Sun 25th May at 2:00pm
The second appearance GoodGym Ealing made at Featherstone High School Learnscape was all about woodchipping a path running through the length of the garden, connecting its two gates. Volunteers Alex, Gurpal, Andrew and Ki were very eager to get the task going as five heavy bags of woodchip were awaiting to be spread. The only missing part was more hands!
Luckily, GoodGym came with a strong team again:
We had three wheelbarrows for ten people to complete the woodchipping task. How many did we use? None! Dragging and tipping bags proved to be more effective, both as a full-body workout and as a way of distributing woodchip. But that's not all! Between moving bags and spreading the chips, we had to lay a membrane on the entire length of the path and pin it to hard, dry soil. We had one mallet for the pins, so we had to get creative!
Having 90 minutes for the task, we knew we had to get focussed. Did we? Driven by our desire for a challenge, we allowed ourselves to get distracted by a side mini landscaping project. We fulfilled Alex's and Jags' vision of an outdoor classroom, having a mound of soil, spare woodchip, heavy logs and donated rubber mats as materials. See the outcome in the photos!
Although we have not started woodchipping until about 20 minutes before the end of the task - believe it or not - we've made it: the new path was laid!
"Thank you so much for all your time, advice and work - I can't believe how much we achieved in the time!" - Alex, the task owner.
With another satisfying session under the belt that Sunday, we split: running, walking or cycling, back home or for yet another task in the day.
Sun 25th May at 7:34pm
Fantastic team work, another GoodGym mission completed. You guys are amazing.
Sun 25th May at 8:27pm
Hiya amazing people all round so so inspired by the gang. Xx
Sun 25th May at 2:00pm
Create a site where children can learn about science
Read moreMon 19th May at 10:30am
Mon 19th May at 10:30am
Help make surplus food available to anyone and everyone from the local area
Read moreSunday 11th May
Roberta (She/ her) has done their first good deed with GoodGym.
Roberta is a now a fully fledged GoodGym runner. They've just run to do good for the first time. They are out there making amazing things happen and getting fit at the same time.
Sunday 11th May
Roberta (She/ her) earned their community cape by completing their first community mission.
Roberta completed a community mission. Instead of watching TV or lying in bed, Roberta was out there making their community a better place to be. For making that choice they have earned the community cape.
Sun 11th May at 7:33pm
Welcome to your first GoodGym session Roberta - I'm glad you enjoyed it as it was quite an unusual one!
Sun 11th May at 10:15am
Once upon a time, Los Mariachis from GoodGym travelled through the Ealing Borough and arrived in the town of Hanwell, hoping to find work at music festivals. Have they found any jobs? If you visited Sandy Park in the morning after Hanwell Hootie, you could find six red t-shirts lounging on sofas, getting a lift in vans, and all that accompanied by the whiff of a brewery! What sort of a gym is that? A gym unlike any other!
It was the first GoodGym gig for Roberta, who hadn't known what to expect. The first words Roberta said on arrival were:
How can I help?
And she got stuck in right away!
The regular GoodGymers expected to pack things away and dismantle the festival tents - basically: what they had done on Friday, but in reverse. That wasn't the plan though. Task owner June told our team that the priority was moving the Hootie furniture back to the Stables in Brent Lodge Park. We have done it in two van trips, loading and unloading sofas, armchairs, mirrors, bins, banners and a stand looking like a chromium-plated sombrero, perfect for such a Mariachi as Harvey. Some of us were so desperados to complete the task for our Hootie amigos, that we made an exception and got a lift to the Stables for the sake of time. Runners Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash didn't miss a chance to race the van back to Sandy Park though!
There was one more journey that the Hootie volunteer manager Rose had for us: a trip to the Viaduct pub. That was the task from which some of us emerged with the beer scent. Did we go there for a few pints? Much more than a few! We packed into a van and unpacked crates, boxes and bags of reusable festival pint glasses - hundreds of them! This time everyone walked between locations, much to Michelle's linking as she is very keen on walking to the tasks.
Steph and Harvey took on a bonus quest, also related to popping into a pub: this time The Green. They were tasked with carrying two giant letters "H" there, ahead of a thank you event for the amazing Hootie volunteers crew. Who else if not GoodGym can do a fun pub crawl with no drinking involved?
Sun 11th May at 10:15am
Help with tear down of a non-profit festival ran entirely by volunteers!
Read more