8 Goodgymmers braved the soggy weather (but actually unseasonably warm temperatures) on Monday evening at the Barnard Park Adventure Playground. Our crew included Kathleen and Jack participating in their first community missions.

Sarah, the volunteer coordinator for Awesome CIC (who run a collection of adventure playgrounds across London) directed us to a collection of shovels and rakes laid out across the playground. Our main objective was to dig holes by the main struts of the play apparatuses to check if the wood is safe, solid and most importantly, not rotted. It is a huge job for a small team, so 8 extra pairs of hands is certainly appreciated!

Eilidh and Jack also helped with clearing the main open play space (used for football and sports games) of leaves, fallen branches and mud. Anything which could be a slip hazard for school children and youth club visitors.

By the end of the session, the weather improved, layers were removed due to hard work and 9 holes were digged up, checked and filled in again. Smashing effort everyone- well done!

10 Goodgymmers braved a cold, wet and windy evening last night to help the Awesome CIC crew with a big task at Barnard Park Adventure Playground. The team on the site have been very busy maintaining the space for the return of school children and after-school groups, and have requested our assistance over the next few weeks.

Continuing our progress for a few weeks ago, our crew grabbed shovels, spades, forks and rakes, and made their way to the massive zip line. We then started piling woodchip into the crash pad, to form a nice soft landing for the playground users. The tricky part of the task involved moving the woodchip evenly across the area, rather than dumping it in just one spot, so we were required to walk the bark chippings to the top of the crash pad to allow Aidan, Abi and Dom to rake and shift the chippings across the space (the wheelbarrow owned by Awesome CIC was sadly vandalised).

As we came to the end of our task, the massive pile of woodchip started to look tantalisingly manageable, and there was a definite unspoken push to complete the task within the hour! Our team suddenly sped up, and chippings seemed to disappear into the crash pad at an alarming rate! By the time we finished, the woodchip pile was almost completely gone, with just a few bits of debris remaining. A stunning effort- well done everyone!

What a lovely autumnal evening for a return to a well loved task location! 5 Goodgym Islington regulars made their way to the Barnard Adventure Playground off Copenhagen Street for a solid session of wood chip shoveling. Aidan and Steve C met up with Trainer Simon at the Packington Gallery Food Bank for a 1-2 mile run to and from the task location. Sam and Marie caught up with us in Barnard Park, just as we met up with Sarah, the manager of the children's play centre.

We grabbed our spades and forks, and got work! About 3 tonnes of wood chip had been deposited near a huge zip line, and we topped up the main playing area with loads of extra padding. It was still fresh and warm, and very satisfying to scoop up and transfer! Marie, Sam and Steve took on the main digging role, while Aidan and Trainer Simon tried to deposit the bark evenly across the crash pad.

An excellent 45-50 minute workout between us- we certainly put in a cracking effort tonight, and to a good chunk out of this tough job! We will be back again next week for more adventure tasks, so watch this space!

7 green fingered Goodgymmers (and a space dog called Laika) braved a very warm summers day to help out at Barnsbury Square Gardens.

Many of our team were meeting each other for the first time since the start of lockdown, so we made time to have a solid catch-up while we worked!

Lucy, (one of the Friends of Barnsbury Square) offered our crew a collection of forks and spades, and we set about loosening the dried up soil around the park, to prepare the ground for future planting. Fortunately, we were able to find cover under shady trees to avoid the glaring afternoon sun!

After a solid hour of hard graft, we packed up tools, said "Goodbye" to Lucy and Laika, and a few of us enjoyed a post-task refreshment at the Draper's Arms down the road. A successful Saturday for all!

26 Goodgymers ran 4-5k to help Barnsbury Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project!

Welcome along to newbies Poppy, Nikul, Rachel, Nicoletta and Sam - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Make sure you get signed up for the GoodGym Olympics (3rd August) by the end of June! Full details here, represent Islington!
2. Join the unofficial GoodGym Facebook group here.

This week GoodGym is partnered with the Great Get Together, a scheme which was started by Jo Cox's family and friends to bring us more together, we have more common than we do apart. Everyone joined in with the wristbands and stickers, and hopefully spoke to someone new over the evening.

Barnsbury Square Gardens Report by Aidan:

A lovely sunny day for a trip to Barnsbury Square Gardens. Lucy was ready, waiting for us and eager to get started! Several tasks for us to take on tonight. The gardens are loved by the local community but sadly that means the grass has to take a pounding and as it is clay based soil the gardens can dry up easily. Helpful then that we had plenty of forks so we can loosen the ground and free up the ground.

Also plenty of leaves to pick up which clears the soil to get much needed rainfall. To finish off, their beautiful flower beds need edging to frame their gloriousness.

Lovely running

Some lovely gardens with plenty of great dogs, worth a visit! Fun fact there are two air raid shelters underneath the centre ground. Graham led us back with eager Steve offering up an extra 1km around the Fields.

Single Homeless Project:

Just as we were collected together Regina called to tell me the woodchip had not arrived for the task. There was still plenty of gardening we could do to help this fantastic charity, which provides hostel accommodation to those in need.

After 2k of running we arrived to help Regina, she got us doing the following tasks:

• Two people litter picked through the back and front garden - lots of cigarette butts!
• Four people weeded and tidied the front garden
• Three people tidied the paths in the back garden, putting any woodchip that had overflowed on top of the carboard.
• Three people took on an extremely spikey bush, cutting it back and then digging out the roots.

Once all the above was done we bagged up more weeds and debris, swept up and then took a group picture.

After running home along Holloway Road we did a fartlek session around the Emirates, stretched and went to the pub for pizza and beer.

Sign up here for next week when we'll be helping Caledonian Park and probably Single Homeless Project.

PB out

10 GoodGymers came along for a Bank Holiday Special and of course Patrick's 500th Good Deed!

We started the evening about all the amazing things Patrick has achieved over the last four years. He has been a Run Leader and Taskforce Member for Islington for many years, attends both Hackney and Camden group runs regularly, does a huge amount of missions and of course has visited his coach weekly for over 3 years. Patrick is the fourth person to reach 500 Good Deeds, that's absolutely brilliant! I can't put into words how GoodGym has benefited from Patrick doing so much for so long, he is legend, he is king!! Woop Woop!

Erm back to normal GG business I suppose, in the news:

1. There is a monthly GoodGym social on Thursday in Peckam - see full details here.
2. Community Mission in Islington helping CREOS on Sunday 19th May - full details here

After congratulating Patrick for his huge achievements we warmed up and headed West and a bit North to Barnsbury Square Gardens. There we met the lovely Lucy who is the head of the Friends of Barnsbury Square Gardens. She explained the biggest task they needed doing was loosening up the ground, because of the tree's taking the available moisture and people using the park the ground gets quite compact! Our job was to turn over as much ground as possible.

Hail King Patrick!

We split into three groups across the square and worked hard over the 35 minutes to get lots done. Patrick talked to me about the how volunteering has massively impacted his life over the last four years (and more), how he takes a lot of pride in the work he as an individual and we as a GoodGym group do to help our community. Meanwhile Ben and Claire were making shapes with the area they dug over, this included Australia, potentially Germany and definitely a fish! Lucy was very pleased with our great work, we'll be back to continue on 17th June :)

After we consumed some extra special yummy biscuits we took a group picture and then headed back to base for a stretch and an early finish.

Next week I am in Sofia so Chi (Run Leader) will be leading the group - you'll be going to the Rose Bowl, sign up here.

PB out