24 Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shovel 2 tonnes of mulch to complete the final mulch path of the Winter!

Great job by a great team this evening!! Great to see the experienced GoodGymers going strong and guiding the new runners at the beginning of what will Be an awesome GG journey!!

3k our to Stokey to meet Park ranger Quentin at the magical Abney Park Cemetery! Grabbing the narrows, lights, rakes and shovels we headed off to the far corner of the park to find the last remaining unmulched path.

Trying to create the most lite pathway to allow for easy barrowing we kind of succeeded but it was still a bit of an adventure!

A rotating team of Shovellers kept the barrows rolling at a great pace and mulch pile going down fast!

Zipping around the loop tipping out the mulch and dancing the moguls back to the Shovellers on repeat! A great pace was set and we managed to pretty much complete the 2 tonne pile of mulch in 40 minutes of action!!

Our mulching efforts are a massive help to the park as it helps to enable all the park to remain accessible to more people throughout the year! This helps look after the historic grave site as well as curb antisocial behaviour!

As we completed the path and dropped off the tools with an excellent job complete Quinten announced that Abney has just found out that their application for a multimillion pound refurbishment of the historic building in Abney has been successful!! This is a massive boost to not only the park but the local community! Was amazing to hear the our work going to Abney each month was a major contributor to the application helping to show high volumes and consistent volunteering as well as community engagement!!

Not only that but Jatin will be running the London Marathon in aid of Abney this year!! Let’s all help him along in his training and fundraising!!

See you next week for our visit to Hackney Parks!!

Enjoy

Joel

p.s Thanks Liz for the pictures!!

21 Amazing Hackney GoodGymers ran 6.5k collecting and carrying 35 Christmas trees to the tree drop off area on Southgate road.

A warm and windy welcome to our GoodGym first timers as Storm Brendon had us on our toes scuppering our original task at Abney Park Cemetery with a pesky Yellow weather warning which kept the gates firmly shut!! We have rescheduled that task for next week!!

As last minute tasks go this was a really good one! Combining an task that will help the community by clearing pathways to improve accessibility and removing the potential fit the trees to get blown about in the high winds to do damage to people or property!

The hero moves started early with the first trees being picked up at London fields with the casual 3k carry ahead we came up with a number of ingenious carrying techniques!! From the Baywatch over the shoulder, heavy end carry, light end drag and to the team carry. All amazing and all highly effective!!

Zipping West towards the West West Hackneyish Christmas tree drop off location we had big trees, little tree, potted trees and gigantic trees!! All no match for our efforts!!

With all the trees stacked up with had enough time for a Chi special mini fitness session! Wall sits, crab walks and some jump squats got the legs working and heart racing!!

With a great task complete we ran back to base, stretched out and headed off into the night!!

Thanks for everyone for coming!

A Starter Session/ Community Mission combo on Sunday with the Starter session beginning with a little run at 10am (9:45 meet). The community missions can be done at any time until 2pm all at Hackney Downes!

See you next time

Joel

p.s thanks to Eva and Chi for the extra (not blurry) pictures!!