Four Reddies and a ‘Funeral’

5 Goodgymers helped their local community in Swindon
Removed User
Mike Oakes
Teresa Sugden
Simon Sperring
1 / 13
Swindon

Saturday 31st August 2019

Credits
Mike Oakes
Mike Oakes

PHOTOGRAPHER

Simon Sperring
Simon Sperring

SESSION ORGANISER

REPORT WRITER

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Report written by Simon Sperring

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Saturday morning saw four GoodGym'ers join Simon for a return visit the ever enthusiastic Glynis at Penhill Haven. Our mission, should we accept it, to hump and dump, what else!

‘Safety First’ Simon, Gina and Teresa made their way across Swindon from parkrun at Lydiard Park, while Emily and Mike took a bike ride for our 11am rendezvous.

As usual, Glynis had a list of jobs longer than your arm, that seemed to grow by the minute!

Going into the Haven, we were greeted by a wash of colour from the wild flowers sown earlier in the year. Really is great to see results of everyone’s hard work over the last year.

Our first job, move a four-seater concrete bench around to the front of the adjacent Community Centre for the locals to enjoy, under the watchful eye of CCTV.

We could just about lift the bench on its end, so decided to load it onto the back of Simon’s pick-up truck and carefully drive around to the Community Centre. Once loaded Simon slowly moved off with the others walking behind keeping everything in order. It wasn’t long before laughter could be heard, soon everyone was in fits of laughter as references to looking like a funeral procession were heard. There was only one thing to do, find Chopin’s Funeral March on YouTube and blast it from the Stereo. Some odd looks came our way, but lets face it...

only GoodGym'ers can get away with driving through Penhill with a black pick-up truck blaring the Funeral March at full volume on a Saturday afternoon!

Bench in position, it was time to relocate the raised planters. Luckily they did not need much persuasion to come out. With a few minor repairs, the planters were soon round at the Community Centre. Teresa and Gina did a great job rescuing Rhubarb, Strawberries, Onions and Rosemary. Don’t worry, they made sure she got home safely.

While Simon rebuilt the damaged the damaged Insect Hotels, Mike and Emily spread compost for future wild flower planting!

We humped and dumped our way through another fantastic task at the Haven and we look forward to returning soon.

Interested in coming along to another Community Mission? Check out our next one here; we will be on the red paint station at Run the Rainbow at Lydiard Park on Saturday 14th September. It's guaranteed to be fun and one not to be missed!


This task supported
Penhill Haven
Community garden in Penhill with residents growing wildflowers for nature, and fruit and vegetables for the local community

Penhill Haven was originally set up for the residents of Penhill to grow wildflowers for nature, and fruit and vegetables for the local community, while also encouraging young people to grow, harvest, cook and preserve their own food. The wildflower meadow, the raised beds for planting and the surrounding green space all need some extra attention and support.

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Discuss this report
Emma Sperring

Tue 3rd Sep 2019 at 2:34pm

Loving the pun...and the photos of the funeral procession ⚰️!

Teresa Sugden

Thu 5th Sep 2019 at 6:17pm

Great report Simon 👏 Such a shame after all the efforts of Glynis. Glad the equipment has been put to good use (hopefully...) 👀

Swindon runner

Sat 28th Sep 2019 at 10:16pm

Due to Holidays etc... 😎 I am just catching up on admin. Oh what fun we had this day you had to be there to believe it 😊

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