A welcome return to Plaistow Primary School for this evening’s session in the sunshine, and an equally warm welcome to Nelson on his first ever GoodGym mission.

Hilary led the group from the Aquatic Centre through the streets of West Ham and upon our arrival at the school gates, we were guided through a classroom into an outdoor area where in one corner were all the pieces (we hoped) that would be needed to help build a wooden Wendy House that the children could then play in. Our first task was to try and find some instructions on how to construct the house, which proved more challenging than it should have as they were tucked away in a plastic bag wrapped inside some wooden strips wrapped inside some hard to open packing film, along with bags and bags of different sized screws.

Rosa took on the job of project manager whilst the rest of us gathered all the pieces to try and make sense of what we had and what needed to be done. The first task was to identity all the different sized screws, which was best done by pouring them all out onto the floor and painstakingly sorting by hand. In parallel Nick and Graham started to lay out the first pieces of the puzzle, whilst Nelson got to work unwrapping all the remaining parts. Guided professionally by Rosa, step 1 was to insert a window into the frame followed by fitting the front door taking note of the need to have all the spacers in the right place…judicious use of a handy battery operated screwdriver and we felt we were finally making progress, and quickly moved to step 2 which was attaching four joists to the floor panel - which required a bit more team co-ordination as the screws needed to be fitted from the top surface and, in spite of being at school, we didn’t have a ruler or tape measure to hand… - but somehow we got them all correctly attached…and then we ran out of time as the school needed to be shut for the evening, so we tidied up as best we could and closed the door behind us.

So in the end we didn’t build a house this evening, but we at least got some foundations in place - this particular mission could require a few return visits to get completed!

Graham and Brad took on the welcoming duties tonight at the Aquatics Center as Renata joined us for her first Goodgym group run.

Kevin and I did a run and DLR journey to Cody Dock

Leaflets had been left in a lock box for us and a new area for delivery tonight.

A pleasant surprise was seeing Simon (the Dad of Cody Dock) he let us have a look around the new visitor center and bar area...also got to see where the new cafe will be and the heritage center.

So many changes in the nearly nine years we have been helping at this wonderful hidden gem in Newham.

Pop along and see for you self this Saturday as they host their Summer Open Day

Last night saw the return of the GoodGym Newham crew to Care4Calais’s East London storage facility, with a fresh batch of instructions and some fresh faces too!

Our mission this time was to tackle the racks of winter coats, transferring them into some large bags, presumably ready for longer-term storage, and also to sort through some newly donated clothing by both size and type. Among the usual suspects of jeans, jumpers and jackets, we uncovered some absolutely stunning larger-sized dresses – so elegant, in fact, that a new pile reserved for ceremonial dresswear had to be created. A wonderful reminder of the generosity of these donations.

It was especially great to welcome Nadirah, who joined her first Newham task – a warm welcome to you! And a face familiar to some in the form of Camden Town John, who made the trip over for the first time in a while. Always lovely to see runners crossing borough borders for a good cause.

Well done to everyone for spending your Tuesday evening to pitch in with such good spirits.

Next week, we’re switching gears with a flyering session for Cody Dock’s Summer Open Day. Sunshine (hopefully), community vibes, and a chance to get our steps in while spreading the word – hope to see you there!