Friday night is for most people pub night and maybe a pub quiz to start off the week end. Two Goodgymers decided to join Mind at their Mind Quiz and Curry night at St Stephens church in Richmond. Susan arrived early to help setup and give hand in the kitchen. Steph Ducat a bit later to meet lovely Jo and Suzanne who he already knows from the Elf Mind fun run. Assigned to raffle tickets with some great prizes. The quiz master kicked off the evening after everyone had their lovely home made curry. MIND your business was the rule for the evening : no cheating. Susan was minding her business with the other volunteers in the kitchen. Half time and it was rush hour at the bar and raffle table for more drinks and chances of winning a fabulous prize. Fantastic evening and yes 2 undercover Goodgymers - GG Tops under the Mind T Shirts.

This evening we kicked off February GoodGymming with a trip out to Mortlake where we helped to tidy up the leaves and weeds in the outside area. Lovely task owner Lynne had been trying to get it done but with six extra pairs of hands it was a much faster job and the green bags were soon full.

On top of this, the railway crossing that almost always breaks our stride when we head out this way was up for both the outward and return journeys, what a lucky start to the month!

Lillinton Garden estate was one of the last of the high-density public housing schemes built in London during the postwar period and is considered one of the most distinguished. However visitors to the conservation area could find themselves wondering through the labyrinth of paths and covered walkways, past the 19th century church hidden in the middle of the estate and still not spot the sunken garden that is in the process of being turned into a thriving community space.

Luckily GoodGymers have a keen nose for doing good and all met at the green area on a drizzly Tuesday night to help get it prepped for planting. There were plenty of weeds to take up, raking to be done, soil to turn and ivy to trim so we all got cracking with the tasks.

Chat turned to using AI to get a 5km pb training plan, a potential royal visit to GoodGym, future races and, of course, parkrun news. We couldn't believe it when we looked at our watches and saw our session was up. Time flies when you're helping transform a space into something local people can use to promote biodiversity and grow fruit and veg!

Next week we're going to the Abbey Centre to help with various jobs - check out the future sessions as there is always something impactful happening on a Tuesday night in Westminster!

It might not have been the task we were expecting last night, but it was certainly a job that tested our creativity and helped cheer up an important local resource - so it was gold stars all round!

It was also excellent to welcome Aman to his first GoodGym session - lovely to meet you Aman and thanks for your amazing paint mixing skills!

St Vincent's Family Project is a centre which provides support for vulnerable families. They have several projects that give priority to those most in need, including offering a family space, therapies and courses including creative art, support groups, parenting courses and healthy living courses.

We definitely leveled up our skills when we were asked to create an Autumn display for the kids area! At first there was a little trepidation - after all, this was slightly more challenging than washing the ball pit balls, which we thought we'd be doing. It didn't hold us back for long though. With Becca acting as art director, Susan taking on creating the tree, Aman mixing colours for the paints, and Dan acting as chief stapler engineer, we soon created the vision that the centre had given us.

Check out the award winning (we like to think!) design that we ended up with! It was great to get something up on the wall for the kids to enjoy - we hope!

Next week we have a more physical task helping transform an abandoned corner of an estate into a community garden. You can find out all the details and sign up right here.

Hope to see you there!