Lovely evening, lovely people, lovely cake!

What a nice warm evening to get together with fellow goodgymmers to motivate each other to do some exercise whilst helping the local community!

We all arrived at the station on time and a puncture didn't stop Hélène getting there and then walking back home with the bike - a true GoodGym spirit! This was the first time at this location for Tony and Vicki, great to have you in the north of Redbridge! Lovely station staff allowed us to store our things and bikes in their safe area. We also noted that the planters inside the station need some watering - we'll be back this week!

Getting Fit

After introductions and task briefing (and dealing with Sharon incidental small finger cut (how did that happen by just standing?!), which thankfully was alright and disinfected by goodies from Julia's FirstAid kit) we separated into two groups - walking (Jay, Linda and Sharon) and running (Tony, Hélène, Vicki, James and Julia). Overall the runners ran 5.2km and walked walked 2.8km to and from the task - great effort by everyone!

Doing Good

We all met at the gates at John Bramston School, opening and locking the gates after ourselves to enter the grounds and find the garden at the back. This is a school's project to 'Grow School Dinner' and is set in the lovely garden that has been overtaken by weeds whilst the school was closed during lockdown. The aim of this project is to help children learn about sustainability, nutrition, ecology and where food comes from - great cause!

We got down to business straight away after positioning our new camping lights for the evening tasks (they did really well - great investment!) and separating into three groups to clear the weeds from the paths. Everyone did a great job whilst catching up with each other, Lottie enjoyed helping too (Jay's cute doggie:)) We think we'll be able to finish the path clearing the next time. We moved all pulled out weeds to composting bins, cleared up and locked up! There's still plenty to be done so we are looking forward to being back in two weeks!

Cake Bananza

Once we made it to the station, all refreshed by our walk and run, Sharon kindly shared her home-baked delicious cake, which went down very well, with a few people helping themselves to the second portion (we won't tell who;))! Thank you Sharon for this lovely treat!