Area Activator Simon met up with Katie and Selam outside the Elizabeth House Food Hub on a beautifully sunny Monday evening (definitely t-shirt weather!). We said "Thank You" to Nathalie, Mark and Tizzy, who have been accommodating our Goodgym sessions for at least half a year now, while also operating a busy food bank and youth club. They are absolute superstars, and we can't wait to come back to assist with more summer holiday delivery tasks with them!

Our trio of runners engaged in a warm up on Hurlock Street, before taking on the notorious Highbury Hill, and crossing the Arsenal Stadium plaza, towards Levitt Bernstein Architects on Thane Villas. We were met by Giovanna, Joseph and Lucy, who showed us into the office to explain our plan for the evening.

LET'S CONNECT is a street festival being held on Saturday 18th June (2-5pm) along the Thane Works estate, just off Seven Sisters Road. The party has been set up to celebrate the local area, and to champion creative community businesses, initiatives and groups in Islington. There will be talks, live music, a neighbourhood craft market, food stalls, workshops and fitness activities throughout the day. If you would like to learn more, and would like to help with brining the festival into fruition, check out the link below:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/action-at-thane-villa-street-festival

Our objective for the evening was to distribute as many flyers as possible about the upcoming festival to the immediate neighbours to Thane Villas. We jogged along Seven Sisters Road, and separated into two groups, each team tackling either side of the road, and then returning to meet Area Activator Simon on the top of the avenue. Within about 45 minutes of running, posting and letterbox opening, we had delivered over 100 leaflets up and down 5 large streets. Solid effort everyone, well done!

We parted ways upon our return to the Levitt Bernstein Architects offices. But we will be back again next Monday for another group run (setting off from the Arsenal Community Hub, Benwell Road) to St Mungo's Centre, Hilldrop Crescent for some quality gardening fun!

Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-big-garden-clear-up-at-st-mungo-s-hilldrop-house

Come and join us on a tour of amazing wildflower garden projects and planting nurseries in the Islington borough!

7 Goodgymmers (including new starter Joseph- welcome!) joined Area Activator Simon this Monday evening for a unique group run and community mission combo. We met at Elizabeth House Food Hub on Hurlock Street and discussed our weekend activities (a few of us attended the incredible Night of the 10,000m PBs event at Parliament Hill Track on Saturday- report for the evening coming soon!), before engaging in a warm up and a 1 mile run to Highbury Quadrant Estate.

Upon our arrival, we met with Frannie, the lead gardener, volunteer coordinator and powerhouse for the awesome Octopus Community Network gardening group. She invited us into "the meadow", a lovely hub for neighbourhood growing and planting and demonstrated the in's and out's for effective watering of the 3 main gardens along the estate (the meadow, the orchard and the allotments). A team of experienced gardening volunteers usually help with the maintenance and upkeep of these gardens, but find that their time is often taken up by watering plants and setting up hoses or sprinklers, when they could be helping with more technical tasks. Having a few additional helpers to water the plants over summer would make a world of difference!

After an extremely thorough breakdown of the quirks of hoselocks, water supply points and effective watering techniques, Frannie hopped on her moped and drove off across town to Tufnell Park Plant Nursery. The Goodgym crew also set off in the same direction by passing the Arsenal Emirates Stadium and Holloway Road. Tufnell Park Plant Nursery is a wonderful space for growing new plants, bushes and fruit trees, with the use of propagation stations and a large green house and poly tunnel. Our future tasks would involve keeping the soil in the nursery saturated during the Summer months, and looking after the peach trees, runner beans, rocket (which is delicious- see above photo!) and other greenery.

All in all, the evening was super informative, and we will look forward to signing up to more tasks very soon!