Busy bees at The Hive

What a cracking evening at The Hive in Kingston – GoodGymmers rolled up their sleeves and got to work on a task that had graffiti, cobwebs, and plenty of rubbish to tackle.

⭐️ A big cheer for our team: Lordi, Tenko, Anna, Emma, Jana, Jonathan, and Ken (and a very warm welcome to our new GoodGymmers, Lordi and Kento – great to have you with us!).

Jonathan and Ken wasted no time taking on the toilet walls – not the most glamorous job, but definitely a satisfying one. Buckets, rollers, and brushes in hand, they soon had the graffiti-covered walls and door looking fresh and clean with a smart coat of paint.

Meanwhile, Emma, Tenko, and Lordi took to the streets for some litter-picking action. Cobwebs didn’t stand a chance either – Emma took particular delight in banishing them from the lights. Before long, the trio had filled two whole bin bags of rubbish. Gold medal standard effort!

Over by the wooden wall, Anna and Jana led the charge against some seriously stubborn graffiti tags. Armed with sprays, brushes, and plenty of elbow grease, they scrubbed and scrubbed until reinforcements arrived. Soon the whole team was joining in, proving that many hands really do make light work.

By the end, the toilet walls were painted, the tags were scrubbed away, the cobwebs were gone, and the area looked so much better.

👏 Top job, team – a real hive of activity at The Hive!

Keeping cool at KVA

Dave, Rachel, Levita and Marcos met at KVA to move a fridge up the stairs. We took a dolly to do the hard work but didn't use it in the end as there was a n awkward corner. So Dave and Marcos flexed their muscles and carried it up the stairs. Lots of encouragement from Levita, Rachel and Sanja helped of course!

We stayed to chat with Sanja and then headed back to the Hive to help with the grafitti removal.

Four GoodGymmers – Jana, Emily, Charles, and Wani – gathered today to bring some extra cheer and colour to Staywell New Malden. We were lucky to have Charles (a volunteer at Staywell) and Wani (a full-time staff member) joining in, so it really felt like a team effort with both sides working together.

Armed with a list from Clair, the manager, we set to work:

• The tall sunflowers came down to make way for fresh, bright yellow plants to welcome visitors at the entrance.
• The hanging baskets were refreshed with a splash of colour.
• The front flower beds got some TLC, including a good feed for the beautiful white rose.
• Jana tackled some bindweed along the side passage.
• Emily and Wani used their eye for colour to coordinate the planting.
• And Charles even had time to mow the lawn, leaving everything looking neat and cared for.

This was no ordinary task-it was part of the Mayor’s Community Weekend! We joined in the celebrations by putting up bunting and flags, adding a festive touch that advertised the event to passers-by. In just two hours, everything was spruced up and looking welcoming. We left the bunting and flags up for the day centre users to enjoy during the week (weather permitting-fingers crossed the wind and rain play nicely!). A wonderful way to show how teamwork really makes Staywell stay well.

This morning I rose to meet up with Dani at Jubilee Square, where we started tackling the bindweed problem, cutting down the Budlia in order to make more room for the hot lips flowers and other vegetation. This was followed up by a litter pick.

Emily and I spent 1.5 hours walking around Kingston, picking up litter, from used cans to paper and plastic bottles. By the end of our mission, not only were our bags full, but our hearts were too, thanks to the great conversations we shared along the way. We wrapped things up at Fairfield Park, where we took some great photos to celebrate completing our task.

We've been to Kingston Voluntary Action's new project redistributing surplus food this summer and seen how it's been coming on.

Organiser Emma had a load of different tasks for us to do, from crushing boxes, sweeping, cleaning out their fridge as well as their van.

Anna, Amreet, Claire (expert power washer), Tom, Emma, Emily Luke, Levita, John (top leaf-blowing), Dave (skilful van driving), Rachel and first-timer Jonathan got involved in a bit of everything and we'd made a big difference by the end.

We didn't leave empty-handed, either. The great thing about a food hub is…food…and we got some water kefir and cacao bars for our trouble.

Nice to be back helping a very worthy cause.

Brought and dropped some items for the food bank on my way around.