Area Activator Simon was met with 5 Goodgym Islington runners at the Arsenal Community Hub last night. Many of our crew had been busy participating in community missions throughout the weekend (over in Highbury Fields and Penn Road Gardens), so it was awesome to see them again for our run to Thornhill Square Gardens.

After a short warm-up on the slopes on Benwell Road, we ran the 1.4 mile route along McKenzie Road and down towards Calendonian Road and Barnsbury, meeting task owner Anna McKane and cycling Goodgymmer Caitlin at the entrance of Thornhill Square Gardens. We had plenty to crack on with! Our first group (Louise, Kim and Zoe) were tasked with creating a nice fencing around the first flower beds of the park. This involved cutting multiple 2 foot posts from sturdy branches found around the park using a hand saw, and hammering the posts into the soft soil. We even had time to weave some long flexible reeds and sticks through the posts. Zoe also helped with trimming down a collection of over grown bushes in the centre of the park.

Caitlin, Claire and Alison assisted with some lifting and shifting of the collected green waste and future compostable mulch from one side of the park to the other. Caitlin also helped with some wheelbarrowing of wood chip, and successfully dried out a pervasive puddle located around the entrance of the tool shed.

It was so satisfying to see how many tasks we were able to complete in a short amount of time. Congratulations folks- many hands make light work! Upon our return run (and cycle) back to Benwell Road, we then made our way to the amazing Mesi's Kitchen on Holloway Road to celebrate our final group run session of the January Challenge. At the time of writing, we will have completed 89 good deeds between our full Goodgym Islington crew over the course of January 2023- very well done everyone!