A star-studded cast to celebrate GoodGym Greenwich's 10th Birthday!

An unseasonably mild Sunday morning greeted 18 goodgymers as we made our way to Brooklands school in Kidbrooke. Whilst the school is a little tucked away, the huge grounds provide plenty of outdoor space for the children and their families.

We joined a group of existing volunteers from the school, and were soon wheelbarrowing soil to the growing beds as well as clearing weeds. One of our target areas was an enclosure containing a pond; again involving clearing weeds, bracken and planks to free up the pond area for its proper use. Discovering a few baby dragons* added to the magic of the event, along with a confused toad and lots of ladybirds.

(* thankfully these turned out to be the non-fire breathing variety, which are Newts to us (!) They were carefully looked after by a member of the team to be returned to a safe habitat).

A busy hour soon runs out, so a final group photo provided the icing on the rake for GGG's birthday mission. Special welcome to Iyabo for your first good deed with us - and lovely that you could join us for our lunch to celebrate our birthday!

Coming up...

On Wednesday we're continuing our painting of the hall at Charlton Manor Primary School.

On Sunday we've got our (optional) group run and litter pick on Woolwich Common.

And the following Wednesday we're helping at St Richard's.

Thanks all & see you at the next task! ⭐

It's week two of the 2026 January Challenge, and this week's Wednesday group run took 12 GoodGymers to the Prince Phillip Maritime Collection Centre in Kidbrooke. This is one of our regular missions, often involving moving pallets, ceiling panels & boats, but tonight's task was an adventure in winter gardening.

We got to the task ready for anything after a run from Charlton House, where we were briefed on our tasks, including some weeding of the raised beds, a spot of litterpicking, and turning of the compost heap - you could say we were met with a worm welcome...! The compost project involved removing the top layer of vegetation, spreading the soil beneath on the plant beds, and replacing that plant matter back - a quick biogeography lesson in practice for us, and a great growing environment for the fresh plants come spring!

As usual, time slipped through our gardening gloved fingers, so it was time for a group photo and back to our roots. Great work all & see you soon 😊

Ps. check out our insta video to see an overview of the session!

Coming up...

As well as our regular Parkruns volunteering, on Saturday we have leafleting for the White Swan and Sunday is our 10th birthday celebration when we'll be renovating the pond at Brooklands and heading to Sapori's for pizza afterwards!

Next wednesday we're painting at Charlton Manor Primary School.!

That's the thing with ivy- it creeps up on you 🫣 And before you know it, you need GoodGym to come and see it, say it, sort it.

For our first group run of 2025 we discussed our new years ressies before running the 1.3km to the church, Jackie meeting us there having looked like she was breaking into the church a bit further up the road😁 Great to have you back with us Jackie and extra kudos for coming and doing a good deed so that all those miles you're clocking for Ironman count for the Jan Challenge! Amazing.

We enjoyed a productive half hour at the Village Church pulling up and lopping down as much ivy as we could get into the bin bags. Ashton was definitely man of the hour, providing milk chocolate hobnobs (hands down the best biscuit ever invented.)

Next Wednesday we're back at Prince Philip Collections Centre

This weekend we've got the usual parkruns, Conservation at Oxleas, Maintenance at Westcombe Woodlands and Clean up Charlton .

Lots to keep us busy over January!

Until next time,

Rachel

10 Walls Painted 9 Hedges pruned 8 (hundred) flyers posted 7 Gardens weeded 6 Litterpicks 5 ParkRuns Run! 4 Marshalls Cheering 3 Sheds sorted 2 Ceilings gilded and 1 run report to write now...

OK, so tonight's task did not involve all of the above. However, 10 goodgym-ers did meet for a very productive painting task this evening!

A meet up at Charlton House for a quick warm up led to a lovely run through some Charlton streets featuring several impressive festive lights displays. We ended at Charlton Manor Primary School where caretaker Michael briefed us on our task, which involved painting the walls & cupboards in the Key Stage One assembly hall, used by both the school and various community groups such as the Rainbows.

Brushes, rollers and containers at the ready, teamwork was key as we cut in, rollered & reached for the the top spots with the finest Magnolia emulsion. Time flew by but we covered lots of space, which now needs to dry for the next coat.

Big welcome back to Roshan for his second task with us in a week!

Great work all and Roller On the weekend for our GGG Social...!

On Saturday we've got Clean up Charlton and coffee. Next wednesday is TBC - watch this space!

Until next time 😁

Despite the December chill, Julian led a determined crew of runners to yesterday’s GoodGym Greenwich task. Khai, Ceci and Kerry joined him on the run, while the rest of the team met us at the Brooklands School. We were especially pleased to welcome back Sevan, making a triumphant return after a work Christmas do, and Aman, who left Bristol early just to make it in time. That’s the kind of commitment that keeps GoodGym glowing - heroes, all of you!

Our mission for the evening was to paint the staff room and finish cleaning the cupboards. And true to the evening’s punny title (No Whisk, No Reward) we kicked things off by seeing what on earth we could use to stir the paint... it actually wasn't a whisk but we couldn't resist Khai's excellent pun anyway. With slightly fewer rollers and brushes than ideal (and absolutely no spare whisks), we embraced classic GoodGym ingenuity and made do with what we had. Before long, the first coat was on the walls and the cupboards were sparkling.

We didn’t quite manage to get around the whole room this time, but fear not, we’ll be back in January to finish the job!

Looking ahead, there’s plenty more GoodGym goodness on the horizon: 👉 This Saturday: Talk and Tidy and Westcombe Woodlands 👉 Next Wednesday: get ready to flex those painting muscles again for an indoor task at Arthur’s school!

Brilliant work everyone🛠️🎨💪🏽❤️

Until next time,

Rachel