LET’S EAT PIZZA! So, GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come!

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37 (!!!) brave and intrepid GoodGymers made it out to GoodGym Camden on a drizzly Wednesday night for another two-task night. We welcomed a shiny new person to the Camden herd - hello Hanna, I hope you enjoyed yourselves tonight.

Next week's run will be to C4WS again as well as back to Cecil Sharp House - sign up here if you want to get ahead of the game!

After a quick intro, we stretched and split up into two groups - C4WS (the Homeless Shelter) was led by our trusty light provider Hanry, the Scope group by me.

Arriving at Scope just before 7:30, we stormed the shop, met Helen and her incredibly organised list of activities for us to get stuck into before we split into teams:

• Team Jewellery
• Team Shoes
• Team Rag or Bag
• Team Shirley
• And finally, what can only be described as Team Fancy Dress.

A monster task - and one that we’ll definitely have to come back to - was to sort and price jewellery for the shop. No special marks for correctly identifying that this was Team Jewellery’s domain!

Also down on the shop floor there was some dusting, cleaning and organising of a shoe rack to be done, efficiently tackled by Team Shoes.

In the back we had Team Rag og Bag running a tight ship, leading the sort through of donations into bags that the shop will keep and sell and one they’ll recycle. Like a little production line of elves, they worked away right until the final minute we were there.

Upstairs were both Team Shirley (the brilliant husband and wife team of John and Jackie and Team Fancy Dress. Team Shirley were in charge with cleaning the upstairs bannisters, kitchen and floors which they did magnificently if I say so myself.

Finally, Team Fancy Dress! De-facto led by Rosie in a jumpsuit/Oompa Loompa dual-purpose item, there was steaming, sorting through, pricing and tagging clothes to go out onto the shop floor. See the photos for some particularly sharp Christmas suits, great wigs and strong Christmas jumpers!

Just gone 8pm, we waved goodbye to Helen and headed back to the Living Centre to meet back up with Hanry’s homeless shelter team for a final stretch and cool down.

Over at C4WS, the team did a fantastic job of making up 16 male beds and 4 female beds for the homeless users of the church. Jonathan was very impressed with what you achieved, so well done everyone! After the task was done there, it was a run over to Granary Square for some laps and fitness before heading back and regrouping.

We had a particularly good turnout at the pub after the run tonight. Everyone is welcome and it’s a great way to carry on chatting to GoodGym folks over a drink. Abi is the de-facto pub leader, and I know she’d love to see you there if you fancy coming along next time.

COMMUNITY MISSION ALERT: David from Russell Square Garden got in touch to say how impressed he was with our work a few weeks ago in the bulb-planting and fence-post-putting-up and asked if we might be able to come and [clear some leaves this Saturday 2:30-4:30.] Please do come along and help out - Liz is bringing cake!

NEXT WEEK: We’re going to be running back to the Home of Folk (Cecil Sharp) and C4WS again next week for some more leaf-clearing and bed-making. Would be great to see you there and you should definitely sign up now!

LET’S EAT PIZZA: So GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come.

Happy running,

Ben

29 GoodGymers braced the drizzle with GoodGym Camden on Wednesday night's run up to the Kentish Town City Farm.

Turning up at the Living Centre to locked doors and nobody at Reception, we decamped to the main Crick Institute reception for our intro. We had a load of new runners with us tonight, as well as a group of tourists from GoodGym Tower Hamlets. Welcome Andy, May, and Khaliun! You certainly picked a good night to join us, and I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

We'll be running back to the Kentish Town City Farm next week for the marquee takedown by the way - get your name down for some goat petting and manure-bag moving!

After a rapid fire intro and warmup we got going - so the question was asked of the new runners to find out what actuallyis the difference between a community mission and a mission? Do you know? Answers at the bottom of this report please!

Our task

Arriving to the sweet smell of wafting manure, we met Mel from the City Farm who told us all about the task:

• Assembling and erecting the two marquees ahead of their annual Apple Day on Sunday.

We split into two teams and got stuck in, using wheelbarrows, people power and our headtorches - thanks again this week Hanry - we marched up to the field to get them built.

Teams seem to be becoming a regular thing in these reports, and this week was no different; Marquee Team A were pitted against Marquee Team B in the battle of the marquees.

Which poles went where proved to be a challenge for both teams, but with the best GoodGym minds at work both marquees were up in 15 minutes flat, with Team B being the far and away winners. With both marquees up, it was time to gather the manure bags to tie to the bottom of the poles to make sure they didn't fly away in a gust of wind.

With our task completed - and 24 bags of poo tied (pendulously some might add) - we assembled for a team photo and after an extra 5 minutes petting the goats and checking on the piggies we said goodbye to Mel and sprinted back to the Living Centre for a cool down and - for some of us - a trip to the pub.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS GALORE: As mentioned on the run, there's not one but TWO community missions to get stuck in with this week. Thursday (24th) will be another trip to Story Garden. Turn up from 5pm and help do some good with Abi. For those of you who can't do weekdays, Mel and the team would love to see you up at the Kentish Town City Farm on the Apple Day itself this coming Sunday from 11am-4pm. Liz is organising this one - head here to sign up. Don't worry if you can't do the whole time, just comment on the signup page which hours you can do.

NEXT WEEK: So next time, we'll be running back up to the Kentish Town City Farm for Apple Day Part 2 (The Takedown!) to take down the marquees we put up last night. It's yet another opportunity to pet the goats and see the oinking pigs, so there really is no excuse good enough not to attend.

Happy Running!

Ben

23 of us GoodGymers turned up for a night of do-gooding and running on another rain-free October night. We do run come rain or shine, but who doesn't prefer running in the dry, let's be honest!

After our introduction and our welcoming FOUR new runners (wooooooooooo!) to the Camden ranks with some big cheers and claps - welcome Leanne, Poppy, Abbi and Lucy - we stretched and got ready for the run! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves tonight and will be back at Group Runs and Community Missions with us very soon.

We had a split task tonight, with one team running to the Cecil Sharp House and another back to the SPCA to finish off what we started a fortnight ago. I led the first team to Cecil Sharp and Louise and John took the second half to the SPCA.

Team Cecil Sharp

After a quick 2km run up the road, we arrived at Cecil Sharp House. Susannah told us a little about the centre and some more of what we were helping with tonight, as a violin lesson and choir rehearsal were going on in the background. They'd just gotten some great news today that they'd won Camden's Best Business Garden and she was doubly grateful for the work we do for them. Well done for the continued weeding, clearing and raking efforts over the months - it's all paid off! We were set about clearing the gardens of the leaves, sweeping up the paths and sorting out their bin - extra big shout-out to CJ and Abi for going above and beyond with their task. If I could award double good deed points, I would. Tidying away 9 big bags of leaves and litter, we'd made the gardens neat, tidy and leafless once more and after a group photo on the steps, we said goodbye to Susannah and ran back to the Life Centre to regroup.

Team SPCA

Louise and John's team ran over to the Saint Pancras Community Association to carry on with the task we weren't able to finish last time; sorting and bagging up the rest of the garden waste pile that had been stacking up over the summer. After speedy teamwork and FIFTEEN bags later - excellent work everyone - the job was well and truly finished off. It was time to say goodbye, run back and meet up with the other team.

Thanks again - as we say most weeks now - to Hanry for being the official Camden Headtorch Champion. You're a hero and I'm sure we'll be calling on your help in the coming months.

Next week and other news

NEXT WEEK! We are going to be running to the Ashdown Crescent Sheltered Housing project to give them a hand with keeping their gardens in check. There may well be a fitness session next week, so we'll make sure you keep warm!

A COMMUNITY TASK! Abi never stops good deeding (she really doesn't) and will be back at the Story Garden on Thursday 10th from 5-7pm if you'd like to help them out in one of the polytunnels - a sort of indoor-task if you squint at it for long enough - you can click right here and come on down!

LET'S GET SOCIAAAAAAL! It's almost time for a good old GoodGym social! There's already 29 friendly GoodGymers signed up to the social on Thursday 10th October, so why don't you too? It's going to be at the Islington Town House from 6:30pm - come one come all. It's also a potentially final chance to celebrate International Pun of the Month, as Pritesh is stepping down from this wonderous role. Get in touch with him if you'd like to find out how you can take up the mantle and carry on this hilarious GG tradition.

That's all for now, but I hope to see you all on next week's run.

Happy running,

Ben