OK first of all, big kudos to Salwa, the Queen of Puns, for this evening’s report title!

Now to the report. Eighteen intrepid Richmondites gathered at Wholefoods on Monday evening for our weekly fix of doing good. With Mark and Jenna taking a well-earned break, it was over to Jack to lead the run. We were pleased to meet Maynaha and welcomed her on her first Goodgym run, give her a cheer! After Jack counted us all in and did the briefing, we headed over to the green.

Warm up this week was a series of stretches, strength exercises including some imbalance-inducing single-leg squats, and a sprint-squat combo. You like punishing those quads, eh Jack? Then off we trotted on a familiar route to our task for the evening. We headed along Sheen Road and turned up Queens Road for the slog up to park gates, before bounding down Nightingale and along the river by the cow field to reach the Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts digs, just off the towpath.

Having helped the Sea Scouts a few times, including varnishing their submarine on a summer group run and helped clear the grounds on Super Saturday, this would be the last time we would visit in 2019. As usual the team had plenty of work to go around so there was no need to go scouting for jobs. We were split into 4 groups to take care of a wide range of tasks – one group painting tent pegs and sanding and varnishing a picnic bench, another group folding the huge tents the Scouts use for their camping trips, a third transporting soil to fill an ex-sandpit, and a fourth doing yet more sweeping of the Path of Never-Ending Sweeping.

The rain held off and it was a fun night all round, with headtorches flashing through the trees on the outdoor tasks, and much merriment emanating from the Scout hut. Despite increasingly wet and heavy leaves the team on the pathway swept their challenge aside… the folks working on soil transport really pitch(fork)ed in and had a ‘hole heap of fun… the tent-folders quickly de-creased the work to be done, and the painter-varnisher team were certainly not bench-pressed. Phew.

Soon enough it was time to bid farewell to the team, and we headed up the river and back to base. But not before promising we’d be back soon – Scouts Honour.