20 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Caxton House Community Centre!

Thanks for coming along on a rainy evening - wings, rain and cake!

In the news this week:

1. Both Alix and Sally hit 100 Good Deeds - these guys have achieved so much and done amazing things for their communities with GG.
2. Well done to Graham who came 16th at Race the horse and beat lots of horses - amazing! Plus a big well done to Aidan and the other 40 people who went on the trip.
3. Next Monday there is going to be a social after the run, it'll involve food and drink - come along.
4. On Sunday there is our monthly community mission helping CREOS, this usually ends with a picnic!

After celebrating all of the above we headed outside to warm up, then heading off 2.5k up the steady hill to help Caxton House Community Centre, a place that offers lots of services, support and programmes to the local community.

Upon our arrival we met Rose, who first off gave us biscuits, and then gave us our tasks for the evening:

• Chain Gang - Dharmesh, Steve, Graham and Rob pulled up old fence posts and collected together it's chain.
• Thistlers - eight people delicately removed the thistles from the front garden and cut back a bit of the wild flowers.
• Bush People - everyone else clipped back and tidied the bushes near the back entrance - lovely shape.

As each group finished their separate jobs we collected together to cut back more of the area of trees and bushes we started on last month - clipper happy! Dom and Alix found an unopened bottle of prosecco in the shrubby - wow what celebrations!

Chain Gang!

We collected together inside, ate some of hundreds of thousands (New Zealand originals), took a group photo and headed home - oh it then really rained, it proper came down. We stretched inside and ate cake, blondies and fudge as part of the 100 celebrations - thanks to Liz for making this all.

Sign up for next week here - we'll be helping Barnsbury Square Gardens and maybe SHP.

PB out

Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies:

Ingredients 125 g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 100 g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing 150 g crunchy peanut butter 175 g light brown sugar 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 100 g white chocolate, chopped

Method 1. Preheat the oven to 170C/gas 3. Butter the sides of a 20 x 20cm square cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper. 2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside. 3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together until very soft. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder and the chopped chocolate and mix to form a dough. 4. Place the dough into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until golden brown and almost firm in the centre. 5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, before removing and cutting into squares.

14 GoodGymers ran 4km to help Mildmay Police do a knife and drug search!

Welcome along to newbies Molly, Rachel, Sabrina and Lucy - great to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to all those that raced, cheered and pubed at London 10,000 yesterday morning - including Sally and James who raced it and came to the group run!
2. Big well done to Steve 'Speed' Coman who ran Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday in 3.49 and came 1st in his age category - wowie!
3. The GG Monthly Social will be on Thursday 6th June - more details coming soon.

We collected together to hear about all the news above and about the impending task, it was a new one and I was sure "all would be fine" (which it was). This week for the first time ever we partnered with Mildmay Police to search for knives and drug paraphernalia in St Paul's Shrubbery.

Our run there was the shortest route via Essex Road, upon our arrival we met PC Cameron who explained our task - splitting into groups of 3's & 4's we looked in the park borders and undergrowth for various illegal substances (and litter).

Total - 18 weed baggies, 12 canisters, 0 knives and lots of litter!

Some teams did better than others finding weed baggies and cannisters, some of which had union jacks - how patriotic! We of course we bagged up any litter we found during the search, thoroughly cleaning up the park.

To finish up we did a spot of weeding (the non-drug type), took a group picture and headed back to the Arc Centre via the canal - nice!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping the Single Homeless Project and are back meeting at the Arsenal.

PB out