A mild June evening saw 13 GoodGymers gather at Tower Hamlets Community Transport in Limehouse.

It’s coming up to a year since we first visited Kamal here, the new home of Ocean Youth Connexions admin and training operations.

Since then we’ve weeded the wall multiple times, cleared soil, raked zillions of leaves, picked litter, emptied barrows full of greenery and done our fair share of painting.

A popular task (due to the location, well organised activity, great before and after pics and the organisations we’re supporting), this Monday night activity is always well attended, so we were able to form multiple teams again tonight to:

• Pull large areas of weeds away from walls and fences.

• Clear small weeds away from the areas of the yard.

• Dispose of the greenery in the outside park area.

• Pick litter.

• Paint gold drainpipes!

It was a fab team effort, with GoodGymers joining forces to rake piles, blitz troublesome weedy areas and climb ladders to reach high painting spots.

The time as usual flew by, and it seemed like we'd only just started before the group were gathering for the final photo and congratulating Lucinda on her 50th good deed! John presented Lucinda with her very own black t-shirt before they both posed for the obligatory pic. Congratulations, Lucinda - you're such a big part of Tower Hamlets GoodGym!

Thanks to John and Chris for pics and project management tonight.

Join the team for a fun get together in Bethnal Green this Friday at Mother Kelly's, while next week, we're back to Meath Gardens for our first visit of 2025!

Until then...

A good-sized group of GoodGymers braved the prospect of a (second) downpour last night to head to our task in Limehouse.

This was our first time with lovely lighter evenings at the home of Ocean Youth Connexions and Tower Hamlets Community Transport in Limehouse.

Arriving one by one, GoodGymers caught up with the latest news as task owner Kamal prepared equipment and allocated members to tasks.

We were divided into various teams to tackle tonight’s list of jobs, which included:

• Tidying and pruning at the front of the building

• Relocating ballast and cement bags against the church wall (the heavy lifting task)

• Litter-picking around the yard; removing weeds from along the walls.

• Removing ivy from behind the buses.

It was an industrious time, with one task finishing and another starting continuously over the hour.

This has been a rewarding project to be a part of over the last nine months or so. With Ocean Youth Connexions needing to find a new home last summer and Tower Hamlets Community Transport welcoming a revival of their premises, the transformation of the yard, meetings rooms and downstairs workroom seems to have taken shape in no time.

After clearing the yard and making those last couple of trips to the bins, we posed for the all-important final pic.

Big shout-outs to Lucinda for another perfect pun and to Najwa who joined for her first GoodGym session!

Have a great week everyone – look forward to seeing you next week at Hollybush Gardens.

On another chilly Monday evening, ten dedicated GoodGymers gathered at the Tower Hamlets Community Transport base to support local youth organisation, Ocean Youth Connexions.

The group took on several important tasks this evening, including clearing the fence area, relocating soil, and painting two large containers as well as a balcony railing.

Our activity with Ocean Youth at the base over the last eight months have helped to enhance the premises by improving its outdoor area, thereby assisting the charities in maintaining a safe and functional environment for their administrative and training activities.

Clearing the fence area involved removing debris, ensuring the space became tidy and accessible, while relocating the soil required the team to shift large amounts of earth to designated areas.

Three teams headed to the painting tasks: tackling the two large containers required physical effort and plenty of precision. The GoodGymers, however, managed to ensure even coverage, while working in tight spaces at different heights. Painting the balcony railing also required a steady hand and careful technique to cover intricate metalwork…

It was after 8 when we decided to call it a night, Gathering brushes, overalls, paint trays and tools, we headed back into the building, to gather for our final picture.

Another great evening down in Limehouse.

A big well done to the whole team for getting so much done tonight.

Next week, it's back to Rocky Park!

Until then.

It was a smaller but thoroughly committed team tonight who arrived at Newell Street to see Kamal at the Tower Hamlets Community Transport Hub, the new base for Ocean Youth Connexions.

Why were we here?

Ocean Youth Connexions (OYC) is a youth and community organisation established in September 2000 by local volunteers from the Ocean Estate.

OYC offers a wide range of activities, including youth club sessions, half-term and summer provision, cycling proficiency training and employment support.

Having relocated last year to the Tower Hamlets Community Transport base, Ocean Youth Connexions are playing a key role in tidying up the back yard of the space, ready for it to be transformed into a hive of activity, including hosting workshops and housing minibuses!

Community transport is an essential part of a thriving local area, making sure that everyone can get where they need to go, regardless of age, ability, or income.

It also allows community organisations and charities to offer more opportunities, making sure that cost and lack of transport don’t become barriers to taking part.

Our task tonight

Tonight we were preparing one of the containers for another big paint job, and continuing to clear the back of the yard for the new fence.

Despite being short of a few lights this evening, the GoodGymers managed well, climbing ladders, navigating wheelbarrow punctures and shifting a lot of soil.

With many trips around to the debris area, as always, this was quite the workout. Up and down ladders, emptying loads, plenty of crouching and squatting. Quite the Monday night upper body workout.

The beautiful sound of St Anne’s chiming 8 let us know time was nearly up.

With one final barrow-wheel and a run-in with a blocked sink, we proceeded to finish up for the evening.

Posing for our final pic with Kamal, we said our cheerios around said sink, rooting for Lucinda and Kamal as they gave the stubborn blockage one final push.

Heading out into another chilly Monday night, we concluded that was another fun night with Ocean Youth Connexions and we look forward to returning in a couple of weeks.

Five intrepid GoodGym folk lit their head torches and donned gardening gloves in this satisfying Thursday-night task at the new Ocean Youth Connexions hub.

Our mission? To clear 7 mounds of earth (which Saturday’s team had so expertly created) and cart everything round the corner ready to be composted.

We shovelled, we lifted and we hauled at least 16 large woven refuse sacks (in a past-its-prime wheelbarrow) which equates to over 750kg of earth. 🧑‍🌾

That’s 150kg per person 💪

⭐️ Brilliant team effort! We continued working together to help fix Ilana’s jacket problem. Most importantly, we finished the job! Super effort, Everyone! Well done!!! ⭐️

Seven GoodGym enthusiasts met with Kamal at the Tower Hamlets Community Transport hub to support Ocean Youth Connexions prepare for a busy season ahead.

Danya, Emma, Hedley, Lobo and Oliver travelled round the corner from Felix Project and joined Ilana and Megan with sweeping, raking and shovelling earth into manageable mounds… ready to be hefted round the corner to a large communal compost heap.

⭐️We heaped, we heaved, we laughed and got a lot done. Well done, Everyone!⭐️

We’ll be helping Kamal at the hub again on Thursday 30 January.