On Tuesday evening, under the dim glow of streetlights, Steph, Sevan and Kash set off from Ealing Broadway, equipped with litterpickers and a good dose of energy. The runners met Claire and Bryon at St Mellitus Church in Hanwell to assemble a team for another litterpick adventure. Undeterred by the darkness, the group brought light to the community by tackling the litter problem at the Ealing Foodbank head-on!

Despite hoping that the litter situation had improved since their last visit five weeks ago, they were surprised to find just as much rubbish, if not more, given the volume of bulkier items scattered around. In addition to the usual wrappers and bottles, the gang unearthed some unique discoveries: a clothes dryer in surprisingly good condition and a few abandoned bras! Among the typical finds were countless plastic gloves scattered around the area from the nearby petrol station. That left the team, especially drivers, scratching their heads, wondering who needs to use those gloves.

In total, the crew collected two full waste bags of litter, as well as a few “unbaggable” items. After a successful session and a good workout, the GoodGymers treated themselves to some well-deserved pizza at The Green W7. A great end to a productive evening!

Ijo is becoming a regular in the serving/kitchen on Fridays. Steph Ducat went to his usual place....the kitchen : first session at ESK and had an important task today: guard and maintain order at the entry to the Crypt of the church. Not as busy as usual but loads of lovely food prepared and served to the guests. Homemade Courgette soup, followed by freshly made mash with either a chicken or vegetarian casserole. The guests with full stomachs could then roll over 🤣🤣 not to sleep of course. They got Swiss roll cake with custard. Had loads left for the guests to takeaway

When you join GoodGym, you get all sorts of tasks you may sign up for - from the laid-back (unless you are a timekeeper!) sessions like this morning's volunteering at Gunnersbury parkrun to a woodchipping workout which we did afterwards.

In the Eastern part of Gunnersbury Park laid a woodchip pile of formidable dimensions. Next to it ran a virgin path, untouched by woodchip, which could have used a little bit of a cover before the wet winter months. But who would do the job? Only a gang powered by coffee and chocolate cake consumed courtesy of Michelle, who gave us the occasion to celebrate - her 700th good deed!

With a bit less than 90 minutes and as much energy as six GoodGymers could expend, we had not anticipated clearing the woodchip pile by the end of the task. But we pressed on! Bryon, Chris, Sevan and Steph Ducat took turns shovelling the woodchip and wheelbarrowing it along the path. Kash, who was scooping the woodchip from the top of the pile, proclaimed herself the Queen of the Hill, and, when confronted with a suggestion that she'd been skipping the barrow driving rounds, she gave the folk on the ground a challenge: "Take me down then! Take the pile down!". The guys wasted no time, and soon Kash decided to join them, seeing the ground being taken from underneath her.

Michelle was tirelessly spreading all the woodchip the rest of the team was bringing her to cover the surface of the path. The longer the task went on, the longer the barrow trips became, with the growing distance between the pile and Michelle. We must admit, today's session was pretty intense, especially since we were running, not walking, with the wheelbarrows.

Michelle and Chris were wondering whether this interval training was the best prep before their Vitality 10k run the next day. Steph, on the other hand, had no doubt he wouldn't struggle with his Shine Walk marathon overnight. Regardless of how challenging we made that task to be ourselves, it was extremely rewarding.

"It is the ultimate GoodGym workout!" - Chris

With that attitude, the combined power of GoodGym Hounslow and Ealing accomplished what they had deemed impossible: taking the whole woodchip pile down! It was a wonderful example of teamwork with an impact. The park visitors (with the exception of the dogs!) will surely enjoy the less muddy paths in the winter!