On what was a rather gloomy, cold, wet and windy May the 4th, six GoodGym members felt the force of a community project in need and came running, clearing the clouds on the way and bringing some gorgeous spring sunshine with them. One of those runners was Sarah, on her first GoodGym session. A very warm welcome to Sarah, hopefully see you again soon at some other Community Missions and eventually Group Runs.

The Great Baddow Community Allotment has been recently set up by the Great Baddow Parish Council to promote health and wellbeing; ultimately it will be run by volunteers to support the more vulnerable, elderly and disabled people in the community. It was our job to get the allotment plot ready by turning it over.

Bob, the Parish Councillor in charge of the site gave us our force, sorry forks, to do some digging and off to work we went. It’s safe to say the soil was a bit firmer than we were expecting and required a lot of muscle but we worked our way through, clearing the weeds as we went.

Whilst we were busy digging away Rich shared his famous recipe for noodle soup which had us all captivated and salivating, and we discussed the potential of a party for our fifth birthday in July, it almost felt like things may be finally getting back to normal.

After about 40 minutes of digging the plot was completely turned over, we handed back our forks and went on our way. Rich and Sarah disappeared up Beehive Lane whilst the rest of us ran back into town before splitting off to our respective homes.

Bob seemed delighted with our work and wanted us back in a couple of weeks time so great job everyone. I think you all deserve some cheers!!

We will be at the Mencap centre next week for some decorating and then back to the community allotment to do some more turning over the week after.