19 GoodGymers ran 5km and helped Origin Housing with various tasks in a local park!

Thank you very much for coming along on our last January group run, it's been a wonderful start to the year! Welcome along to Mary whose first group run and good deed it was last night! Lovely to have you along :)

In the news this week:

1. February Monthly Drinks is next Thursday (8th February) - we'll be at The Square Pig pub in Holborn - puns, beers and Pritesh - woop!
2. Well done to all those that took part in the Southern Cross Country Championships on the weekend, some of Islington's finest were out there representing - James, Steve & Graham!
3. Next Monday (5th Feb) and the first Monday on each month we will be heading to the pub for food and beers. Come along!

On to last night - after a quick warm up we headed to Highbury Fields to get some extra distance in before heading to the task, this included Ernie's short cut through the alley back to the Emirates. Upon our arrival at the task we'd completed over 3km of running - nice!

Origin Housing was the charity we were helping this week; they are brilliant - providing social housing, care services and support for various groups of vulnerable people in our communities. Upon arrival Kamisha was there to meet us, explain the job and give us tools. We were continuing our fabulous work from last week, where we collected up 20 bags of leaves & weeds.

Task Part 2!

This park space on Parkside Crescent is part of the Origin Housing community in Islington but hasn't been looked after or used for over 6 months.

We split into teams and conquered the following:

1. Ernie & Steve, armed with shears and a bag, cut back the bushes and trees blocking the pathways.
2. Alex & Mary raked up leaves, weeds and rubbish along the paths.
3. Bed Team - 5 people weeded 5 flower beds and turned over the soil for new planting! Plus they found potatoes!
4. Clearing Team - 5 people cleared and cut back an area of weeds, bushes and thorns.
5. Iain & Ben trimmed back trees, bagged up weeds and found tons of rubbish - including table legs and a dartboard!

After 30 minutes we'd bagged up 10 bags from our various tasks and made the garden look a lot tidier for the residents. Once we'd completed our 1km run back we did 3x stairway sprints to finish off.

Sign up for next week here, task details coming soon.

PB out.

14 GoodGymers ran 5km and helped Origin Housing clear a park!

Thank you for coming along guys, on a surprisingly warm January evening we were all a little over dressed for the evenings activities. Welcome to Iain (not Owen) whose first time it was tonight - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. We have a new taskforce in Islington - Steve Lee, Alix Guerber, James Gilbert and Steve Coman (who is continuing for a second term). These guys help me out and keep GG Islington growing.
2. We've decided that on the first Monday of the each month we'll be heading to the pub - so on 5th February we'll head to the pub after the group run - come along!

After an active warm up with dynamic stretches we headed into the night to do some good for our local community. The task this week, helping Origin House, was TOO close so we decided to head to Highbury Fields to do a lap before heading along Tollington Road to an area of houses tucked away between Finsbury Park and the railway tracks.

New gloves!

Upon arriving we met Kamisha from Origin Housing. She explained that this amazing charity provides social housing, support and services for various communities across Islington and London. Our task tonight was to help clear out an unused park so the local residents under Origin Housing can use it in the future.

Armed with freshly new gloves and bags we got into pairs and spread across the park collecting up debris, leaves and weeds. Over 30 minutes we got great work done, with Julia tackling some thorny bushes, James & Steve re-creating a pathway and us overall packing up 15 bags of leaves and weeds! Nice one!

Custard Creams PLEASE!

Once we'd handed out the ever important custard creams we took a group picture. Saying our goodbyes to Kamisha we headed back to the Emirates stadium for a stairs workout and fartlek (using the letters as our markers for pace).

We'll be back to helping Origin Housing next week at this project - armed with tools we'll cut things back, empty the flower beds and turn over the soil. Sign up here

PB out.