First up, a big welcome to Amy, who joined us for her first GoodGym task — great to have you along. And welcome back to Fuad for the second time in as many weeks. Brilliant to have you with us again, and great to share the task with you both.

We were back helping Care4Calais, this time at their new location just off Wick Lane. A group of four of us jogged over from the Aquatics Centre, meeting Amy at the gate to the storage building. On first impressions, this felt less like a task and more like an escape room in reverse, with a series of entry codes, room numbers to find and combination locks standing between us and the mission. Thankfully, only a small amount of wandering aimlessly was required before finding the right place, where Nick was ready and waiting for us.

Once inside, we had clear instructions: sorting baby and toddlers' clothes into age brackets. Simple, focused, we got stuck in - with the occasional query over significant differences in Australian vs UK or European sizes, whether ages were expressed in months or years, and taking delight in high-quality pieces originating in Bangladesh. Several boxes were sorted in around 40 minutes, and then we were on our way, now escaping in the correct order.

We’ll be back there again in about a month to help out some more.

What else is coming up?

This Saturday we’ve got our second visit to help Clean Green E15, revitalising some planters in Maryland. Join us there — and/or come along to parkrun first. It’s likely to be local, either Hackney Marshes or Wanstead; we’ll update the listing page once confirmed.

London Fields Junior parkrun - there are GoodGym volunteers here most Sundays and it's always great fun.

No Newham task lined up for next Tuesday, but Tower Hamlets are at Ocean Youth Connexions on Monday if you need a weekday GoodGym fix. Otherwise, we’re expecting to be back the following week (17th) at Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground. Keep an eye on the listings for updates.

See you soon 👋

Ten of us assembled tonight for a return to Care4Calais East London, this time to help them move out of their storage space. Over the winter and spring we’ve got to know this place well — a jumble of coats, shoes, sleeping bags and other essentials that make their way to refugees and asylum seekers in need.

True to form, the evening began with the classic Care4Calais conundrum: what exactly are we meant to be doing? A couple of detective-like phone calls to long-standing volunteer Andy gave us a few clues, with some further reliance on instinct and common sense. Before long we were stacking, bagging, and squeezing items into boxes and bags ready for them to be loaded into a van and shipped elsewhere.

By the end, the place looked pretty different — something closer to neat piles than to chaos and I'm confident we’ve saved Care4Calais' volunteers a whole lot of time and effort in our short stint there.

Massive congratulations to Chris for hitting the 50 good deed milestone (well actually 51 now... and thanks for bringing the sweet treats!)

Next week, we're off to Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground and can't wait to see what Ange has lined up for us.

Last night saw the return of the GoodGym Newham crew to Care4Calais’s East London storage facility, with a fresh batch of instructions and some fresh faces too!

Our mission this time was to tackle the racks of winter coats, transferring them into some large bags, presumably ready for longer-term storage, and also to sort through some newly donated clothing by both size and type. Among the usual suspects of jeans, jumpers and jackets, we uncovered some absolutely stunning larger-sized dresses – so elegant, in fact, that a new pile reserved for ceremonial dresswear had to be created. A wonderful reminder of the generosity of these donations.

It was especially great to welcome Nadirah, who joined her first Newham task – a warm welcome to you! And a face familiar to some in the form of Camden Town John, who made the trip over for the first time in a while. Always lovely to see runners crossing borough borders for a good cause.

Well done to everyone for spending your Tuesday evening to pitch in with such good spirits.

Next week, we’re switching gears with a flyering session for Cody Dock’s Summer Open Day. Sunshine (hopefully), community vibes, and a chance to get our steps in while spreading the word – hope to see you there!

With the clocks having changed and the days finally stretching out, this week's GoodGym Newham run to Care4Calais felt a little different – for once, we could actually see where we were going and more or less what we were doing when we got there! That said, the air still had a chilly bite to it, making sure we didn’t get too comfortable on the run over.

Meeting at the PrintHouse, Graham, Martin, Nick, Rosa, and I laced up and set off at a steady pace, making our way across Stratford to Care4Calais. Shoutout to Nick on his 599th good deed – a true 'Kevin Prince' milestone! Meanwhile, Kev and Shaz ran from theirs to met us there, ready to get stuck in with another evening of shoe pairing and general clothes sorting.

Upon arrival, we jumped straight into action and had a great session of sorting, chatting, and occasional moments of shoe-related detective work.

Looking forward to the next one already! See you all next week - we're off to the Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground where Ange will no doubt have a solid task lined up for us.

Four of us headed back to the Care4Calais storage facility this week for another evening of sorting – and it was a stretchy kind of night... Despite a few last minute dropouts, we had a great little team, and it was lovely to welcome Michael for his first visit - especially good to meet a fellow London marathoner, always good to bond over those training strategies!

Our mission was clear: keep working through the sorting piles and pair up shoes using the elastic bands provided. Simple enough – but it’s amazing how satisfying it was to see some many neatly matched pairs at the end.

Conversation on the run took a philosophical turn as we tackled the question: Who do we consider to be "cool"? A very subjective topic, but some solid answers included James Acaster, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Taylor Swift and Caroline Lucas. There were probably a few others too – clearly, we’ve got diverse opinions!

Great work, team – you were elastic-tastic! Congrats to everyone on the effort, and if you’re feeling inspired, why not sign up for next week? Same time, same place – more good deeds and good chat guaranteed!

💪👟 See you there!

Another Tuesday, another wonderful evening of doing good and getting fit! This week, we returned to the Care4Calais' East London storage facility, continuing our mission to transform a mountain of generous donations into neatly sorted boxes of clothing, ready to reach those who need them most.

Thanks to our collective efforts over the past few sessions, we’ve made some serious headway—what once resembled a fabric avalanche is now an increasingly organised space. This week saw more great sartorial discoveries, with some standout pieces that would make even the most seasoned thrifters jealous!

Of course, no GoodGym session would be complete without our Random Weekly Question. Courtesy of Graham, we asked: What’s your favourite game? The responses were as varied as ever, ranging from the classic (tennis, football) to the less conventional (Sushi Go, Ticket to Tobago, Frogger and the intense long-term activity of trying to complete the parkrun app).

A huge well done to everyone who came along and put in the hard work. See you next time for more running and doing good - I think we've got a task lined up at Chandos Rd, details to emerge in due course...