“On 29th February, 3 Waltham Forest GoodGymmers leapt at this task 😊.

The toy library needed our help once again, and we were only too happy to oblige. After a short, very wet run to Greenleaf Church meeting point and on to the toy library, our spirits remained undampened. We received a warm welcome from manager Helen, and the lovely Robin. Once inside, after offloading a donation of sippy cups from FBN Towers, we got to work.

Our task? BALL CLEANING. As any fool know, ball pits are widely known to be a horrifically veritable soup of immune-challenging microbial diversity and snot gloopery. At the toy library though, their balls are (impressively) cleaned weekly, so, as balls go, these were pretty hygienic! We attacked the task with gusto, much like toddlers at the toy library play sessions snack time, only with fewer crushed breadsticks and squished raisins involved.

Disclaimer- it’s almost impossible to write a report about cleaning balls without some suggestion of deliberate double entendre. I can assure you that any whiff of this is purely coincidental, so any smuttiness is therefore your own problem!

So, where were we? Yes, Sarah and Natasha set about washing those balls thoroughly with hot soapy water, and I patted them dry with a towel, with help from Robin. Lovely. We finished the task in what seemed like no time whilst we chatted (taking care to discard any squashed balls).

Helen gave us a tour of their lovely newish premises (previously the Limes), including impeccably well-organised and categorised toy rooms, swap shop, and sensory room. Great to see the toy library thriving and growing under Helen’s consistently awesome leadership.

We finished and tidied up, popped the towels in the washing machine, and headed off separately into the night. We hope to see you again soon at the toy library!”