GoodGym Greenwich's first Wednesday task of 2025 brought us to the brilliant venue of St Richard's Church & Community Centre in Charlton. Our tasks here have generally involved weeding the open space around the building , but plenty of tasks in the upstairs hall kept us busy this evening: from a ladder climb to sweep away the cobwebs of 2024 (long vacated by their resident spiders) to a good scrub of some chairs donated by local schools.

Whilst some of us got on with touching up some paintwork, cleaning & vacuuming, some DIY experts competed in a shelving rack building competition. By the end it was more a case of us vs the shelves but GoodGym won and the shelves were completed! A nice start to the year I think. Great to see everyone again & Happy New Year! 🙂

Next week we're at WSUP on Tuesday and Charlton Manor Primary on Wednesday. This weekend we've got Westcombe Woodlands and charlton litter picking .

Until next time!

I say we, but the bush lopping was entirely the mighty Jenny, but I get ahead of myself.

This evening started with meeting Markella for a document check (Markella, you will make a perfect GoodGym social visits member - and hope to see you at a task or our Christmas social soon!) We set off sharpish to tackle Maze Hill and a what we think was a 4km run to St Richard's - rather a long one for us but a good work out! Julian had already got to work by the time we arrived, weeding down the side of the church where we left off a few weeks ago. We split into two groups, one to continue weeding and the other to tackle a bush that needed cutting down to size. > Enter Jenny with her loppers*

A perfect task for flexing those muscles out after a day of meetings. This particular bush was tied into place and all twisted around itself but after half an hour of lopping it was a mere stump, ready to be dug out. One step closer to getting this area cleared for disabled access.

Meanwhile the other team were doggedly making their way further up the path, clearing brambles and weeds and laying down cardboard to prevent their return. We're almost at the top of the path now after a couple of sessions here - Look how far we've come since last the last group run here!!

Well done team. Next week we're at Glyndon and we've got our Christmas social on Sunday, looking forward to it!

It was cold and it was with some trepidation that 7 Good Gymers convened at Charlton house in anticipation of a cold night’s weeding at Charlton Manor primary school. It was cold so formalities were dispensed with and we set off for a gentle run through Charlton park where we got our first bonus of the night, a sneak preview of the Sparkle in the Park light trail, which had the advantage of lighting the first part of our run.

Soon we were at the task and we received our second bonus of the night. Sometimes you look forward to a fun task only to find it has been replaced with something more arduous or boring (for example, bulb planting being replaced by shifting a ton of topsoil as some of us had found at Lewisham the previous Monday) but tonight we had the reverse: the weeding outside had been replaced a perennial Good Gym favourite, painting (and inside to boot).

Task owner Joe to us into the dining area of the school to some walls that were probably last cleaned, let alone painted, when Joe was a schoolboy himself. Down to work we got with several of the teams getting to work scrubbing the walls and others applying paint to these long-neglected walls. And, as usual, the sheer power of Good Gym meant that short shrift was made of the task, with many square metres of wall (and a few Good Gym T-shirts) receiving a fresh coat of paint. Proud of our work all that remained was a quick group photo before braving the cold again for the short run back to Charlton House.

This was a great fun task at a great location and we’re already looking forward to going back and paint more of the school.

What a beautiful morning to spend time with friends doing some good! Perhaps, said Jenny, it's natures way of easing us into the winter months now the clocks have gone back ☀️

After a morning where some of the team helped out with Junior Parkrun, getting very soggy socks and having a very quick tea at my flat, we joined forces and gave a welcome to Chloe for her first good deed, and Calvin who came back for more after joining the run on Wednesday! Really great to have you guys join us 😁

We shared our favourite cakes and then played a game of under and over before setting off on our 3.5km run to Mycenae Gardens.

And this was an extra special session because it was GoodGym's power couple Sarah's 350th and Johnny's 450th AND Marta's 800th! That's a lot of goodness they've brought to London - just think how many brambles they've taken out, how much litter they've picked and how many little hands they've high fived in that time! Absolutely amazing.

At Mycenae today we split into teams, one for weeding and the other for lopping branches off trees and dragging the branches down to the much loved dead hedge to keep curious children out of the wildlife protection area. Many hands make light work and before long we were packing up and having a lovely cake provided by the Friends.

All topped off with a lovely local coffee.

Excellent job team! Thanks to Calvin for the pics. On wednesday we're joining with GoodGym Bexley.

Until next time!