A GoodGymer shortage in Ealing today meant that Steph and Sevan were the only ones stocking up on tools at the Rickyard before meeting task owner Trevor at Lammas Orchard. He was a little surprised to only have 2 pairs of hands to help him.

"There are only 2 of us, but we're like the SAS of GoodGym Ealing" - Sevan
"Literally. Steph And Sevan" - Steph

That gave Trevor a boost in confidence and luckily, mother nature had completed one of today's GoodGym tasks already, watering the pond. With a choice of tasks, the GoodGymers chose to rescue the tiny forest that they last visited in May to free it from resurgent brambles.

Steph took loppers and Sevan shears and they started snipping, chatting away about the past weekend, their travel and race plans for the coming months. With each cut, more of the wood chip that was laid last time was uncovered. They gave the trees, which are still fairly small, a chance to survive through the autumn and winter without more bramble growth, then thrive in the spring.

Trevor came to inspect the result and gave it a thumbs up as dusk came and visibility reduced. It's time to dust of the head torches for autumn 🔦. As Trevor left, a young fox came to find out what had been happening. Foxes don't have thumbs to put up, so instead it put it's impressed face on as it surveyed the outcome, even if there wasn't any food for it to scavenge in the large pile of cuttings.

Join us for next week's group run. We'll be indoors, so no head torches needed as we clean up St Mary's Church ready for the new vicar's first service.

At the WLQP’s brilliant fifth birthday celebrations it was all hands on deck to help the party proceed to perfection! There was marshalling to be done and decorations to put up, but perhaps the most fun job was on the make up station where beautiful bright colours were the order of the day. It was brilliant to see everybody celebrating this inclusive, supportive local organisation in style!

Thank you to our 5 volunteers for helping at the event and making it the event happen, we all now how vital volunteers are for any event or task and you guys are super stars.

Nisha was tail walking today with some running and light jogging of course. Adam & Sevan were marshalls 4/8. Pam was on Bar Code Scanning whilst Sut was RD today.

This event runs every Sunday, please do sign up if your free in the mornings.

From the Team at Salt Hill

Before the end of the parade, some of the team raced back along the trail, grabbing any last bits of litter. We found Sevan already at the start and then we got stuck into dismantling the many gazebos! It was a great workout, and we worked quickly as a team finishing with plenty of time to head over to Merton Abbey Mills to see the mayor officially open the event. What a fantastic end to a brilliant day!

With the return to school looming, there are parents across the land cheering (including Rebecca) and children lamenting the end of the summer holidays. Back to school means new school clothes and that's no different for Care4Calais' clients, some of whom will be going to UK schools for the first time.

Packing school clothes and shoes was the priority for the GoodGym team today. With building work ongoing at our usual location, the stock needed was spread across different places and the stock room wasn't as well organised as it usually is.

First up was to find school shoes for the new students. With the smallest ones starting at nursery, there were some tiny feet to protect and everyone was working at at different scale to the usual Care4Calais sessions. With some sizes unavailable, they did the best they could, hoping that larger pairs would quickly be grown into.

Then, there was a change of location to Care4Calais' offsite storage to find clothes for the children. Boxes were helpfully labelled "10-11 years, grey" or "4-5 years, grey", which was great as most schools expected grey clothing and each GoodGymer was working on packs for a particular age group. Peering into the boxes, the sizes and colours were all jumbled together and not as ordered as they claimed, leading to a lot of rummaging and calling to others when unexpected sizes or colours were found.

Even with the extra challenges and the mid-session road trip, the team managed to complete all of the requests and clothe all the children, even if a few will have a slightly baggy style for a term or two.

...and two tins of sardines and two tins of chickpeas. A quick shop from Ealing Foodbank's list of immediate needs, covering everything from cereal to dessert.

The items were dropped into Tesco Ealing Broadway's collection basket. If you're able to donate anything at all, no matter how much or how little, it will help the Foodbank support those in need in our borough.