Tonight we had three missions in one! How did we do it? Four of our volunteers went to Refugee Action Kingston to sort the kid's clothes, another went to another RAK office to hang a blind and the rest of us went to Elm Road... phew! Here's the run report about our amazing volunteers...

Nettled but Not Defeated at Elm Road!

In sweltering heat, the GoodGym crew took on the nettle jungle at Elm Road playground, working with the local community group to help reclaim the space for local kids. Armed with spades, forks, and a few poorly chosen gloves (ouch!), we tackled the stubborn roots - some so long they felt like they were heading for Narnia.

Marcos and Tom kept spirits high with sports facts while litter picking, and Rachel captured the action on camera. Newbie John gave it his all but ran out of water - thankfully, local residents came to the rescue with bottles of the good stuff!

Despite roots hiding under the fence, we cleared a massive stretch and even uncovered some old mosaic tiles. One hot, sweaty hour later, the bed was clear and the team absolutely smashed it. Great work all round!

Such a sort out at Refugee Action Kingston

Claire, Anna, Laurel and Sabir ran and walked their way to Refugee Action tonight.

We were greeted by air conditioning which was a welcome relief plus lots of children’s clothes that required sorting. Having made signs for different age categories we sorted the clothes by size for boys and girls and boxed them up so that they could be easily selected by the customers. The area is now much more organised and I’m sure we will be back to tackle the coats another day.

Driller thriller

Dave went to a RAK office to help fix a blind. In his own words has a hot sweaty mess but at least the charity workers won't be now.

GoodGym Kingston - you are simply tri-mendous!

Tonight, GoodGym Kingston had a fantastic group run and session at the Full Cycle Bicycle Project! With a great turnout, we were kept busy with a whole host of new jobs and a few we are always happy to help out with:

Our tasks included:

Sorting out the loading bay and re-organising bike parts 🛠️

Reordering the upcoming servicing schedule 📅

Giving bikes a good clean ✨

Pumping up countless tyres 💨

And a general tidy-up to leave the place gleaming! 🧹

As we efficiently tackled each job, more things to do were found. We always love to support this amazing project and look forward to being back to tackle some more tasks soon.

A huge welcome to both Shammy and Amy! We hope you enjoyed your first session and will be joining us again soon for more good deeds and great company!

Ready for the bi-annual bunting challenge tonight the team headed along to Jubilee Square. The age-old question of "how many GoodGymers does it take to put up bunting?" was certainly answered as we completed the job with almost half an hour to spare, then endeavoured to add a little more... bunting!

Getting the many hands organised with ladders, rolls of bunting and a trusty staple gun was an interesting test of coordination and precision. And of course, no GoodGym session is complete without an impromptu good deed - we squeezed in a quick litter pick to make sure the area is at it's best ahead of Saturday's Good Food, Green Fair and some over-timers stayed behind to help finish chalking out the stall locations, ensuring plenty of space for the main stage.

What a lovely evening and welcome to Shekinah and congratulation on your first task - we hope to have you back soon.

Our group run this week took us to Refugee Action Kingston and we were tasked with jobs at two different locations. Claire, Dave, Emma and Farzeen all ran and walked to one of the offices were they were asked to take apart a desk so that it could be transported to the other location. They were a very efficient team and they got to work making sure all the screws were accounted for so there would be no issue with reassembly. A staff member then drove the desk in her car to the second location while the runners transported themselves to help unload.

The second location was where all the other GoodGymers were hanging out and organising the rest of the shelving units. The women's clothing area and toiletries was tidied up by Tom, Anna and Marcos, Amy got stuck in to the bunting making sure there were no knots and neatly folding it ready to put away, and Raquel and Luke sorted the menswear. As soon as the desk arrived it went up in the lift and was reassembled well within the hour we had there.

A great session with lots of big and small jobs completed. Heidi from Refugee Action Kingston was so grateful that these jobs were completed as it then frees them up to concentrate on other important tasks within the organisation. So well done team! Thank you for all your help.

Our monthly visit to Full Cycle this evening was less about cleaning bikes and more about a monumental recycling mission.

The main task involved conquering what seemed like endless piles of inner tubes that had accumulated from just about everywhere. Just when we thought we'd rolled up the last of them, two extra boxes mysteriously appeared!

We also shifted a mammoth pile of tyres and worked on the intricate (and surprisingly satisfying) job of removing spokes from wheels.

The sheer volume of recycling we processed made such a difference, as we left leaving some of the floor clear ready for more.... bikes; maybe?! Full Cycle is such a fantastic cause, doing incredible work in the community and we love the variety of jobs we get to help with; sometimes we even learn a bit about bikes 😉. Until next Tyre-time, thanks for having us!