GoodGym Ealing and Hanwell Hootie go together like salt and pepper. Each year, the famous free music festival run by local people, attracts thousands of music lovers who swarm in Hanwell to hear emerging young bands - and our team is around to support that brilliant volunteer-led initiative! No wonder why the numbers picked up at tonight's group run to the Brent Lodge Park's Stables to help the Hootie organisers: June and Andrea.

Since the Hootie was in less than three weeks, it was about time to start organising the equipment stored at the Stables: mostly furniture and banners. But here is a twist:the storage space was struck by an unexpected leak, resulting in damp floor in one of the rooms! The solution: all the things had to be brought into the yard, where Andrea would triage them and decide which items were going back inside and which the Stables needed to part with. It was a perfect challenge for 8 GoodGymers with an hour to spare!

The runners Mohamed, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash were glad to see regulars Claire and Madhan again after a short break and welcome a pair of new starters: Erin and Nick. The two could not have chosen a better group run task: local to them, contributing to a beloved Hanwell event, and challenging and fun at the same time!

While part of the team set off to move the furniture in varying states outside, others got rock-and-rolling (mostly rolling) festival banners. On such a great spring evening, we thought that even sofas, armchairs, tables and giant "H" letters deserved a dose of fresh air. Particularly sickly furniture pieces: legless, ripped and mouldy, were going to stay outdoors even longer than us. Spoiler alert: they were not coming back. We split the rest of the items into a YES pile (this year's stuff) and a NO pile (another time stuff). The YES things needed to be kept together and placed in an easily accessible (and most dry) part of the Stables ahead of the festival. We didn't discriminate against the NO objects - they were going back inside too, and for all items, we steered away from putting them in the previously flooded sections.

Our amazing team, thanks to determination, teamwork, muscle- and brainpower (and June's clear direction), achieved the goal in about 65 minutes - and even squeezed in a team photoshoot!

Our tonight's efforts will certainly make the Hootie prep smoother! If you want to join the next task to help the festival, see us in two weeks at the same location - sign up for the session now!

Steph Ducat had to hip hop around Regents Park. It was so bunny 🐰 Enjoyed the medal and egg at the finish line.

On Easter Saturday Mr J hosted a GoodGym gardening session for the first time. While many mission beneficiaries are keen gardeners and can advise GoodGymers on how to best deal with their plants, Mr J represented a whole new level - he used to work at Kew's arboretum! With such an expert around, Sevan and Kash turned into gardening apprentices and were all ears to hear about all the horticultural tips.

Mr J loved spending time in nature, and was making the most of his two gardens, despite his reduced mobility, thanks to a network of strategically positioned walking frames and chairs around his place. Unfortunately, even the best strategy could not make up for difficulty moving around, so Mr J's garden was easily getting overgrown.

"This is not a jungle, this is a garden in restoration." - Mr J.

According to Mr J, having too well-managed garden wasn't his style.

"I'm not a stripy-lawn type of person"  - Mr J.

Mr J knew exactly what was hiding under a thick layer of ivy. He recited all the fruit trees he planted, including quince and two different varieties of apple trees, which were specifically paired to maximise the benefits of pollinators. Ivy was the priority to tackle, ideally by chopping it close to the ground, so that the rest would die out.

"There are nettles out there. You should have brought socks!"

Sevan had only short socks on, while Kash (although less likley of the pair to be prepared) brought PPE: the brambleproof gloves and signature high colourful socks. It was decided that Kash would fight the ivy, while Sevan would work with Mr J on equally important job: decluttering garden equipment and packing it into containers. To make that effective, some rules had to be established:

"If it doesn't fit, it's got to go."

After Sevan finished, he was going to help Kash with the ivy, but Mr J came up with another priority: cutting back an overgrown rose bush. The main objective: make space for Mr J to pass through. The secondary objective: rescue a trolley trapped under the thorny branches. Both tasks were surprisingly easy to achieve, despite Sevan getting constantly scratched by the rose. Next time he will bring his socks and thick gloves for sure!

The rescued trolley was used as stand for Mr J's seed trays. Since the GoodGymers had 15 minutes extra to spare before running to the next task, they fixed the ramp to the back garden and cut back the rhubarb flowers. Mr J explained that it helped direct the plant's energy resources to feed the tasty, leafy stems instead.

After the task, the very grateful Mr J had a little gift for the GoodGymers: a small sunflower seedling for each. Sevan had to be extra careful to run with the pot in his hand. No sunflowers were hurt on the way back home.

I took part in a volunteer initiative organized by Care 4 Calais, a non-profit organization, to prepare clothing bags for refugees in the Eailing area. The goal of the session was to provide essential and comfortable clothing for refugees residing in local hotels. In addition to assembling the clothing bags, we also sorted and organized a collection of shoes in various sizes to ensure that the needs of all individuals were met in an orderly and efficient manner.

Activities and Tasks Carried Out: Clothing bags were prepared to include essential and necessary items for refugees, such as daily wear, undergarments, socks, and coats. Each bag was tailored based on specific requests to ensure it met the individual needs of its recipient.

A variety of shoes in different sizes were carefully sorted to meet the diverse needs of the refugees. The sorting process included the following sizes: 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44, to ensure that each person received a suitable pair of shoes.

The shoes were then arranged into organized groups to facilitate quick and efficient distribution. Task assignments were effectively divided among the volunteers, which helped accelerate the process and ensured that the work was completed with a high level of accuracy and care.

Nothing compares to the feeling of happiness that fills the heart after participating in a tangible humanitarian effort, that deep sense of contentment and peace that arises from giving and supporting those in need.

Easter Sunday and Goodgym had an egg-stra special Easter mission at Acton Junior Parkrun : all ran to the Park to welcome children between 4 to 14 years old. We had loads of Junior Parkrun eggs-pert today : Florian and Alan were on tokens, Chikako was a Guide runner, Jon and Steph Ducat were marshals. What an egg-citing day for the children as eggs were given out at the finish line.We had some fast runners today and some parents were just eggs-hausted trying to keep up with them. There was enough eggs for all the children, some parents and the volunteers : we now need to eggs-ercise off all this chocolate.Happy Easter everyone.

When Kash and Sevan arrived at Mrs H's house for another task, she asked the natural first question for a mission, "How are you?" followed by the last question, "How are you going to get the bins to the front of the house?". Kash and Sevan didn't know what needed to be done yet, so they went to take a look.

Mrs H wanted to reorganise her back garden. The end goal wasn't clear, but there were some wheely bins that would be filled with rubbish, recycling and garden waste. Their usual path to the front of the house was blocked by 2 sofas that Kash, Steph and Sevan moved out of the living room a couple of weeks ago. Sevan thought that a twisty path through the house was possible, so work could get going.

The first job was to create an area for Mrs H's plants at the back of the garden, so 2 tables and some stands needed to be moved there. One of the tables had been used for bird feeding and moving it left some antsy and confused pigeons. They gathered on Mrs H's old greenhouse frame as if it was an aviary. They looked like the menacing crows from The Birds, sitting on the climbing frame. The plan was adapted to add more bird feeders to keep the pigeons happy and that meant that bird attacks were avoided.

With the plant nursery created, all of Mrs H's pots - large and small - were moved to the back of the garden. Empty pots were stacked together and anything broken was thrown away. As items moved around the garden, the GoodGymers started to understand Mrs H's vision, to clear the patio so that she could spend summer sitting on her bench. A quick sweep later, work in the garden was complete. All that was left to do was to weave the wheely bins through the house, which just managed to squeeze through the doorways and gaps.