. Lots of encouragement from Levita, Rachel and Sanja helped of course!

We stayed to chat with Sanja and then headed back to the Hive to help with the grafitti removal.

This evening we headed to our sponsored riverside plot at the Three Pigeons. We go every month but this one was different as we were saying goodbye to a very special GoodGym Richmond member: Anita

Anita has been a member since 2017, was the first Richmond member to hit 500 good deeds and is already 150 beyond that. Beyond how much Anita has done for the community, she has been instrumental in the taking on, designing, leveling up and maintaining of our riverside plot. On task nights that means instructions with military precision but behind the scenes there has been even more work, liasing with the council, getting plant donations, planning task nights to make the most of them, and single-handedly looking after the area through drought periods and special events.

Although there is sadness at Anita's leaving as she heads off to an exciting new chapter in Swansea, the evening was a celebration of all that Anita has done - including her signature tasks: watering from the river and weeding with table knives! You can see more of what we got up to here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOX_wlTCBPT/?igsh=cDYxanUzbm43eXJ5

❤️Thank you so much Anita, from all of us and everyone who has walked past the arcade and Three Pigeons ans enjoyed the results of her hard work. ❤️