Four happy Goodgymmers spent an evening at the Walthamstow Toy Library helping to prepare for the street party, which will take place this Saturday in celebration of the Toy Library's 50th anniversary. That's right - 50 years of this incredible resource for our community, providing low-cost, sustainable access to toys and clothes, as well as play and creative opportunities, for families all over the borough of Waltham Forest. We weeded and swept, continuing from last week's mission to make the outside space spick and span, before bedecking the entire place, inside and out, with colourful bunting, to create a very festive atmosphere indeed. It was excellent to welcome Charlie and Faye, already seasoned Goodgymmers, to their first task for GG Waltham Forest, and a special mention goes to Patricia, who was doing her first ever Goodgym mission. The energy was fabulous, and many hands made light work. As ever, Helen was very grateful for the help, and we all had a great time, while getting lots of good work done. Well done all, and Happy Birthday, Walthamstow Toy Library - here's to another 50 brilliant years!

Two happy Goodgymmers went to Walthamstow Toy Library for a lovely outdoor task on this (slightly breezy) spring evening, to weed, hedge trim and sweep as part of the efforts to get everything looking extra spick and span ready for the Toy Library's 50th anniversary celebrations! Yes, half a century of this amazing resource for families in the Waltham Forrest community! This is definitely something worth celebrating! As always, Helen was very grateful for the help, especially as she's got a very long "to do" list for the coming days. There's another task listed next Thursday for anyone who'd like to contribute. A street party will be held on Somers Road on Saturday 17 May, for which volunteers will be much needed. Anyone interested in helping out can sign up to the Goodgym mission and come and lend a hand to make the Toy Library's 50th birthday a day to remember!

Four happy Goodgymmers made their way once more to Walthamstow Toy Library this evening to give the ever-dedicated Helen a helping hand. To say that the Toy Library has no shortage of craft supplies would be quite the understatement and today's task involved emptying, sorting and re-stocking the art cabinet, which was absolutely bursting with paper, cardboard and felt of all colours of the rainbow, along with templates for drawing every animal and object under the sun! We all got stuck in and made short work of the task, organising all the supplies and neatly refilling the cupboard. From chaos to calm, the result of our efforts was extremely satisfying! An extra big thank you goes to new GGWF member Lily, who was attending her first mission.

As always, the Toy Library continues to do fabulous work in our local community. It will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next month with a wonderful street party! Keep your eyes peeled for some extra Toy Library tasks in the next couple of weeks in the run-up to the party. Let's do our best to give Helen some support and help make the Toy Library spick and span for its half century celebrations!

Six jolly Goodgymmers, plus GGWF’s youngest recruit, 3-month old Max, convened at Walthamstow Toy Library for our monthly task, where the ever-brilliant Helen set us up with a gentle activity, giving a significant number of tin cans a good coat of white paint. These are going to be used for an Easter celebration, where they will be decorated with ears befitting of the very best Easter bunnies, and will be used to store Easter goodies, or as pots for spring plants. With lovely enthusiastic Goodgymmers visiting from various boroughs we had many hands to make exceptionally light work and our task was accomplished in record time!

The Toy Library continues to do excellent work, both in Walthamstow and at its sister location in Leytonstone, and will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary. As always, it was a joy to be there, lending a helping hand to this pillar of the Waltham Forrest community. Keep your eyes peeled for the April visit to the Toy Library, which will be listed here on the Goodgym website soon!

... sadly miscommunication and circumstances beyond our control prevailed this evening, and the Toy Library task did not come to pass. Visitors John and Jaqueline from Camden and Gabriela from Hackney came to join, but unfortunately our mission wasn't accomplished. We did, however, have a lovely chat for 20 minutes, and I thoroughly enjoyed making some new GG contacts. I feel terrible for not properly confirming the task with Helen this week; Helen feels terrible for being on leave this week and forgetting that the Goodgym elves were due to visit. So we've decided to put it down to "six of one and half a dozen of the other" and both sleep easy. Lessons have been learned and the next mission in March will be a mighty fine one, probably with multiple emails of confirmation from both sides ;-)

..when Goodgym Waltham Forest are on hand?! Four happy Goodgymmers walked, cycled and ran to the Walthamstow Toy Library this evening to help the ever-wonderful Helen organise the walk-in craft cupboard. The Toy Library provides craft workshops and activities for visiting children and receives donations of all kinds of lovely creative supplies. From paints, pom poms and playdough to stickers and stencils, pipe cleaners and pencils, glitter and glue, you name it – the Toy Library has it. In fact, the cupboard was so full it was ready to burst!

Two hours of sifting and sorting, consolidating and amalgamating, packing, labelling and shelf-stacking, and the cupboard was, even if we do say so ourselves, unrecognisable! An organisational miracle to behold! Space was saved, clarity was achieved and Helen was beyond delighted. In fact, after all had left and she and I were turning lights out and getting ready to lock up and go home, she turned the light back on, looked at me slightly sheepishly and said, “sorry, but I’ve just got to go and have another look at it!”.

Well done GGWF – we did a good thing this evening. Special welcome and congratulations to Vicky on her first mission – it was super to have you on board.