23 Goodgymers ran 5km and helped the Single Homeless Project move four tonnes of woodchip/mulch

Welcome along to Tom, Kate and Liam whose first time it was last night - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Steve Coman who cycled the 120 mile Dunwich Dynamo on the weekend!
2. Good luck to Kike, and 10 other Goodgymers who are doing London Triathlon this weekend.
3. Sign up for August's Long Run here - Dom's got a great route planned!

After our intros and warm up we headed north-east over Highbury Fields and via Highbury Barn to the Single Homeless Project Hostel on Highbury New Park Road. This fantastic charity helps provide housing, support and services to homeless people. Our task this week was to move four tonnes of a woodchip and mulch cocktail from outside the house into the garden.

Armed with four shovels, two wheelbarrows and four bags an orderly cycle began - as tonnes of the stuff headed into the garden Frances pointed out where to empty it - the first focus was trees, bushes and then plants. A team of four spread the mulch around the trees etc as it came in.

More mulch please!

The size of the mulch pile was communicated in car model - from Maruti (Mulch) Suzuki, in Mini, to Jeremy Clarkson tiny car! Good comms guys. Meanwhile the rest of the team weeded, cut back overgrowth and swept up. Good work!

Over 30 minutes we made a huge difference to our Islington community - awesome sauce! Before leaving we took a super cool football serious photo :)

On our way home we did a 1km time trial around Highbury Fields - everyone was fast and furious!

I'm away for the next two weeks, next week Steve Lee will be in charge and the week after Graham - look after them.

PB out

18 Goodgymers ran 4km to help Thornhill Square Gardens with some summer gardening

Thanks for coming guys, welcome along to Emilie whose first time it was last night.

In the news this week:

1. 85 GoodGymers from all over the UK gathered in Stratford upon Avon at the weekend for the annual shindig, we discussed the future of GoodGym and talked new ideas. Some follow up information will be available soon.
2. On Sunday Damian led July's monthly long run in Finsbury Park area, Dom will be leading August's Long Run on 25th - see full details here.
3. If you ever spot or know of any potential tasks in Islington and beyond please let me know.

After the intro we warmed up and headed 2km via the back streets to Thornhill Square Gardens. We've been helping Anna and the brilliant community gardeners here for a number of years, they always appreciate our help. Like many local parks, council funding has been cut and the importance of volunteers is only increasing.

Our tasks were as follows:

• A team of four delicately de-headed any dead rose flowers, cutting just below the leaf means that the flower is more likely to grow back. Over the 30 minutes the team covered all four plots of roses.
• A team of six shovelled, wheelbarrowed and spread three huge bags of mulch over two plots - nice!
• Everyone else tackled a huge plot of those pesky thistles. These guys are thorny and have big roots, but armed with clippers the team cut everything back and filled four huge bags for recyling.

All the good!

Over 40 minutes we made a huge impact for our local community, well done guys! We finished by taking a group picture, having a jammy dodger and thanking Anna.

Once we'd arrived back to base we did an extra long stretch and ate more biscuits - yum!

Next week we are returning to help Single Homeless Project lift lots of woodchip - sign up here.

PB out

With Paul off conquering the West Highland Way, Frances led a small but perfectly formed group of 12 (including newcomers Jasmine and Sanne) to the Single Homelessness Project in Highbury to help them shift some woodchip. This is a great London-wide charity working to prevent homelessness and help vulnerable and socially excluded people to transform their lives, with several sites in Islington.

After some initial confusion over the precise location of the required shifting, we located the pile and got stuck in, with half the group forking and shoveling the woodchip into bags, and the other half forming a chain to take it through the house and into the back garden.

It looked like a daunting task at first, but we made steady progress, and with the end in sight we took a quick poll and decided we would stay until the job was done! In the end we only needed an extra five minutes or so to get the woodchip firmly forked, bagged and its rightful place.

We had time for a quick photo before Steve Coman led us on a speedy route back to the Emirates and we had some chocolate digestive thins to celebrate.

Paul will be back next week, and we'll be off to Thornhill Square Gardens - details here!