Another productive evening was spent at Croydon Refugee Centre. GoodGymers Liz, Brenda, Dovile, Nikki, Ian, Paul and Ingrid met centre volunteer Simon who gave us our tasks for the evening. These included rehanging clothes on the rails with wire hangars to maximise space, sorting baby clothes and our favourite job of fitting all the rails into the storage room at the end of the night. We wished Simon well and made our way home. We'll be back at the centre in two week's time.

On a drizzly Tuesday night GoodGym Croydon made another visit to Croydon Refugee Centre. A warm welcome was given to Brenda, Neelam, Atare, Dora and Michael who were volunteering at the Centre for the first time. They were joined by regular Croydon GoodGymers Liz, Roz, Nikki, Ingrid, Magda, Ian, Hannah, Lorna and Paul.

We met with Simon from the Centre who was impressed with the number of volunteers and put us to work getting the clothing donations sorted and on the rails. We finished by moving the rails from the hall into a (very) small storage room. After a bit of jiggling all the rails fitted and we said our goodbyes to Simon.

The evening ended with a drink at a local pub on the way home.

After a brisk, chilly walk a few Good Gymers arrived at the refugee centre, where we were greeted by Simon. We also met Lorna who would have liked to have joined us previously, but unfortunately wasn't able to, due to an ankle injury. However, Lorna didn't allow this to deter her for long and we were all pleased that she joined us this evening. Welcome!

The team worked effectively together to 'shake' the clothes out, 'rattle' the box to find a coat hanger and then add a label to the clothes. The clothing was then hung on the correct 'rail'. Many bags of clothing donations were sorted. The final task of the evening was to push the rails into the store cupboard.

Well done team! Hope to see you again next time.

Ruro, Ros, Liz, Paul, Ian, Nikki and Ingrid braved a cold night for a community mission at Croydon Refugee Day Centre. We gathered at our usual meeting place and were delighted to see fellow GoodGymer Conroy and have a quick catch up.

After making our way to the centre, we were met by Simon who gave us our tasks for the evening. These included ensuring clothes were in the correct size order on the rails, were labelled and removing any summer clothing. The session ended with us moving all the rails into the storage room. This is more of a squeeze with each visit, we're not sure whether there are more rails or the room is getting smaller!

After saying our goodbyes to Simon, we made our way back to the meeting spot.

Liz, Ros and Ingrid joined members of the East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO) on a thankfully rain free night to help tidy up the flower beds along the Boulevard.

Tasks included sweeping leaves, litter picking, weeding and planting flowers in a memorial garden.

At the end of the evening we had collected 13 bags of litter and leaves for the council to collect.

We said our goodbyes, wished each other a Merry Christmas and looked forward to many more successful missions in the New Year.

Ian, Paul and Ingrid met with Sue for another gardening session at St. Augustine's.

The weather wasn't as bad as expected and we soon got stuck into the various tasks.

Ian and Ingrid dug up a Red Hot Poker plant which wasn't flowering and taking up valuable space in the bed.

Paul emptied a compost bin, filling boxes with the composted material. We then all moved the bin to a new location and emptied another bin to reveal the good compost at the bottom. This was then put into boxes for future use.

Ingrid did a litter pick, while Sue, Ian and Paul cleared leaves which were blocking drains.

We then said our goodbyes and made our way home.

Thank you to Paul for the pun!