There are some very nice berry trees at St Margaret's Gardens, but tiny bits of the fruit drop between the slats of the patio, getting crushed and mingling with dirt and tiny stones. It's quite messy

We worked on clearing the cracks, and the entire area, of morsels of fruit and other dirt, and sweeping the paths. It certainly looked better when we finished than when we arrived

Welcome Gabriella for her first task, while taking a summer break from studying. We hope to see you back, all year round!

On a humid Monday evening in Limehouse, 12 GoodGymers gathered at the Tower Hamlets Community Transport Hub, the base of Ocean Youth Connexions, to help continue to give this site a well-needed refresh.

Despite the heavy air and the threat of rain, spirits were high as we split into several smaller teams.

One team took on the painting of the metal shutters at the front of the hub.

Two leaf-clearing teams tackled the concrete yard and bus park. Bag after bag of leaves were swept, scooped and carried away to the collection area at the back of the yard.

(Removing leaves from these hard-surfaced areas isn’t just cosmetic — they can become slippery when wet and clog drains if left to build up, leading to puddles and flooding).

A third team took on the weeds sprouting from the corners and cracks of the yard. (This not only helps to improve the appearance of the area, it also helps to prevent further damage to the paving and brickwork).

By 8pm, with the final weeds uprooted and the yard swept clear we headed inside - just as well as the first drops of overdue rain began to fall.

We gathered by a large step ladder for a quick pic before heading out one by one onto Newell Street: some on foot, some on bike (and maybe one or two on the bus).

Next week we’re back with Janet and Eileen for the August garden clear-up at the Cranbrook Community Centre.

Until then.

It’s been 9 years since the 9th August 2016, when 21 GoodGymers set out from Ealing Broadway for Boston Manor Park for the very first GoodGym Ealing session: a park maintenance task combined with light fitness. I wasn’t there. And I never met any of those original Ealing GoodGymers, apart from two guests: Ivo, the founder, and Ed from GoodGym Central. If you look at our website, you cannot even tell anymore who led that session. But does it matter?

Since 2016, 918 GoodGymers in Ealing - that includes guests like John who visited us today - have done over 10200 good deeds! That’s quite a number, isn’t it? Many of those GoodGymers already moved on, left the borough, found other communities, or started families, but all of them contributed to making GoodGym Ealing a little bit better by at least one good deed!

And today, here we were, at Sandy Park in Hanwell, celebrating the 9 fantastic years of connecting with each other to help our community and isolated, older people within it. Some of the people celebrating today were new faces who joined this year. No matter how the group evolves, we are still the community connected by the same idea: doing good while getting fit. At the same time, for every one of us, GoodGym means something slightly different - and that’s ok - because we are all different. GoodGym is not a space where people should feel the need to fit in. GoodGym is here for us and should fit our lives and who we really are.

At last year's birthday party, I asked everyone to share what they think makes GoodGym Ealing great. The overwhelming majority said the people, the company, socialising. That’s why this year’s birthday was simple: a picnic in the park. We enjoyed the sun, the birthday cake baked by Nishy, the banana bread from Iram, who used the surplus fruit from Monday’s Food Cupboard task, the homemade pizza and cakes brought by Lena and Marta, the vegan sushi from John, pizzas and other snacks shared by Ash, Sevan, Steph Ducat, and Gaby. We enjoyed the relaxed afternoon, connecting with each other, and, most importantly, enjoyed being ourselves.

Happy birthday, GoodGym Ealing!