It was a last-minute change of plans, but that didn’t stop this dedicated GoodGym crew from getting out and spreading the word about Kingston’s newest community initiative—Park Play!

With the Albany session cancelled, we quickly regrouped and set our sights on Fairfield Recreation Ground, ready to let the locals know that Saturday mornings were about to get a whole lot more fun.

Splitting into teams, we tackled the nearby streets, armed with flyers and boundless enthusiasm. Jana, Rachel, and Raquel formed one squad, Luke, Anna, and Martel took on another route, while Dave, Emma, and Clare covered even more ground. The mission? Get those flyers through as many letterboxes as possible—without losing any fingers to enthusiastic canine guardians!

Top tip of the night? Use a wooden spoon to safely post through letterboxes. Unfortunately, we had none. So, with a mix of courage and caution, we did it the old-fashioned way.

Despite the clear skies, a sharp chill in the air had us all working at double speed. But nothing warms a GoodGym session like teamwork, good vibes, and a post-flyering trip to the pub! Drinks were raised, food was enjoyed, and plans were made for the next adventure.

Park Play is set to bring people together for fun and games every Saturday—so spread the word, and we’ll see you there!

One of GG Kingston's favourite missions this evening: helping the British Heart Foundation at their massive charity shop in Kingston town centre. The task was to create a spring and summer window display.

After a brisk run we arrived at the store and sprung into action. The large window space needed clearing and display items needed gathering. This is part of the fun @ BHF - delving into their gargantuan 'back rooms' of furniture, books, games, ornaments... a hoarders paradise. We collected a load of summer-like items and got our creative juices flowing to plan out a bright and colourful window display.

As is always the way, many hands made light work and we had soon fulfilled the brief, much to the delight of BHF's steadfast manager, Christine.

Welcome to GG Kingston's newest member, Yana. Your creative experience was invaluable tonight! Hope to see you again soon.

Tonight we were off into the unknown at the Save The World Club. As they had collected various items to stop them from going to landfill it meant that there was a lot to sort out before moving premises.

After a brisk run / cycle there our first task was pretty simple moving chairs, bookcases, tables and sideboards downstairs ready to load on to the van. Luke, Tom and Dave tackled the heavy items whilst Ana, Ana, Claire, Raquel, Amreet and Emily moved all the drawers and chairs.

Mission accomplished we headed into the dark to see what was lurking outside. There was a bonfire for paper and wood that we uncovered and a shed full of paint pots that needed moving out.

We also filled the skip with an assortment of items that couldn’t be recycled from envelopes to plastic wrapping and a weird candelabra decoration.

At the last moment Des arrived with the van so we were able to load it up on our way out so that the furniture could find new homes.

Happy Bonfire night Sabir 🔥

We had a lovely group run to Kingston Surplus Food Hub. It's a new initiative set up by Kingston Voluntary Action to help tackle food waste and poverty in the area. A significant amount of food is bought in by supermarkets and wasted so the idea is to set up a kitchen to absorb some of these ingredients and turn it into delicious food for the community. It's not up and running yet and we were asked to help to prepare the kitchen and the outside area to get it up to a certain standard - and so we did.

Claire, Emily, Jana, Rachel and Emma all tackled to the kitchen - picking sticky glue marks off the walls and scrubbing them down. There were three rooms in total but the amount of work that was needed meant that we only managed two rooms out the three. Dave, Luke and Kieran were out in the car park - moving branches and green waste. A big tidy up by all.

So much to do and the hour went quickly by. We had a great laugh doing it - we'll be back to help in a couple of months.

A nice new venue for this week's Group Run in familiar surroundings as we were back in Canbury Gardens, but this time at the Pavilion.

Bazil from Canbury Community Trust explained that the little hall can keep solvent as a venue for various good causes by hosting children’s parties at the weekends. This means that their plastic tables and chairs take a bit of a pasting.

So our session was spent with Jade, Emma, Emily, Luke, Tom, Rachel, Dave, Jana and Marcos rolling up their sleeves and scrubbing the dirt, luminous pen marks and various unthinkable substances from their surfaces. Tables quickly turned back to a bright white.

Actually a fun task and something a bit different. And a tip for future cleaning emergencies. Who knew that 'Autoglym' and 'Muc-off’ sprays could be so efficient?