19 Hackney GoodGymers tan 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shovel, barrow and spread a tonne of freshly mashed mulch on the paths of the park.

Seems like the weather is changing! With a firmly Autumn feel in the air we were of to a GoodGym favourite task, Abney Park Cemetery!! Part of the Magnificent 7 cemeteries of London we had a treat with our first dark task in the Cemetery for a while to raise the heart rate a little!!

Dashing 3k to Abney lead expertly by newly crowned Northampton Half Marathon Champ Rich!! We made good time and arrived ready for action!!

Barrowing up and grabbing the shovels we made our way down towards the Chapel. The Open Air theatre has requested some mulch laid to allow them to keep the performances going when the weather gets wet! Like magic a tree was ready to be mulched in the morning and a huge pile of mulch waiting for us in the evening!!

Working in a one way system we shovelled the barrows full ran them to the top of the path tipped and raked even then under the spot light gaze zipped back down the other side!

An excellent rhythm meant a mountain was turned into a mole hill in 40 energetic minutes!!

With the path laid and tools put away we dashed back to base making drop offs as we went!

Hope you all enjoyed a top session! Hope to see you next week for fingers crossed a new task!

Smooth Running

Joel

Seven GoodGymers helped at a fundraising event for a local hospice in Hackney.

St Joseph's Hospice regularly holds an enormous jumble sale to raise money for its work providing free support for people affected by serious illnesses and their families and friends.

And I mean enourmous jumble sale. Bargain hunters queue for hours before opening time and the hospice make over £10,000 from each jumble sale. That's a lot of bric-a-brac!

The seven GoodGymers arrived just as the jumble sale was ending, although a few canny shoppers arrived a little early to also hunt out some bargains before the task began!

It might sound odd to arrive just as the sale is finishing up, but that's when the heaving lifting starts and GoodGym get stuck in!

With so many generous donations for the sales, not everything gets sold each time, and it all needs packing away and storing for the next one.

There is a lot to shift and it used to mean the St Joseph's team were still clearing up late into the evening but with GoodGym's support we make this a thing of the past.

The seven GoodGymers lent a hand by helping carry boxes of CDs, DVDs, and vinyl; stacking up huge racks of books onto trolleys; and wheeling racks of clothes down to the basement so it can be safely stored away til the next sale. Everything had to be crammed into the one lift like a special GoodGym edition of Jumble sale Tetris.

After an hour and a half of lifting and shifting, the team had cleared three rooms of jumble, and the St Joseph's staff who had been hard at work all day were free to leave.

That just left time for the regular GoodGym jumble team photo! Everyone grabbed their favourite item of bric-a-brac from the stores and posed for a photo!

Shout out to Caroline who was doing her first GoodGym mission, and to Elena for her first ever good deed! We hope to see you back at tasks in Hackney soon!