A bitterly cold January evening didn't deter 11 GoodGymers from putting in an appearance at our favourite Cranbrook Community Centre this evening.

...But first the run

Back to the Town Hall Hotel, for our first run of 2024, where we received a warm welcome (in every way) from the fabulous team. Catching up on the weekend's news, making new introductions and estimating the number of head torches we'd need tonight, the time flew.

We departed in two small teams, both boosting today's step count. We soon warmed up on our running route, taking in picturesque Sewardstone Road, and heading down Bonner Street. On arrival at the Community Centre, we received another warm welcome from Janet, one of our longest standing task owners.

Tonight's task

Tonight's job was to clear the garden of leaves.

Background

Janet does an amazing job of overseeing the Community Centre along with Eileen, but after a late leaf fall, the leaf backlog is vast and a few pairs of GoodGym hands came in handy this evening (too big-a-leaf backlog and it's not good for the ground, not to mention the hundreds of leaves that make their way into the hall).

We spread out into more small teams all over the garden. No sooner was one pile finished, we embarked on another. And when there was a leaf scarcity, the team headed to local litter hotspots.

It was an industrious evening, fuelled by good conversation and Eileen's Dairy Milk gift.

As the last bin liner was emptied, and Emma checked the temperature, we concluded zero degrees was a good temperature to be heading home. After posing for that final pic in front of the Community Centre, and finalising the details of next week's big Group Run with Thames21 we headed into the night, some on foot, some on bike, all set for another week.

Until next time.