12 incredibly haaawwwwt Goodgymmers donned head torches and smiles as they lent a hand at Chapmans Green

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Beth, Ellie, and Gina who joined us for their first ever Goodgym task and were absolute naturals. They didn't skip a beat and got stuck right in into the evening shenanigans. Rock stars! You can all come again....

... which is exactly what Super James did tonight, returning for his second task ever in row, despite the GGH motley crew's best attempts to scare him away the previous week. Hero!

We also welcomed Mehmet for his first run with us. As the legend that he is, he fitted right in.

Shovel-ready

Our audacious and bodacious crew turned up at Chapmans Green as the last of the day's light was slipping through their fingers but they didn't let that deter them. Oh no! The Friends of Chapmans Green awaited them with a mission to dig out the tree wells in the orchard so the lovely trees can get a good feed ahead of the cold days of winter. With a clear mission in front of them, our Goodgymmers began working like hank marvin honey badgers.

Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Task. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster.* #NoContext

The Friends group had conservatively put red rings around 4 of the 13 trees in the community orchard and you can see why - the ground was hard, harder than explaining to your friendly Area Activator how to use TikTok without crying in frustration. Nevertheless, our heroes cracked on with gusto and not too much complaining, and we ended up finishing the evening having prepped not four but six trees, ready for a good protein milkshake drink or whatever it is thhat they're getting ahead of the winter months.

The Friends were so impressed that they asked us to come back in a couple of weeks and who are we to say no to such lovely folk, eh?

A good successful night, if I say so myself.

Join us on Weds as we visit Russell Park in Wood Green for a spot of park gate painting.

*You had to be there for that one to make sense. Sorry!

Apologies for belated report but our AA managed to land himself in hospital for a few days pretty much straight after this task. He's on the mend now and hopefully back with us next week. But rest assured our Goodgymmers were absolute heroes last week, lending a hand to the Friends of Finsbury Gardens following a lovely community event the weekend prior. We litter picked to our heart's content. Also, normal service will continue as Sarah takes to crew to Wolves Lane to lead them on a good howling session - join them!

On a classic drizzly autumn evening, with our fearless leader off-duty, I did my best to uphold the good name of GoodGym (no pressure, right?).

We kicked things off with a bit of DIY — assembling some planks into a raised bed.

Then Mark, Sarah, Julie, and I got stuck into the real fun: shovelling, wheelbarrowing, and tipping load after load of wood chip into place like pros.

Just when we thought we were done, we were sent... to the bad place. Yes, the compost heap — the stuff of rancid, smelly nightmares.

But! Turns out we were being a bit over dramatic. This time it was far less pongy than a couple of weeks ago! So we bravely shovelled barrow after barrow of the wormy mush into the new raised bed.

Just as we finished up, the rain returned right on cue — like nature’s version of a mic drop.

9 Goodgymmers delighted in a plethora of prismatic arcs as they lent a hand at the tiny forest in White Hart Rec.

Snatching victory from the soggy jaws of defeat

In what was thoroughly wet, wet and... wet day, our Goodgymmers headed out to Blue House Yard undeterred, ready for a soggy run under the inclement weather. However, proving the old adage right, that if you do good, good things will come to you (and you will get fit?), as soon as we had congregated at the start line, the skyes were tentatively clearing and we ran to White Hart Rec mostly dry. Victory!

We were welcome by Michael from the Friends of Woodside Park who entrusted us with giving this lovely wild space a thorough clean up ahead of an Earthwatch scientific survey that is taking place in the next week or so.

Our Goodgymmers were keen to get started before the rain returned, but we got momentarilly sidetracked by the treat of not one, not two, but (allegedly) three rainbows above us. Either nature was showing off or someone up there is really into our lovely red GG t-shirts and impressive squat form.

There were loads of Insta-ready posing and they were really a beautiful sight to behold.

Alas, the promise of half-drunk cans of G&T and discarded Lime bikes awaited us to remind us that not everything that is green is good for the planet, so our Goodgymmers tore themselves away from the rainbows and litterpicked to their hearts content.

Paul, Mark, and Dave were our most intrepid explorers and headed deep into the heart of the (tiny) jungle, while the rest of the team concentrated on the meeting square area of the site - covered as it were on a large tapestry of cigarrete butts. In true do-gooder syle, we even collected all the detritus that could be recycled on Michael's trusty wheelbarrow and Paul and Veronika made their way across the rec to put it all into a recycling bin. Heroes.

After about 45 mins, and with the heavens heavy with imminent rain, Michael brought our proceedings to an end by thanking us and leaving the door open for us to return whenever we want. A good days was had.

Join us next week as we pay a second visit to the Hornsey Medical Centre to help them create a pleasant space for their patients to relax.

7 Goodgymmers got a clean bill of health at the doctors this week as they lent a hand at the Hornesy Central Nrighbourhood Health Centre

Doctor's Orders

Our wonderful host for the evening kindly sent the list of tasks we achieved at our mission tonight. He says: "sheet mulching open soil with corrugated cardboard, mulching paths with woodchip, reusing a surplus pallet collar to create an instant raised bed, part filling the raised bed with part broken down oak and softwood logs, filling up the bed with part composted brewery waste, planting a selection of mint plants into repurposed Haringey Council Recycling bins, rehoming a beautiful Sedum or Ice Plant, watering in all of the new plants with rainwater."

Can you believe we managed to do all of that in an hour? Never mind the limited access due to the car parked uncomfotably close to the gardens entrance. Highlights of the evening included Julie and Sarah becoming de facto elevators to help get the many wheelbarows used tonight onto the garden, and poor Sam and Gramps in a race to outretch each other as they worked on the massive pile of composted brewery waste. Ooof, what a smell!

In the end, an evening that had threatened to be a damp squib turned into a lovely sunny evening full of fun and games.

I love it when a plan comes together.

7 Goodgymmers leapfrogged through the streets of Wood Green, leafleting for the incoming Noel Park Summer Festival.

Kudos corner

Big noise for Sheril who joined us for her first task and fitted in like a natural. Come again!

Don't Lose Any Fingers In The Flaps

Our Goodgymmers congregated nice and early in Russell Park to collect a mammoth pile of leaflets to be delivered in Wood Green.

Leading the charge was leafleting-anarchist Julie who straight away set off in regaling us stories of friends losing fingers through letter flaps while trying to get rid of leaflets every which way except actually delivering them.

Latoya, Sheril, and Mark very wisely decided to take the opposite side of the road, while Sarah and Paul had to endure the constant reminders of missing digits.

We bumped into some regulars along the way, and even engaged in a bit of community engagement, trying to drum up some business for the festival.

After around an hour, we had delivered well over 400 leaflets in this very warm evening. Probably even 450 if we count the ones Julie put through Paul's letterbox. (Jokes)

No fingers were harmed in the making of this report.

IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY NEXT WEEK - COME!

8 Goodgymmers made their way to Floyde's Garden in Wood Green to lend the Friends of Russell Park a hand in giving a very thirsty community garden a drink

Role Models

It's hot out there, y'all. I'm sure I don't need to tell you. And gardens all across London are feeling the heat. The Friends of Russell Park pressed the big red button labelled 'Help Needed, Dearest Goodgym' and it would have been churlish of us to ignore them.

When we turned up, we found out that we only had one hose for the job. Undettered, Dave and Gramps scoured the grounds for anything that could be useful and we managed to find some buckets and a massive empty bottle, and all our Goodgymers got on with the job.

Longtime readers of these reports (the two or three of you who are still humouring me after all these years) will have already noticed that this is the location where our wonderful Latoya always gets lost on the way to. We all held our breath tonight as 7pm came and went and Latoya was nowhere to be found. Some of us might have placed a bet on how late she would get there, if at all. Without giving away too much, she got there in the end and earned herself her task credit by quickly arranging an impromptu Badgym outing. <3

Along the way, we even managed to rope in some local kids to give us a hand with the watering and our Sarah offered herself up as the target in some very chaotic water target practice.

By 8pm, we where all on our Badgym way, having worked up a thirst ourselves.

Come next week as we celebrate six years of Gramps in charge by painting the town red (and blue, and green, and.....) 

4 Goodgymmers faced not one but two task cancellations but they didn't let that stop them from going out there, doing some good. Heroes.

Is that a flatpack, or are you just pleased to see me?

We were invited by the Friends of Bowes Park to carry out an extensive litter pick of the New River Hidden Path and our Goodgymmers jumped at the chance with arms wide open.

Along the normal fare of discarded cigarette butts and Fastgas cylinders, we were approached by a member of the public who gifted us a book, we spotted a black shag, and Paul tried to kill Julie with an orange lifebuoy ring - but in a nice way.

Kudos to our Goodgymmers for rescuing a nice tasks out of the jaws of defeat after two (!) late task cancellations.