Ruro, Ian and Ingrid joined volunteers from East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO) to tidy the raised beds on Addiscombe Road.

We met Jerry from ECCO who gave us our tasks for the evening, the main one being removing the ivy covering the beds by pulling and cutting with shears. We also picked up litter and finished by sweeping up the trimmings. In total there were 24 bags to be picked up by the council.

Liz, Ros and Ingrid joined members of the East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO) on a thankfully rain free night to help tidy up the flower beds along the Boulevard.

Tasks included sweeping leaves, litter picking, weeding and planting flowers in a memorial garden.

At the end of the evening we had collected 13 bags of litter and leaves for the council to collect.

We said our goodbyes, wished each other a Merry Christmas and looked forward to many more successful missions in the New Year.

Despite the heavy rain, three brave GoodGymers, Ros, Ollie and Ingrid, met up with residents of East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO), to tidy flower beds along the Boulevard. As well as litter picking, we cut back ivy and brambles, and cleared leaves. At the end of the evening we had filled 16 bags and the flower beds looked a lot tidier. The rain stopped just as we had finished!

On Tuesday, we welcomed back Ros from her world tour, she had spent the last few months travelling she visited 7 different countries that’s almost as much as I’ve done in my life! I need to up my game!! You could tell she missed her GG family as most people after all that travelling would stay home and rest the first few days back in the Country instead she came out to do some goodness with us. Welcome back Ros we missed you and we are happy to have you back with us.

We had two options to get to the task, walking or jogging, half chose the walking option led by me and the other half jogged with Liz.

We were heading to the Boulevard to do some weeding on the raised flower bed dedicated to Joan Peck.

After collecting the tool from Jerry, we made our way to the flower bed and began our task of weeding and pruning, while hearing more about Ros’ globe trotting adventure. It was also an opportunity to catch up with Paul, he once was a regular with us but now attends another Goodgym area led by the amazing Anna.

We discussed our birthday celebrations at the end of the month and our upcoming tasks over the next few weeks.

Not being biased but the team did an amazing job tidying up the raised bed, shout out to Dovile who has gotten us a potential new member who she spent some time talking with about good gym.

On Tuesday 4 of us walked 1.4km to Addiscombe Road, to where we were met by Andrea, the project coordinator for Joan Pick memorial bed.

The bed is located near the corner of Bisenden Road and Addiscombe Road, they will be unveiling a plaque and planting some plants on Wednesday 6th March 2024 in memory of Joan Pick.

Joan Pick was known by many as a local celebrity - a scientist and writer determined to reduce her carbon footprint. It their our goal to come together as a community as part of Joan’s legacy and make a difference.

However before all the celebrations the bed needed to be prepared and thats where we came in. We were able to weed a section of the bed and planted some plants, we turned quite a few heads working in the dark. Quite a few members of the community on their way home from work stopped to talk with us to find out what we were doing and a few others while walking by thanked us for the work we were doing. It was quite nice not to be mistaken for offenders on community service, although we were doing community service but without committing a crime.

The following day we received the message below from Andrea;

Thank you so much for bringing your team to work on our Joan Pick memorial bed at the Boulevard at the top of Bisenden Road in the dark last night with your team, who were wonderful - such hard work, and effective too. We're delighted with the progress.

Are you around on Wednesday 6th March 2024 fancy being apart of the unveiling of the plaque and celebrations?

It was a dark, autumnal Tuesday evening, but this didn't scare the team away, with 11 wonderful people joining to complete the autumnal clean of the boulevard this evening. Unfortunately, Conroy was unwell, so Liz lead the way.

A warm welcome to Tomi, who joined the team today and welcome back to Bassey and Kemo for their second session!!

Also, a shout-out for Magda, who completed her 200th good deed today! AMAZING!!

The team promptly set-off to collect the tools, to allow as much time for the task as possible. The team collected litter, swept leaves and cut over-grown brambles.

The team worked hard and filled a grand total of 38 bags of waste!!

Well done team!!