The venue for this community mission was a grand one indeed! This Saturday 3 goodgymmers were very lucky to see inside the grounds of Trumpeter’s House in Richmond, owned by Baroness Van Dedem and home to some stunning gardens. Spear, a local charity who help the homeless to find accommodation and gain independence, were holding an Art fair and garden party fundraiser and Goodgym were very pleased to help.

Caroline and I kicked off, assisting with the morning set up. After being warmly greeted by Joy and Heidi from Spear, we were put to work setting up the marquees (a task we do best!) and moving the boxes of books to the correct stall.

Next followed another arm workout in the form of filling and carrying tea urns and lugging various crates of drink down the cellar stairs. This also turned out to be a great workout for the brain too, as we used our Tetris and spacial awareness skills to fit as much as we could into the freezer. Caroline turned out to be scarily skilled at this, squeezing boxes in left, right and centre in spaces that definitely looked too tight as I looked on with awe!

We then moved on to some balloon blowing and creative string tying to decorate the entrances and stalls. Caroline still had plenty of lung power left after her run, creating an impressive pile of balloons in no time, whilst I tried my best to stop them escaping all over the lawn and tie them into a decorative bunch.

In the afternoon, more help came in the form of Jane. This shift included manning the garden entrance to the party on Richmond riverside. GoodGym weren’t supposed to be on break down duties but in true goodgym spirit, Jane stayed on to lend a hand as Spear had so much packing up to do. Next year we need an army of GGers for that part!