...Have you any litter? Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full!

A big thank you to the 9 runners for this fun rhyme that perfectly sums up our evening! On a crisp January evening, Anne, Adam, Alys, Claire, Katie, Kirsty, Jack, Nadia and Julie gathered at the Leisure Centre for a warm-up before heading over to Barnsbury. There, we collected three full bags of litter from the pavements and verges, all while enjoying great conversation and camaraderie.

A special shout-out to Jack from GoodGym Head Office, who joined us as part of his January Challenge to visit as many regional sessions as possible. Once the litter pick was complete, and after a passing motorist kindly thanked us for our efforts, Anne led us on a quick uphill run. Nadia impressively demonstrated a fantastic burst of speed, leaving the rest of us in the dust!

We returned to the starting point feeling much warmer than when we began. A huge thank you to all who participated, your efforts made a real difference to our streets. We hope to see you at the next task!

Tonight Anne, Wayne , Nadia, Claire, Kirsty, Agathe, Luan and Katie took on the first Wednesday night task of 2025 - leafleting around the local area and spreading the word about Goodgym and "Yoga with Jim".

Anne led the group and Wayne made sure no one was left behind. Despite the freezing cold weather and sleet, the group ran over 5km around Woking. We hope that people feel encouraged to join GoodGym.

Will you help either:

• on Saturday when we will take part in Brooklands parkrun then run to St John's The Baptist to help removing leaves from low lying gutters and gullies;

• on Sunday to support Woking junior parkrun and join some of us cheering the young runners along their loop of 2 kms;

• or next Wednesday when we will pick up litter along some of Woking streets?

Today we had a fairly large group of GoodGymers as we joined together for tree planting at Knaphill lower school. 📚✏️

We had a few things to celebrate today, including Wayne birthday 🎈earlier in the week, along with his 200th GoodGym task 🎉, and we also said hello 👋🏼 to a newcomer Cath who is Nadia auntie. Great work Wayne on your many good deeds, long may they continue. Well done from all of us! 👏🏼

Half the gang, Wayne, Adam and Claire arrived at the start time, where Adam bumped into a work colleague! They got stuck straight in to dig up the turf where the trees were being planted. Then, more GoodGymers joined like Lauren, Cath Anne and Nadia, for the actual planting, having been welcomed warmly by the school staff who had put on drinks and biscuits to fuel everybody! ☕️

After some catching up and intros, we all got on with the task, which was surprisingly technical. Everybody had a turn at doing the various steps, like securing posts, breaking up the soil, hammering in tacks 🔨, and laying mulch in a doughnut 🍩. It was great to see everybody working around each other to complete each tree. We were in the great hands of the Surrey countryside team though who guided us through all the steps to ensure the trees root properly and grow healthily. 🌳

The school have given their new orchard a lovely name, ‘Knapples’, and we are proud to have played a small part in this great initiative. Hopefully in a few seasons the fruit will be plentiful for the children to enjoy and learn about the wonders of organic food. 🍎🍑🍐🍏

After completing 20 tree plantings, most of the team had a photo by the Knapples sign, by the Headteacher, and went on their merry way!

Great task, happy times, celebrating nature 🌳

All Aboard Club

This morning we were back in Brookwood at the All Aboard Club helping set up a big train track for kids to enjoy. 😀

We welcomed Charlotte who is a Member of Goodgym Richmond. Charlotte has met some of our Woking GG members at the Martian Race a few years ago. Charlotte has recently moved to the area so hopefully we will be seeing more of her 😀 It was also great to see Claire back and what a great task to come back to. Wayne was pretty tired after completing a 10k run this morning but along with Richard (Mr All Aboard) and the group got stuck in. We all took up positions in different areas of the hall and started to lay the tracks. We were also joined by other volunteers doing their DofE which was fantastic.

In no time we had between us all made a very complex looking track with many twists and turns 🚂 which i am sure the kids will love.

Another great morning. Hope to see you all on Wednesday when we will be doing a leaflet drop for Sam Beare Hospice...😀