What a fantastic time we had helping out at The Community Hospice!

This was our most popular community mission so far, with GoodGym members coming from Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Camden, and of course, Bexley. It was great to see so many friendly faces ready to get stuck in!

Jason, the Head Gardener, had lots of jobs for us to do to get the garden looking at its best before the Open Gardens Festival next weekend. And wow—we got loads done!

✅ We pulled out weeds

✅ Cleared ivy and brambles from the wall

✅ Cut back some bushes

✅ Tidied up the whole area

Everyone worked hard and made a big difference. The garden is now looking fresher and ready to welcome visitors!

We also had some brilliant milestones to celebrate:

🎉 A huge congratulations to John gaining his GoodGym crown with his 500th good deed—amazing 👑!

👏 Well done to Zita, Robert, and Caroline for reaching 10 good deeds each.

Go team!

Thanks to everyone who came along—it was such fun, and we’re already looking forward to the next one. 🌼🌳

On a bright Wednesday evening, our brilliant bunch of GoodGymmers headed to Hook Lane Primary School for a hands-on task that combined clearing rubbish, working on the climbing frame, and laying whole lot of woodchipping.

First up, we tackled a pile of accumulated stuff — broken bits of guttering, piping, pipe insulation and other random debris -- ferrying it from next to the shed on the playing field to the official rubbish area. So much tidier!

Meanwhile, Robert lend a strong pair of hands — and a sharp eye for engineering and DIY — to help teacher Dan repair the climbing frame. It's slowly coming back to life for breaktime adventures.

Next came the main event: laying down woodchippings to transform the mud kitchen into a cleaner, safer, and more inviting space for the kids to play.

We shovelled, wheeled, and spread the chippings with impressive coordination — like a very outdoorsy conveyor belt.

By the end of the hour, the mud kitchen looked transformed and ready for all the mini chefs to do their thing 👩‍🍳👨‍🍳.

A big thanks to everyone who came out and made such a positive impact!

Great work team, let’s do it again soon! 💥

Today’s mission: bring life, colour, and order to the garden at the Community Hospice—with a dash of GoodGym sparkle.

When we arrived, Jason—the Hospice’s amazing gardener—welcomed us with a modest goal: “If we can get five privet plants in, I’ll be chuffed.” Well Jason, prepare to be thoroughly chuffed… because we planted TWELVE!

But that’s not all. While some of us were digging, planting, and lovingly patting down privet plants, the rest of the crew grabbed their brushes and got stuck into painting.

Talk about multitasking heroes!

Paint flew, shrubs settled in, and the space was transformed.

The difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ was genuinely heartwarming. A massive well done, Team GG —you absolutely nailed it.

This was our first session at Hook Lane Primary School after they contacted us to ask for some help.

Our group runners (starting from Crook Log Leisure Centre in Welling, and Costa Coffee in Blackfen), along with those arriving directly, met at the school gates where teacher Dan gave us a warm welcome.

The task: put up bamboo screening around the perimeter fence of the school field.

After sawing through a few pesky branches that were in our way, we fell into a good rhythm working in pairs; unrolling the screening between us, then one person holding it with the other fixing it in place. Meanwhile another pair started on the next length.

Threading the cable ties through the canes was a tricky business but after a while we found the knack 👌.

We nearly came a cropper putting up one roll back-to-front, but eagle-eyed Dan spotted our rookie error just in time!

Along with Dan and his brother Sam, we covered a long stretch in our alloted hour.

After a photo opportunity at the fairytale castle, we headed home, some of us running and some walking 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃‍♂️🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️.

It was great having Simon with us for his first GoodGym good deed 🥳.

The school has lots more tasks lined up for our future visits, so why not come along and help make good things happen!

Hope to see you next time.

Some of us arriving by bike and others doing a lovely run through the park from the leisure centre, we had a fun evening cutting back low-hanging branches and building new dead hedging at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School.

It's so rewarding doing tasks like this, supporting organisations that find it hard to get the work done otherwise.

And who knew that creating hedges from sticks, branches and tree cuttings could be so addictive. We didn't want to go home!

We'll be back again in July. Meanwhile, next week we're heading to Hook Lane Primary School for the first time, to help spruce up their outdoor learning area. We've put in a request for more sunny weather, so come and join us.

There was plenty to celebrate as we joined the Friends of Danson Park this morning.

It was Megan Maria's first GoodGym session 👏. Lovely to have you with us Megan!

It was Marianna's tenth good deed 🥳, paving the way to join our Task Force team, helping to run our amazing group.

Then it was Marianna's daughter, Veronica's birthday 🎈. There was high anticipation about the birthday cake awaiting her later in the day. Veronica took the lovely black and white photo of her mum and her brother on her new birthday-present camera 📷.

And Ashton, wearing his brand new black GG t-shirt marking 50 good deeds, arrived having completed his first ever parkrun 🏃‍♂️.

Hi fives all round 👐!

And what about the task? We had a lovely time in the sunny woodland area, laying woodchips along one of the paths. There was much shoveling, barrowing and raking to cover a long stretch of the path.

After returning all of the tools to their store we headed to The Stables for a cuppa and chat.

Combining this kind of activity with time outdoors and friendly people is a real mental pick-me-up. We'll be back there again on the second Saturday of June. Do come and join us, and new members are always welcome (feel free to bring a friend if you are nervous about taking that first step on your own).

If you're a parkrunner or parkwalker this task is just a stone's throw away from Danson parkrun. An ideal parkrun-GoodGym double-header!

In glorious sunshine it was a task of two halves at the Community Hospice gardens this morning.

Working on the children's outdoor play area, some of us pulled up a weed membrane to allow the soil underneath to return to nature. It took heavy-duty effort and a coordinated approach to get it up. A proper workout 💪💪💪.

Elsewhere we set about tidying up the overgrown flower bed to give a better view of the play area from the rest of the garden. After taking out a couple of shrubs and clearing the dead parts of last year's growth, we removed some substantial stones that had once been laid to create a kind-of rockery. More muscle power 🏋‍♀️🏋‍♂️!

Then, that's the idea of GoodGym, using our workouts to make a difference.

Shout out to Ashton as this was his 50th good deed. What a fab achievement in just six months since he joined 🥳🎈 !

This was the perfect session for GoodGym's partnership with WWF's Workout For Nature initiative, getting out in nature while giving it a helping hand.

There's still plenty more to do to help Jason, the Hospice's head gardener, realise his plans to transform the grounds, so we'll be back again on the fourth Saturday of each month. Do come along and join us.