Last month we cleared the contents from an art cupboard at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School.

Tonight we were back with Jane, the vice principal, to dismantle the big shelving unit in the middle of the cupboard. Cue screwdrivers 🪛, saws🪚and hammers 🔨, and impressive team work in a confined space.

As the cupboard got emptier, the corridor outside got fuller with the demolition debris, so we found a trolley and did several trips to the skip in the car park.

Next door we took on the gentler task of tidying the computer room. With laptops, headphones and mice neatly organised it looked spick-and-span for classes to use tomorrow.

Cupboard swept, corridor cleared and computer room in order, we posed for a team photo and it was time to say goodbye to Jane and head home.

I'm constantly amazed by how much a posse of GoodGymers can get done in just an hour. And always with such good cheer and enthusiasm.

Looking forward to next month's visit to help tick off more tasks on the school's long to-do list .

On Sunday, a cheerful crew of GoodGymers headed to a very trashed corner of Blackfen, near the A2 and the Co-op car park, ready to take on… well, far too much rubbish. What followed was part clean-up, part treasure hunt, and part therapy session.

By the end of the mission, we’d collected 12 bags of general rubbish, 3 bags of glass bottles (safely popped into recycling), and—because why not—one sewing machine. Yes. A sewing machine. Sadly, it did not come with instructions or a matching table.

To keep spirits high, we played Litter Picking Bingo, and can proudly say we found everything on the card—and then some. Full house, anyone?

While it’s always a bit heartbreaking to see how careless people can be, every GoodGym session restores our faith in humanity. Because for every fly-tipped sewing machine, there’s a group of volunteers willing to show up, muck in, and make things better—one bag at a time 💛♻️

Blackfen is cleaner, our bingo cards are complete, and humanity is back on the “mostly decent” list. Another good job done! 💪✨

GoodGymers Caroline and Simon were back at the Community Hospice warehouse today, for another session of donation-sorting.

Working their way through bag after bag of pre-loved items, they also took time to wrestle a soft-toy snake 🐍 and model some seasonal headgear! Simon even ended up buying the bobble hat in the photo!

If you'd like to help out at the Hospice, look out for new dates coming soon.

If it's 9am on a Sunday, you're very likely to find GoodGymer Peter as one of the hi-viz heroes at Eltham junior parkrun. Regular as clockwork!

Peter's preferred role is timekeeper ⏱️, recording those all-important times for every young runner as they cross the finishing line.

Today that was 82 clicks - a great turnout for a grey January morning.

Same time, same place next week Peter!

An opportunity arose to add to my various volunteer roles at Bexley parkrun, by donning the pale blue hi-viz vest as a parkwalker. My knees have been playing up so a 5k walk around Danson Park was just the ticket.

parkwalking has for some time been promoted by parkrun HQ, so it was nice to join up with some other walkers, one recovering from an achilles injury and two ladies, relatively new to parkrun, who were enjoying their Saturday morning stroll 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️.

The walk completed, I made my way to Chestnuts to join other volunteers for a coffee ☕️.

I visited Shorne Woods parkrun in Kent with an old school friend and helped out with scanning. This was my 126th parkrun and 95th venue. We will eventually get Kent complete :-) Despite it being slippy after all the rain, I still managed a sub-30.