Today was GoodGym Ealing's second visit to Care 4 Calais and we were again preparing clothing packages for refugees in the Heathrow area. It was Claire and Mohamed's first visit, so after a quick intro to the charity, the group were shown the storage system and the requested clothes for upcoming beneficiaries.

Each request was different with many having specific needs, so additions to the standard clothing packs had to be sourced and shortages in certain sizes had to be worked around. One person wanted size 15 shoes and another had "piano" on their list. Sevan had to double check that it was an actual piano being requested and not a code word for something else.

The task owner, Tamzin, knew more about the recipients, so stepped in when needed to add alternative clothes depending on need or to share that older people would want extra warm layers to help them through the winter. There were fewer parcels to prepare for women and children, so the GoodGymers didn't get to search through the bag of cute, children's hats too often. That was a treat saved for the group photo.

The team quickly burned through the pre-prepared clothing packs and had to create some more to keep up with demand. With all of the bags completed, the last job was to organise them by destination to make the task of the next set of volunteers easier when it comes to delivering them.

GoodGym Ealing's traditional Xmas get together was in a new location for 2024, The Grove, where we had a cosy corner set aside for us. We also had crackers, of course, where we found jokes, paper hats and lots of wooden spoons. Were the spoons a booby prize or useful cutlery? Well, opinions varied.

After a very energetic task at St Mary's church decorating their Xmas tree and preparing the first floor for their bumper Christmas congregation, it was time to treat ourselves to some food and drink. It was the most recent of many good deeds that GoodGym Ealing have completed in 2024, so we felt like we'd all earned it while we reflected on 2024. There was also the traditional GoodGym quiz to get people to recall useful/useless facts from the past year, which was a bit more challenging than usual this time.

Steph mysteriously vanished when Santa appeared. Maybe he suffers from clausophobia? In any case, Santa was kind enough to run our Secret Santa gift exchange to give wonderful £5-or-under gifts like a dog quiz, a box of Lindor chocolates or a mo-tea-vational mug.

We all had a great evening and went home full of festive cheer or festive beer, or both.

A church clean-up task at St Mary's is to GoodGymers what Home Alone or Die Hard are to families watching TV - a Christmas classic! Only a brief run away from Ealing Broadway, St Mary's awaited our sweeping and decorating skills. Although we knew that GoodGym's good friend, Vicar Steve, wouldn't be at the church anymore with his indispensible words of encouragement, the new task owner, Brian, gave us an equally magical treatment.

Tonight's church clean-up and Christmas tree decoration session had a fantastic turnout of 13 GoodGymers, including three (yes, that's right!) new joiners. Makkiya, Raphael and Sudha brought us a lot of enthusiasm and good energy, and we are hoping to see them again soon at another task.

The team split into the dust busters who worked upstairs and the Christmas tree beauty specialists at the altar. If decorating the tree somehow didn't provide enough merriness for everyone, then Claire's Jingle Bells played on the piano did!

Having received praise from Brian on their work, the team headed to the Grove for more festivities to come: the Christmas crackers, buffet, quiz and Secret Santa!

Next Tuesday, we are staying close to Ealing Broadway and helping the ranger transport a pile of woodchip outside Walpole Park into the walled garden - sign up now!

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!

The fifth chapter of GoodGym x Ealing Repair Cafe collab brought three new apprentices of upcycling to Acton: Roberta, Nishy and a guest from Tower Hamlets: Sian. While Sevan, Steph and Kash - not newbies to the sewing workshops - felt comfortable with their speedy 4.5km run from Ealing Broadway, it was Claire who was the most comfortable with the sewing machine. Like a boss - that's how Claire looked in front of the apparatus which others approached with caution, suspicious about whether it can sew their fingers to the fabric. Spoiler alert: no one left the workshop with holes in their fingers.

Mary from Ealing Repair Cafe gave us a choice of two tasks:

1) make draught excluders from old jeans to give them out to residents at the Reduce & Recycle Hub 2) make drawstring bags from old, colourful running t-shirts for the South Ealing Community Food Cupboard)

It was a night full of discoveries!

• Roberta and Sian joined the growing circle of people who know what the draught excluders are. They achieved enlightenment by experiencing the draught excluderness first-hand: by sewing jeans and stuffing them with socks.
• Sevan learned that there is actually a signal in the Donut Factory (Mary's secret facility where she runs the workshops with us).
• We all discovered that the material of Ealing Eagles t-shirts can make running easier, but not necessarily sewing.
• Steph looks stunning in cropped Ealing Eagles tank tops (see the photos).
• Roberta looks stunning even with three legs (see the photos).

The enjoyable evening session with Mary and Lone resulted in six finished drawstring bags for the Food Cupboard and two draught excluders (that's a pair of jeans legs!) for the Reduce & Recycle Hub at Acton Market.

We will team up once more with Ealing Repair Cafe this year before December, so watch this space for more workshops! Next week we are back in Acton to distribute leaflets for next month's Reduce & Recycle Hub - sign up to join us!