For GoodGym Ealing's third and last Birthday Run, to celebrate our 10 years of good deeds in the borough, the route passed organisations old and new that GGE has helped in central and South Ealing, plus Northfields. There were 6 stops on the way to talk about each organisation, its purpose and how GoodGym has helped them work towards their goals. The organisations on the route were:

Walpole Park where we've worked with the park ranger to maintain the park for many years. We've mulched trees, cut back brambles, helped give away a giant pile of compost to residents, planted a flower bed for the visit of The Antiques Roadshow and moved tons and tons of wood chip.

Ealing Transition and Lammas Orchard was next, which was started when 2 tennis courts were reclaimed to create a community orchard. Similar to Walpole Park, we carry out lots of conservation and maintenance tasks here, like wood chipping the paths, clearing weeds, looking after the new and old hedges in the area and topping up the tadpole pool with water. We have a group run coming up to help Ealing Transition on the 25th of August.

A short dash from Ealing Transition was St Mary's Church where GGE have had many tasks over the years with different organisations. Tidying the church and decorating their Xmas tree is our traditional pre-Xmas party task. We now also volunteer weekly at South Ealing Food Cupboard and maintain the churchyard when called on. Our next tasks at St Mary's will be stocking the Food Cupboard on Monday and gardening on Tuesday for our next group run.

A hop, skip and a jump away down an alley was Grange School. A more recent task location since 2025, they have plans on turning an unused area with a huge pit into a nature area with a pond. We've had 2 sessions with parents and children from the school to clean up the area and turn the pit into a smaller, safer pool of water.

Further south was South Ealing Cemetery where, since 2024, we've had various interesting sessions with Ealing Parks Foundation. Their aim is to make the cemetery a welcoming place for everyone to reduce anti-social behaviour and shady people hanging out there. We've wood chipped paths, learned what a stumpery is and prepared and planted in their flowerbeds as part of the bigger vision.

A slightly longer way later and now heading west, the group arrived at Blondin Park. With the Blondin Consortium we've prepared for building of the pavilion, set up the annual Brentford Festival, installed boot scrubbers and there are always the GoodGym favourites, mulching, planting and watering trees.

The last stop of the run was The Log Cabin. No longer a GoodGym task location, it's an organisation that aims to bring together children with and without special needs to play together. They have a large play area outside that we used to keep tidy and keep maintained. During Covid, we flyered the local area for them too to share free activities to keep children entertained. It was also briefly the Ealing location for All Aboard Club's giant train set, before it moved to Acton's London Transport Museum Depot.

That was GGE's run through history. Organisations past, present and hopefully future. Let's see who's new on the list in 10 years time 🗓️.