On a very soggy Saturday 9 of us signed up to join Valentines Parkrun Volunteers.

Our Peter who has been with GGR since its first session was first to arrive and was on his post good and early with a very bent umbrella, regular volunteer (now a legend at Valentines parkrun) Ed was next along with the Mrs, shortly joined by Jenny, James and AJ. As the first timers talk started we splashed off to our respective posts.

198 runners went by in surpisingly good spirits considering the drenching they got. A lone GG Tshirt was spotted among the runners which we can only assume was Harvey-sorry we didnt get to meet you properly.

Not sure where Julia was posted but she popped up just before the end and set of to bag a table in the cafe. We were supposed to have a picnic outside but the weather had other ideas. Parkrun done Sharon (also celebrating a significant birthday this month) scurried off to fetch her home made goodies while we made our way over to the cafe.

Not sure if the cafe turned a blind eye to us brining our own food or too busy to care but we got away with it. We had a lovley selection of nibbles and of course Colin 🐛 making his usual appearance. With half the table discussing politics and football the other side more into food and other topics, a good time was had by all.

Despite no Area Activator and Central Office being unable to support us in helping to find tasks Redbridge GG still has some active members keeping calm and carrying on. Lets hope we can find a way to get more members active in the borough so we get to celebrate more birthdays.

A lovely sunny and warm morning to take care of the community garden. Lots of rounds of watering, which was made much easier with the new hose that I am not leaving there!

Sharon and I gave every planter a good soak and filled the containers to help flowers through warm days!

3 Goodgymers finished volunteers week helping the friends of Wanstead Parklands with their monthly litter pick at Wanstead Park

Kevin and I ran to the park via Wanstead Flats.

The friends always have litter pickers available for hire which is definitely easier than trying to run with them

We collected our pickers and bags and headed off past The Temple passing through the trees to walk down the Glade towards the Ornamental Water before wandering along the paths by Aldersbrook riding stables as we headed towards Perch Pond we saw Sharon who had gone the other way round the pond.

We dropped our full bags of litter and pickers back to the friends,they have books for sale telling the history of Wanstead House and the surrounding area.

As a thank you to the volunteers the team from Wanstead Park tea hut had arranged for a complimentary tea,coffee or ice cream(a cup of tea and a slice of bread pudding for Kevin and I)

Written by Sharon Graham,

I arrived fashionably late after work when the temperature had cooled down and most of the work had been done. I was left with sorting the soups and writing the numbers clearly on the bags. As you can see from the pictures all the goodgymmers had got stuck in despite the heat and kept on smiling. Linda and I stayed late to wait for drivers, a few came and went and we left for Linda to make her way home with a very local delivery and some well earned dinner.

Linda was already at the food bank when James and I arrived shortly before 9am ready for a full session. The shelves had been stocked previously by Linda and other volunteers in the days leading up to the Good Friday session. There were three other good gymers including Sharon and Herman with Tina which made the 70 or so orders easier to pick as well as some young folk on the Duke of Edinburgh award all working together. There was a good number of Easter eggs donated that were added to every order that had children in the family. Very soon the shelves were severely depleted after filling all the orders and it was time to restock with supplies that we had in the back store. We were finished in record time having done two days work ( normally ) in a much shorter time than we expected and all thanks to Linda and her excellent organisation skills, well done Linda !!