On a wonderfully warm Monday evening, Area Activator Simon met up with Toyo, Dominik, Alice, Alex, Katie and Josh at the Elizabeth House Food Hub- welcome to all of our runners going us for the first time! After a swift warm up, we ran approximately 2.2 miles along Gillespie Park Nature Reserve (a lesser known wildlife trail towards Finsbury Park underground station) and up towards Crouch Hill.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Frannie from Octopus Community Network, and the rest of our crew who travelled directly to the task from work. Nicolas, Guro, David and Alex were already busy at work with "double digging" the flower beds in Trinity Church, Hornsey Rise (turning over older soil with fresh mulch to refresh the growing space).

The rest of our team picked up wheel barrows, shovels, rakes and hoes, and made our way to the Brickworks Community Centre down the road. From here, 4 of our team (Nikki, Katie, Louise and Emily) started filling up 3 wheelbarrows full of fresh mushroom compost, and delivered the mulch back to Trinity Church. During this time, our crew attempted to make our way into the Brickworks Community Centre to gain access to the upper garden level- this proved more difficult than expected!

Once Frannie had cracked the code, we made our way to the upper garden and collected as much compost and mulch as possible (using trolleys, lifts and careful carrying methods). We brought all the supplies outside, and spread the fresh fertilizer evenly across some lovely growing beds, designed to withstand a wind tunnel between tall buildings. We were even able to carry a super heavy compost bag between 4 of us, and made Frannie's day!

As we made our way to back to the church with our tools, we gave each other a well deserved pat on the back after a solid evening of graft, before we departed our separate ways. Great stuff, folks!

NEWS

Achilles International VI (visually impaired) guide running group session

One of our most established tasks outside of the Islington borough. Area Activator Simon and the Achilles International team have been leading guide running opportunities and links for visually impaired athletes every Thursday evening at 6pm for about 18 months!

We meet up at Maida Vale station at 6pm every Thursday to meet our runners, and then we make our way to Paddington Recreation Ground Track for our running session.

Perfect for guides of all abilities or anyone interested in trying guide running. And we plan to enjoy some refreshments at the Elgin pub afterwards!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-paddington-rec-track-d1b9cb6c-8ae3-4377-8339-41a050fec273

Canonbury Square Gardens Open Volunteer Morning

The resident gardeners of Canonbury Square are hosting an open volunteering morning this Saturday, available for all to get involved! Should be great fun, and a perfect post-parkrun community mission!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/friends-of-canonbury-square-volunteer-morning-april

Cally Clocktower Junior parkrun marshalling help for Easter

The lovely folks from Caledonian Park Junior parkrun are looking for more volunteers to help during the difficult Easter Holiday period for their free weekly timed 2km run. Every Sunday, children from the ages of 4-14 years old are allowed to run independently through their local park with the help of local community marshals.

Click here for more information:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/volunteer-at-caledonian-junior-parkrun-easter-holiday-help-c51e8598-30e7-4477-b7d5-92ef387a6c46

Track Attack Easter Sunday Special

Area Activator Simon will be hosting our monthly 1 mile and 5km social running time trial at Victoria Park track this Sunday (starting at 11am). Great fun, and open to runners of all abilities- and always followed by coffee and breakfast!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/track-attack-april-2022-victoria-park-easter-special