31 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help paint vegboxes for Friends of Grenville Gardens!

Welcome along to newbies - Christina, NJ, Annie, Mary, Sophie and Jess thanks so much for coming along! Last night was GG Islington's highest attendance for over a year and also exactly a year since we've been meeting at the Arsenal Hub - awesome!

In the news this week:

1. It's the GoodGym Monthly Social this Thursday in Angel at the Islington Townhouse! Full details here.
2. Cross Country Season starts next week, 5 races for £5 - yes deal! If you want to join see the full details here.
3. Hannah talked all about the "Our Borough, Our Planet" Event, an open meeting taking place on Oct 8th from 6.30-8.30pm in Islington Town Hall. The aim is to bring local residents and environmental groups together to work towards a vision for a zero-carbon Islington. More details are here

After a nippy intro and a warm up we headed in two groups to go help Friends of Grenville Gardens (aka FROGG), unfortunately Sue who was supposed to meet us was in a car accident last week so we had to take care of ourselves. Our task this week was to paint the park's veggie boxes!

We collected together the 11 brushes and 11 containers of paint, and then in pairs we got to work - with one person painting and the other holding up lights and holding the container full of paint. The 15 veg boxes need two coats of paint to protect them from the embending weather... Winter is Coming...

Veggie McVeg Vegbox

Thanks to Steve Coman, who used to be a painter and decorator, for leading the painting team! The remaining people weeded, swept leaves and collected debris to put in compost bins. Nice!

Once all the paint was gone we packed up, we ate bourbons and put the brushes in a bucket of water. Steve led a group on a longer run home, while Kike led a group directly down the hill back to the Emirates. Once there we focused on the socket to pocket arm technique and played the meet & retreat game - cool beans!

Thanks for coming guys, sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Sunnyside Community Gardens.

PB out

26 Goodgymers ran 4-5km to help Thornhill Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project with various gardening jobs

Welcome along to the newbies - Anna, Olivia, Heather, Jarmo, Tessa and Nina - great to have you join us!

In the news this week:

1. A massive well done to Ben who hit the magical 100 Good Deeds last night - woop woop! Ben has been coming to Islington GG for over 3 years and has made a huge impact.
2. Also more celebrations - well done to Lucy who hit 50 good deeds last night. Smashing her goal of hitting the milestone in under a year of attending - awesome sauce!
3. GG Monthly drinks are on Thursday 4th October at the Islington Townhouse in Angel - come along :)

After warming up we split into two groups heading to help the wonderful Thornhill Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project.

Thornhill Square Gardens Report by Aidan:

A welcome return to Thornhill Square Gardens for some of us this week and definitely a reminder that headtorch season is upon us!

Caroline took navigator role for the way there, weaving us through the streets of Islington to get us there safely. We had two beds which needed some TLC with a bit of weeding, edging and turning of the soil. Also some bushes which had got a bit wildly and needed some levelling to make them look smarter. Speedy running and speedy work meant we had time to help tidy up another plot before we broke for a chocolate finger break. Yum.

With a run back to base completed we still had time for a few cheeky hill sprints next to Emirates before a stretch out.

Single Homeless Project Report:

The rest of us ran up hill to Crouch Hill to help the wonderful Single Homeless Project, which provides accommodation, care and support to homeless people in our community. We met the wonderful Sam from the charity that told us we had lots to do over two properties on Ashley Road:

• Clearing beds of weeds and turning over the soil
• Tidying up and chopping back tree's and bushes along the pathways
• Bagging up all the weeds and debris we'd piled up

We've been helping the SHP a lot this year but this was our first time at this site, great to lend a hand! Over 30 minutes we got tons done for our local community - well done all.

Thanks for coming everyone, great evening helping our community in Islington. Next week we will be painting veg boxes for the Friends of Grenville Gardens (FROGG) - sign up here. Please bring a headtorch from now on to group runs!

PB out

21 Goodgymers ran 4-5k to help Holloway School prepare the roofgarden for horticultural activities

Welcome to the newbies - Savannah, Caz and Chloe - great to have you along!!

In the news:

1. Well done to everyone who raced this weekend - lots of Goodgymers at Rutland Races, Berlin Marathon, Brighton Triathlon and Dart 10k Swim - amazing!
2. Dave Guest from GoodGym Bristol became the 3rd person to reach 500 Good Deeds over the weekend - wow! Read about it here :)
3. There is now a new committee for the GG Raceteam with Frances as the Chair and Pritesh the Secretary. Join the raceteam here.

After warming up we headed through the backstreets to Holloway Road, where we encountered tons of red traffic lights, which meant squats and star jumps while we waited!

Back to School!

Arriving at Holloway School we met Jonathan - we ran through the school halls (naughty) and made it up the stairs to the roofgarden. Jonathan explained that our task for the evening was to clear, weed and prepare an area so the kids can get involved in lots of horniculture activities. Splitting into teams we got were tasked with the following:

• Weeding around the apple trees where the chicken coop is going to go
• Digging up bushes with the roots intact, these were then taken down to be replanted in the playground.
• Removing any weeds and laying five bags of manure to feed the garden

Around 12 bushes were taken down to the playground in bags, a job that involved lots of stairs climbing! After 30 minutes we finished the tasks at hand with some sweeping and then a group photo under Aspire, Achieve, Success sign.

On the way home we went back the long way and did a fartlek around the Emirates!

Sign up here for next week, we'll be helping Single Homeless Project and Thornhill Square Gardens.

PB out

25 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Rose Bowl and Ramsey Flowers Group N1

Welcome along to the newbies - Emma, Matthew, Juliette, Nikky and Konstantina - thanks for coming guys!

In the news this week:

1. September's Long Run will be led by Beth Nelson and Andy Cowan - full details here.
2. Cross Country Season starts soon and we'd love for you to join, there is one race a month from October to February for £5. See more details here.
3. We are going to Sofia in May 2019 for racing, spas and buffets - come join us here.

After all the news and various questions about biscuits we warmed up ready for the evenings activities. Then we were off, through the Emirates and over Highbury Fields while it was still light.

Our tasks were luckily next to one another, first there was Ramsey Flowers N1 Group which look after a public park and wildlife area, next there was the Rose Bowl Community Centre which provides services to the local community. Splitting into two teams, with Alix and James leading the Ramsey Flowers group and Steve and Graham leading the Rose Bowl squad, we got to work.

Where the panda's at?

The leaves are certainly starting to fall, over both areas teams swept and bagged them up. Steve, Graham and Frances got to work in cutting back and clearing away lots of the Rose Bowl's bamboo - apparently Islington's panda's hadn't been by in a while!

Over 30 minutes everyone did a fantastic job of weeding, sweeping and clearing both areas for both non-profits - totalling 8 rubbish bags and 2 large sacks of leaves, debris and of course bamboo. After a group picture we headed back to the Emirates where we did time trial - nice! Everyone was rewarded with biscuits - yum

Next week we are off to help Thornhill Square Gardens (and another task probably) - sign up here.

PB out.