23 Goodgymers ran to help Cecil Sharp House and St Pancras Community Assoccasion!

Welcome along to newbie Annie - great to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Danny spoke about volunteering at the Fulham 10k next weekend, full details here.
2. Come along to the social tonight in Bethnal Green - see more here.
3. A massive well done to Abi whose 50th Good Deed it was last night - amazing!

SPCA Report:

After only a 1km run a group of 13 arrived at St Pancras Community Assoccasion, this fantastic charity help the local community through support, programmes and sports activities.

We met Graham who split us into three teams; Katherine and Sarah were tasked with laminating Yoga Posters and putting them up around the streets of Camden. Natasha joined them on the run around town, they put up 15 posters and made it to the canal!

Team two (Cordelina and Rachel) hooved, swept and mopped the floor in the children's playroom. This helps the caretaker massively.

GOODwork!

Everyone else was tasked with gardening - trimming back overgrown plants, digging up roots and sweeping up soil and leaves. The team worked over two areas, one in the main garden area and the other alongside the netball courts.

After a group picture and thanks from Graham we headed off for a run along the canal and back home.

Cecil Sharp House:

Frances led a team of ten to the wonderful regular task Cecil Sharp House, the task this FALL was to clear all the leaves from the pathways in the walled garden and from the entrance. Overall the team collected 15 bags of leaves that will go to be composted into leaf mould (fantastic for the plants!).

Susannah wanted to pass on many thanks to everyone for their hard work! On the way home the guys did some intervals between lamposts and a sprint finish to finish - nice!

Sign up for next week here, we have a new task helping Belsize Park Library and another task (tbc).

PB out

27 GoodGymers ran between 4 and 12km to help St Christopher's House and Kingsgate Place

Thank you for coming guys, no newbies this week but lots of new and old faces!

On Mental Health Awareness Day it's as ever important to #runandtalk like we do each week, and remember the positive impact running has on our mental health. Read (and share) Tower Hamlets Trainer Laura article on this very subject.

In the news this week:

1. Cross Country Season starts this Saturday, there is 5 races for £5 over 5 months. It's awesome! You need you be a member of the GoodGym Raceteam - see details here.
2. There is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Space next Sunday (21st) where you'll be laying a woodchip path and will be rewarded with a picnic - sign up here.
3. On Sunday 21st there is also the monthly long run - this time led by Simon Fitzmaurice and goes from East Finchley to Hackney Wick - see the run here.
4. GG November drinks with be on Thursday 8th in Bethnal Green - more details to come!

St Christopher's Report by PB:

A team of 17 headed to help a local Origin Housing Project St Christopher's. We took a round about way to get there as it was seriously too close.

Upon our arrival we met Dave from No.4 who let us into Dave's at No.1 where all the tools and bulbs were. Getting into teams we did the following:

• John, Steve and Katie planted some mystery plants in 5 places over the courtyard
• A team of 8 planted 40 daffodil bulbs across two big planters: digging 3cm down, placing the bulb in the hole and covering it up again.
• We swept and bagged leaves and weeded all over the court.
• Abi and Frances clipped back trees, bushes and plants around the garden.
• A different Abi watered the whole garden!

Last summer we went to St Christopher's to help them pull away and cut back all the overgrown thistles, brambles and other nasty things that covered the garden area. Now the flats look beautiful and lush, our help today meant the garden can be maintained for Autumn - good work.

After Steve Lee took a group picture we headed to Granary Square for a fitness session, first some conditioning and then x3 90 seconds will an acceleration over the last 30!

Kingsgate Place Report by Rosie:

The lovely Diana greeted us with a selection of drinks and snacks which we enjoyed after the task. We split up into two teams of 4 and 5 to plant some bulbs in flowerbeds outside the flats. Rosie, Tom, Ellie and Stevie C were on bluebells and snowdrops, while Hanry, Alex, Josie, and Jason took on the daffodils.

Flower Facts

We learnt that daffodils have to be planted at 15cm depth, bluebells 10cm depth and snowdrops 5cm depth - interesting! Throughout the run and task we chatted about #runandtalk. As ever we admired the view from Primrose Hill: hazy but still beautiful!

Next week we are off to help Scope Charity Shop sort donations and clean the shop - sign up here.

PB out

29 GGers ran 5-10k to help Abbey Community Centre and Skip Garden!

Welcome along to newbies Ellie and Jenny, plus welcome back to second timers and regulars!

This week was all about big numbers for the Camdenites:

1. Frances Powrie hit an amazing 300 Good Deeds - FP has been smashing missions and group runs for over three & half years and she is an amazing part of GG! Well done!
2. Equally as GOOD Chris Howson has now hit a 60 month streak for group runs, that's 5 years in a row! Wow!
3. Long run this Saturday from Wandsworth to Croydon on the Wandle Trail - more details here
4. Social on Thursday 4th October at Islington Townhouse - News, IPOM & More - details here
5. Sofia 2019 here and for race suggestions for 2019 please see the form here.

Skip Garden Report:

21 of us headed to Skip Garden, it's been a while since we've helped Global Generation with their work but it was great to be back under the pretty lights and amongst the skips, bees and chickens.

Harvest Festival prep!

Our task was to be heavy lifters, a group of four lifted ten huge heavy bags of soil, a bookcase and a planter from a storage cupboard to the back entrance. Meanwhile the main group formed a chain gang to move logs, crates and more from one location to another for storage.

After finishing up we headed to the canals for some running and then everyone smashed a time trail around Granary Square! Everyone smashed it!

Abbey Community Centre Report:

A team of 9 headed north via Primrose Hill on a speedy mission to deliver leaflets for the wonderful Abbey Community Centre, based near Kilburn, about their older persons services and community cafe.

The brilliant Brent Trainer Pritesh was on hand to lead the gang around town - great job!

Please note someone left a John Lewis suit & suit bag in the Living Centre - please contact me if that's you

Sign up next week here when we'll be helping Sheltered housing and Coram Fields.

PB out

28 GG Camdenites ran between 5-10k to help Abbey Community Centre and Ashdown Crescent Sheltered Housing

Lovely to have you all along! In the news this week:

1. People from Camden, Islington and all over the GoodGym world are meeting this week for our annual shindig to discuss the future of GG. If you have any feedback or suggestions please forward them onto me.
2. July's Long Run is this Sunday from Finsbury Park - see full details here.
3. There is a mission this Saturday helping to setup the Queens Crescent Community Festival - sign up here.

Sheltered Housing Task:

18 of us headed north to Kentish Town and beyond to help the amazing Sheltered Housing. Over 40 residents are housed and receive care through this fantastic organisation. The work we do makes a huge amount of difference, enabling people to use the garden more freely.

Our tasks were as follows:

• A general sweep up of the area, importantly including the decking which is going to be hosed down and varnished this week.
• Planting and watering the garden area.
• Clearing weeds and cutting back plants etc
• Laying new paving stones down

Over 30 minutes we made a huge impact and everything was looking top notch. While Chris and Katherine grappled with getting a hose over the wall, we took a group picture and sent off the first group to run home.

With a lovely down hill run home, the air got cooler and we were back in no time :)

Abbey Community Centre Tasking:

Pritesh led a team of 9 over Primrose Hill and beyond to help Abbey Community Centre - a fantastic local centre which works to help both the young and old in the community through various projects.

After a steady 5km the group got to work watering the garden, weeding and cleaning some trays which will be used for the local book club/exchange. George revealed some special skills by putting together some cake stands in record time before joining the gardening work. Nice work guys!

Sign for next week here, please look out for where we will be meeting.

PB out.