Addie, Sharon, Eddie and Linda arrived early and started the set up. Sharon was on admin testing out instructions Linda had written to make sure they made sense and made it through identifying some minor hiccups.

Eddie and Addie got out the cages and set the bag table up. Natalie and Peter arrived and got stuck straight in with picking and packing. We also had two friends of Frenford helping out. With so many experienced willing hands we were done and sitting down to tea within the hour. We had a nice chatty catch up afterwards, we must enjoy each others company as "teabreak" took almost as long as the session 😊

Its been a while since we had a social at our local parkrun and with this weekend being Ed's 250th volunteer session it seemed a good enough excuse.

What we didn't realise was how many people would be away this week. As it turned out this was fine by Ed as our unsung hero of Valentines PR car park wasn't keen on having a big fuss.

Our little group of four went ahead anyway, Ed volunteered on his usual spot. Peter scanned in the finishers, Julia tail walked some of the slowest parkwalkers ever and Linda jeffed her way round the course. We were met by Sharon at the end who had popped over for a quick cuppa.

By the time we were all together the cafe had cleared comforably so we switched venues from the "Spoons" for refreshments and a companionable chat.

Luckily Peter had time to photograph the local wildlife as we had all forgotten to photograph each other 🤦‍♀️🙈

The babybank team put out a call for assistance ahead of schedule to help deal with the volume of donations.

Cue the Goodgym family assembling from all directions and in just about all possible method - walk, ride, bus, run, in pretty tropical weather.

As always Adam had things set up and waiting for us - 5 sizeable crates this time, rather than a few bags. Whatever the amount, it all gets sorted out while still chatting & socialising all the way through. And with the numbers assembled this evening, it didn't even take an hour!

Leaving enough time to pop down to the local 'spoon to continue the socialising!

P.S.... the team behind the scenes sent their thanks having seen the empty crates and bags full of sorted items

A typical English summer(ish) morning... in other words, rain + sun + drizzle + more rain

Ofcourse that does not deter any Goodgymmer nor Parkrunner/walker

So a set of GG'ers descended on Valentines Park to help out and/or run in prep for more GG activities...

• Ed guarded & managed the main car park entrance in his usual enthusiastic style - must be approaching 250 times by now?
• Linda rode down and braved the rain to guide a VI walker round for a lap (hence dog pic)
• Sharon G joined the scanning crew
• James stepped in on short notice to Marshall the vital first corner / 1st 2nd lap split
• Peter juggled finish tokens and handed our 426 in total

And last but not least, GG Newham Queen Hillary (sorry Sharon P) joined for the run before taking charge of a lovely local community mission later in the morning - see report here (once posted and link edited)

P.S..... animal pics courtesy of Linda, showing off the lovely sides of Valentines Park

Heatwave over, the weather was distinctly more unpredictable.... clouds, drizzly, rain...

But none of that stops a Goodgym crew, especially with a Babybank session in the calendar. So it was no surprise to see 6 assemble at the Cornerstone Church, joined by a 7th once S figured out she was at the wrong church.... not the first mixup of the eve it turned out!

A dark room and locked door did not bode well... Adam is usually well on time and starting prep before we get there. A call went to voicemail, but very quickly after Adam was in touch, it turned out there had been a little calendar mishap at his end. 10 minutes later, our session did get going after Adam dashed over and as per usual a string of bags and a couple of crates got checked & sorted, finishing at 8 as usual.

15/6 - a little tidy up at our 'home' of Wanstead House 13/7 - next babybank session

Super Team Work this morning at Frenford Food Bank. Sharon immediately got on with calling people that hadn't yet put in their orders in while Linda and Eddie started setting up.

Kathryn and Addie were soon on site and got stuck straight into picking and packing. We also had a few non GGers come in to help and the combine team effort meant we were done by teatime.

Kathryn, her Mum (one day we will get her to sign up), Eddie and Addie were helping out with some finishing off bits including making a very tidy job of the beans in homage to our extremely tidy but now Stateside AJ.

Our Peter and Natalie popped in with his parents and a food donation which Peter kindly shelved up himself, randomly placing Heinz Beans (known for not stacking nicely) on what was the tidy beans shelf. AJ has been told and she is not pleased but he meant well and it was nice to meet Mum and Dad.

Meanwhile there was some networking going on between those who stayed for tea and bickies,with offers to help on the job seeking front and finding mutual connections we didn't know we had. Addie kindly offered to help one of the Frenford volunteers with a delivery and was rewarded with a lift home.

Another successful group session completed with 57 (sorry AJ didnt mean to make another reference to Heinz) food packages prepared. Well done us.

Linda was feeling her age and a bit under the weather, regretting setting up a mission to celebrate her 200th parkrun when she had only done 199 so couldn't opt out today 😩.

Fortunately Valentines had more than enough volunteers leaving Peter and James free to offer their moral support trotting round with Linda at a much slower pace than they are used to. Ed and Sharon had been given Marshaling spots so were shouting support from their posts. Jaquie stayed behind after her run to encourage Linda over the finish line and take photos/video to prove the run got done (she also provided a commemorative "200" badge), Katherine double backed after her run to add to the support posse.

Not all were official volunteer roles but technically everyone was supporting a vulnerable older person 🤪 which is what goodgym is all about. 🤗

We then went on to "The Spoons" for a celebratory cuppa and a mini Wiggles The Caterpillar.