It's not often we're accompanied by a bear, but that's exactly what happened during our task this evening! 🐻

We gathered at Welling Library, where Julie and Alex from Discover Welling were waiting for us. Alex was dressed as a rather large, cute bear. Julie had brought along a big roll of stickers promoting Welling Sparkle, the town's Christmas market.

Our task was to put the stickers on all 72 lamp posts along the high street. We split into two teams, unwound a supply of stickers for each and set off in opposite directions to cover the ground as efficiently as possible.

Working along one side of the road, we peeled the stickers from their backing roll and applied two to each lamp post to create a complete wrap. Once we'd reached the end of our stretch, we crossed over and worked our way back along the other side, eventually meeting up with the other team.

(In case you were worried, the stickers use a low-tack adhesive, so they'll come off cleanly after the event. And the council had sanctioned their application to the lamp posts.)

Our friendly bear was certainly a hit with passers-by, handing out high fives and stopping for photos. It was lovely to see so many smiles along the way!

Welling High Street is a long one, so we certainly clocked up some good mileage while getting all those lamp posts dressed for the Sparkle ✨.

Let's hope our efforts help bring plenty of people along to the event. A bear-y good evening's work! 🐻

This evening, Andy, one of the activity coordinators at Parkview Care Home, had a spooktacularly seasonal task awaiting us!

Two of us ran there from Crook Log Leisure Centre, while the others made their own way to the home, where a frightfully fun evening was about to begin.

With Halloween just around the corner, we spent a ghoulishly good hour carving pumpkins with the home’s residents.

We each paired up with a resident, and set to work with pumpkin carving tools. We hollowed out our gourds and create a host of wonderfully wicked faces. 🎃🎃🎃

Some of the residents got especially creative, adding ears to their pumpkins and even giving the creepy creations their very own names!

It was a lovely way to get into the Halloween spirit together.

We were also delighted to have Karen and Semira on their first task. Welcome to Team GoodGym Bexley!

More photos to come so check back here soon!

Just two of us tonight, but we were ready to get our steps in and get the party started!

After meeting at Sidcup Leisure Centre, we set off on a brisk walk to spread the word about the Community Hospice’s Boogie Wonderland fundraising party night happening next month.

Weaving our way up and down driveways in nearby streets, we popped leaflets through letterboxes to get the neighbourhood in the mood for a boogie. With Halloween approaching, we came across some spook-tacular pumpkin displays on doorsteps along the way! 🎃🎃

In just under an an hour, we’d delivered every last flyer and clocked up nearly 8,500 steps over a 4km route. We might not have hit the dance floor just yet, but we certainly got moving for a good cause. That’s what GoodGym is all about - doing good and getting fit - and we hope that we've played a part in boosting ticket sales to help an wonderful local charity.

Next week we'll encounter more pumpkins when we visit Parkwood Care Home - find out more and sign up to join us here.

When we arrived at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School, Jane, the vice principal, had two fun challenges waiting for us in the school hall.

Johnny, Alice and Martin got stuck into some serious recycling activity. They carefully removed the legs from a collection of old blue plastic chairs and then screwed the seats onto reclaimed pallets, transforming the unlikely collection of materials into colourful little ‘buses’ for the children to enjoy in the playground. Who knew old chairs and pallets could have such an exciting second life?

Meanwhile, Sarah and Lisa took on a completely different task: assembling a flat-pack canopy to shelter the entrance to the school’s reception area. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, not quite! The instructions were less than helpful, and at several points we decided that what we really needed was an octopus with at least eight arms to hold all the various bits and pieces in place while we tried to screw everything together!

Despite the questionable instructions and our distinct lack of tentacles, the time absolutely flew by. Before we knew it, both jobs were done and it was time to take a couple of team photos to show off the fruits of our labour.

We never quite know what Jane has up her sleeve for our monthly visits — a spot of DIY, a creative challenge, or perhaps another job that requires more arms than we have! Why not come along next time and join the fun? Who knows what will be waiting for us when we arrive!

The GoodGym team joined the Friends of Danson Park today for a rewarding session of litter picking, shrubbery trimming and woodchip transporting. 💪🌳

Ten journeys from one end of the park to the other gave everyone a great workout while helping to renew the path at the entrance of the Woodland Walk.

Afterwards, we headed to The Stables which kindly provided teas and coffees, while we chatted with the other friendly volunteers.

A fantastic team effort for the local community and nature! 🌿👏

Next month's session in the park will be tree planting as part of National Tree Week. Hope to see you there!