It was a small but mighty crew for this week’s GoodGym Edinburgh group run, with four of us meeting at P’s and G’s Church at the slightlier earlier than usual time of 5.30pm to support Volunteer Edinburgh as they closed down and cleared up Scotland’s largest Volunteer Recruitment Fair.

Our stall had been buzzing throughout the day, thanks to the brilliant efforts of Lucia, Katie and Suzanne, who came along earlier to help spread the word. Across the event we spoke to over 110 people, lots of people keen to get involved and many folk having spotted our feature in Monday's Edinburgh Minute! https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-monday-31-august-2026/

Packing Down the Fair

At 5.30 the fair was closed to the public and there was mountain of work to tackle. We got stuck straight into shifting and stacking chairs, packing down tables across the hall, sweeping and mopping the main floor and clearing leftover materials and rubbish.

The staff on site were hugely appreciative for our help making a mammoth end‑of‑day job manageable. It’s safe to say we earned some serious brownie points with Volunteer Edinburgh for a strong showing during the clear‑up as well as the fair itself.

A Drizzly Litter Pick at St George V Park

With spirits high after a satisfying indoor task, we dropped bags at Edinburgh Street Food and jogged down to St George V Park and Rodney Street Tunnel for a bonus mission: a quick litter pick in the light drizzle. It proved to be a worthwhile spot. In a short session we collected over 300 pieces of litter with some bizarre, and slightly creepy, finds along the way.

Thanks to Chris Evans and Edinburgh Council's Seafield Street Cleaning Hub for providing us with litter pickers, gloves and bags, and thanks to Councillor Jack Caldwell for linking us in with the team!

Finishing With a 5km Loop

To round off the evening, we completed a 5km loop taking in Warriston Path. Big efforts from Jake (closing in on 50 GoodGym activities completed!), Kate, Luke and Jake for a great evening!

A tidy hall, a cleaner park, and a solid run — not bad for a Tuesday evening.

Tonight we were back at our old favourite Canbury Gardens and despite rain horizon there was still lots of watering to do both at GoodGym flowerbed and in the Community Garden.

Sabir, Luke, Dave, Tom and Jonathan filled bucket upon bucket with water and hauled them across the park to Louise, Hannah, Amy and Claire who watered all the plants.

Meanwhile Marcos was busy filling up the waterbutts from the water as it was delivered.

By the end we had a great system going and waterbutts 4,5,6,7 and 8 were filled up ready for watering by the Community Garden volunteers.

After picking a few tomatoes and beans it was time to head home.

We were back at one of GoodGym Kingston's favourite spots this evening: the ever-generous charity, Growbaby. As per usual there was a mountain of sorting to do but this time it was different... Growbaby are moving location in the near future and needed us to not just sort their donations but take a critical view as to what should really be moved across and what doesn't make the cut.

After running, walking and cycling our way to the task, Rachel gave us the brief and we got stuck in. Luke took charge of car seats, Claire wrangled with the play mats, while Anna, Emily and Hannah sorted books, board games, toys and kitchenware. Jonathan put his best foot forward sizing up the shoes, Marcos and Sabir checked food and milk against use-by dates, and Hannah and Dave kept the baby toys under control.

The hour went by quickly with so much sorting, assessing and plenty of chat. Bin bags were filled, shelves were tidied and countless items were organised and ready for their next chapter. Most importantly, GrowBaby is now one step closer to a smooth move to its new location.

Job done, we headed off into the evening, powered by the satisfaction of another mission accomplished.