GoodGymers were everywhere today, squeezing in the last activities we could to hit our January good deeds target. I found myself down at Thames Path parkrun, volunteering as one of the tail walkers.

It was lovely chatting with regulars along the way, including mother-and-daughter parkrunners Alison and Vilma, plus fellow tail walker Ellie. Such a great atmosphere—and bonus points: no rain today, yay!

I had loads of fun and fingers crossed we’ve reached our target… and even if not, we’re so close. Huge well done to everyone (yes, me included!). What we do keeps us fit, helps our community, makes us happy and keeps us social. All good, eh?

Until the next task—stay safe, everyone.

Yes, its another Musically-inspired GoodGym report...🎼"But Goodgymers are all around me & so the good deeds grow... 🙂"

The last Wednesday of the January Challenge dawned like the recent pink skies over the Charlton area, and 11 Goodgym-ers awoke to pass the time until tonight's task. 🎼Workin 9-5 helped with that, and soon 6.45 rolled around, time to 🎼Run the World...or at least to St Richard's Community Church in Charlton. Our task this evening was based in the back garden area of the church, continuing our valiant battle against the ever-present weeds in the area. All while trying not to get 🎼Blinded by the Light (of the many head-torches). The recent rain had helped soften the ground a little, making pulling up the weeds that bit easier, and it wasn't long before we had a veritable stack of vegetation. A quick dig over with the 🎼Ace of Spades and our work was done.

Great work all & a warm welcome to Alina on your first task!

Next week we're meeting at Charlton House for some weeding at Charlton URC.. On Saturday as well as the ususal Parkrun volunteering, we have litter picking in Sutcliffe Park.

Until next time!

It’s a physical role on my feet for 2 hrs and heavy lifting of crates. Firstly, we unload the food pack crates from the van to the stock room. Then serving the packs to those in crisis. Lastly, reloading the van with the empty crates and surplus food and other items which are returned back to the greenwich food bank depot.

How can you jump hemispheres so easily? Well, nothing like a volunteering on top of the Greenwich meridian line! Lobo and Anna had some fun crossing the line just for fun. Sunny (but chilly), fun, 639 runners and 20+2GG volunteers 😊 made it a great morning!

Despite a drizzly start, we had a fantastic turnout to yesterday's litter pick and that's proof that the January Challenge is providing some proper motivation! AND six members of the group had volunteered earlier at Hornfair Junior Parkrun so with this session we’ve now officially hit our target of 140 good deeds in January, which is a massive achievement.

Afer an ice breaker discussing our favourite breakfasts, yum, the walking team set off first and arrived ahead of the runners, who in typical GoodGym generosity took it in turns pushing the running buggy. Not an easy task with a whopping four-year-old on board, especially up those hills, but plenty of encouragement and shared effort got us all through it together.

Once everyone arrived, we split into groups and spread out across the Common to tackle the litter. By the end of the session, we’d collected an impressive 26 bags of litter in total. Great work everyone and well done on smashing our good deeds target.

Coming up...

On Wednesday we'll be weeding and doing other odd jobs at St Richard's

On Saturday, as well as our usual Parkruns we've got more litter picking around Sutcliffe Park for our last push on those good deeds!

Until next time, wonderful people!

Rachel

Three lovely volunteers came together at Charlton parkrun to lend a hand, taking on different roles. It was my very first time doing barcode scanning, and thanks to some friendly guidance (and the app downloaded just in time!), I was up and running in no time.

Another great early start, another chance to do something meaningful—and that’s what makes these mornings so special. Parkrun relies on volunteers to keep these free events going every Saturday, and if you’ve got the time, we’d really encourage you to give it a go.

With GoodGym, there are tasks to choose from. Want to get involved? Check out the parkrun and GoodGym websites.

Volunteering has a wonderful way of giving back to you as much as it does to the community—and that impact is pretty amazing.

Task done, it was selfie time—not to brag, but to encourage 😉 Happy volunteering, everyone. Take care!