A team of GoodGym Richmond’s stupendous seven made their way across to Power Station youth club in Mortlake to do some good.

We weren’t quite sure what we were going to get up to, but whatever it was, we’d apple-y get on with it… Danielle the youth leader showed us tables laden with fresh produce. Curly kale, marvellous marrows and an abundance of apples. The challenge, if we should accept it was to prepare the crates of fruit to freeze, ready for future apple crumbles and pies.

We core-dially accepted, and chopped to it, prepping ourselves with the knives and chopping boards. Some of us solo and some in pears, we cut the fruit into chunks and sprinkled over cinnamon before bagging it up for freezing. Amazingly, despite trusting us with sharp objects there were no injuries (even with some flying footballs courtesy of Sam in the room)!

Forty or so minutes later, there were multiple plump bags of sweetly cinnamoned apples ready for the freezer. A quick clean up, and a peel good job done. There was even time to enjoy the, ahem, versatility of the humble courgette in its overgrown form for a group photo.

As we left the youth club, we were greeted by darker skies and a spitting of rain from overhead. Time to fruit off back home until next week!

A tropical evening for a longer 8km round trip to AFC Powerstation Youth Zone in Mortlake made for a hot start to the task. Arriving at the club, we were first shown the completed gym refurb that we helped start on our last visit - it looked amazing!

Task owner Danielle asked us to help with two tasks: getting out the staging and checking it was all in good order for band nights, and chopping up the pineapple and watermelon that had been received from City Harvest so that it could be frozen for smoothies later in the week.

The stage team were so excited by their efforts that fruit chopping was halted for a great team photo, latex gloves and all! 🤣

Stage complete, fruit bagged up and everyone re-watered and ready to run we said our goodbyes and headed off into the evening sun. ☀️

In case you didn’t know, this week is national volunteers week, where those who give up their time for free to help others are celebrated. Although it might have been a regular Monday group run here in Richmond, we were sure to celebrate and appreciate the work we do here at GoodGym!

After a warm-up which was true to its name, we made our way down to Mortlake to meet Danielle at the Power Station Youth Centre. There are a handful of youth clubs run by Achieving for Children in the Richmond borough, and over the years GoodGym Richmond have supported these brilliant places. The team there are so grateful and appreciative of the help we have given them, and tonight was no exception.

Danielle was currently in the process of updating the gym in the youth centre. She had cleared out the equipment and the next step was to lay down new flooring. Before this could happen, the old worn foam underlay needed removing. This was where we came in…

If it wasn’t a sticky and sweaty enough day already, there was a full body work out to be had in scraping and peeling and pulling the foam flooring off. A task much harder than it looked.

Whilst most of the gang were getting their work out in the gym, a few were helping Danielle with a different exercise - building new equipment racks. A local band were playing in one of the music rooms upstairs, and were soundtracked by Stevie Wonder on the sax, but downstairs was a different kind of groove. Heavy metal, coordination and a steady eye were needed to make sure the new shelves were straight and stable (and would fit in the gym room!).

An hour later (and literal blood, sweat and tears), our time was up and we had all definitely had a real work out. Danielle thanked us as we left the youth centre, and we mustered up any strength left for a bit more cardio - the run back!

Squat a great evening - we certainly lived up to our name tonight putting the good and the gym into GoodGym. Weight to go!

A team of 6 ran a very wet 3.5km from the Tap Tavern to the Powerstation meeting an additional two team members at the task to help clear the clutter that's been building over the past year or two during the pandemic. The Powerstation looked great, but they had a big job on their hands. We cleared alot of waste, set up their new football goals and had alot of fun in the process whilst making a decent dent in the task. Once we were done we ran the 3.5km back and headed home to dry off.