First Goodgym task since the clocks last weekend- certainly headtorch season now! 8 Goodgymmers (including first timer Katie- welcome!) gathered outside Lizzie's Cafe on Newington Green (closed at this hour, sadly) to meet Trainer Simon for a flyering task.

We are helping to publicise the Newington Green Alliance, a collaborative between 16 different groups around the areas of Dalston, Islington, Clissold Park and Green Lanes, housed in a secular church opposite the green. They are currently operating a food bank, a citizens advice service and loads of community activities from this location.

We separated into groups to tackle as many streets as possible. Jackie and John headed towards Green Lanes. Ellie, Katie and Vicki made their way to Petherton Road, and Steve and Kike took on Balls Pond Road and beyond. A large stack of flyers were given out to our teams, and only a small handful came back. Excellent work every one!

3 Islington and Camden Goodgymmers met Trainer Simon at Lizzie's Cafe on the Green on Thursday evening to distribute flyers for Newington Green Alliance.

The NGA is a collaboration between 16 community groups who also organise secular celebrations and services from a beautiful Victorian ex-Church building. The crew have been setting up a food bank project and information help desks for the immediate community in Newington Green during lock down.

John, Katriona and Sam posted flyers up and down almost the entirety of the Mildmay estates (which is a very large area between Islington and Dalston) within an hour. Excellent work folks!

Despite Storm Ciara making another appearance at about 5-6pm last night, 11 brave runners joined us for our group run last night (top marks to first timer Luke for coming out, storm or no storm!).

One of our originally scheduled tasks (Mildmay Community Centre) made the sensible decision to reschedule our trip (gardening on a slippery, grassy slope with sharp tools would not have been a good idea), so we set off to the New Unity Church in Newington Green instead.

The New Unity Church is a really interesting organisation- a non-religious, radically inclusive community gathering, actively encouraging regular engagement with all people. The former traditional church building has just been renovated, and volunteer coordinator Chris met us outside Lizzie's Cafe, Newington Green with some leaflets to distribute. The objective is to introduce the neighbourhood to the new non-religious congregation! Find out more information here.

Three groups were formed, covering different areas of the Canonbury and Islington districts (we might return to flyer in Dalston in the near future), and each of our crews set off into the night to flyer in shops, cafes, pubs and through letter boxes. Plenty of positive conversations about Goodgym and the New Unity Church occurred throughout the task, hopefully a great starting point for new runners and new visitors!

Upon our return to Lizzie's cafe, Steve Coman led our team back to the Emirates Stadium with a nice alternative route through a series of pedestrianised streets and parks. Its always great to be shown new areas, even in a location you are familiar with. We finished off our run with a series of stretches, and talk about pizza and drinks!

Monthly Social- Trainer Simon's 101st task!

Goodgym Islington try to organise a post-run social event once a month (our last one was our Christmas get-together at Standard Tandoori!), and this one was scheduled to co-incide with Simon's 100th Goodgym Task (despite him unwittingly completing a task last weekend). The Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road serves 2-4-1 pizzas on Monday evenings, and a great array of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Keep you eyes open for the next one!

NEWS

Market Road Gardens Community Mission

Next Saturday (15th February), we will return to Market Road Gardens for a post-parkrun gardening session. A popular group run task, which looks lovely in the daylight! Come and help complete the entrance gardens to Lumpy Hill Adventure Playground. Sign up here.

February CREOS Gardens Workday

Next Sunday (16th February), Crouch End Open Space will be welcoming volunteers to come and maintain their beautiful green woodland plot. This is a classic monthly task that North London Goodgyms have contributed to for years, and a great way to meet up with folks from different areas. Always followed with hot drinks, picnic snacks and good times! Sign up here.

Big Half Afterparty

Plenty of Goodgym runners will be lining the streets for the upcoming Big Half race on Sunday 1st March. Whether you are racing or supporting your fellow runners, come and join us for some celebratory food and drinks in London Bridge post race. Sign up here.

Hackney Half Aid Station

Another half marathon related event- The Hackney Half have invited Goodgym to support an aid and cheer station on the route. We were, without a doubt, the best supporters with the loudest voices last year, so it would be great to come back again this year to get involved! A great day out!

Volunteers for the Hackney Half also receive an entry to the Oxford Half or the ASICSLondon10km events for contributing towards the smooth running of their events.

Sign up here.

See you next week for more group running!

16 GGers ran 4-6k to helped Newington Green Alliance and Caxton House on an Earth Hour Special!

This week Goodgym is partnering with WWF as part of Earth Hour, the world’s biggest switch off event. Earth Hour highlights the changes needed at a global level, but also encourages everyone to take personal action. You could, for instance, change the way you eat, embrace reusables and buy less plastic, or help to restore nature in your community. You can share your pledge using #VoiceForThePlanet throughout March to show how you are making a difference.

Caxton House Report:

8 of us headed north for 2.5km to help Caxton House Community Centre. Over the last few months we've been helping with a long term task of clearing away unwanted bushes, tree's, brambles and thorns. The plan for this area next to the carpark will be to rebuild the wall and then turn it into something prettier and more useful for the centre.

Pre-biscuit biscuits

We got spread out around the bushes - cutting back as much we could. Using saws, clippers and more we took down small tree's and heaps of ivy and brambles. After around 20 mins of chopping we started cutting it into smaller pieces and then put it in a big bin.

After sweeping up we took a group picture and run home for our second round of biscuits.

Newington Green Alliance:

A team of 8 led by Steve, Al and James headed to Newington Green to meet a man called Chris about some leaflets. He represents Newington Green Alliance, a group that are having a fantastic event at the local Primary School this weekend. It's all about bringing people together and improving our environment.

The group collected around 400 leaflets and distributed them in the neighbouring streets - to both homes and businesses. An extra great thing about these leaflets is they came in both English and Turkish - well representing the local community.

Thanks all for a great evening. Sign up for next week here (task tbc).

PB out