A star-studded cast to celebrate GoodGym Greenwich's 10th Birthday!

An unseasonably mild Sunday morning greeted 18 goodgymers as we made our way to Brooklands school in Kidbrooke. Whilst the school is a little tucked away, the huge grounds provide plenty of outdoor space for the children and their families.

We joined a group of existing volunteers from the school, and were soon wheelbarrowing soil to the growing beds as well as clearing weeds. One of our target areas was an enclosure containing a pond; again involving clearing weeds, bracken and planks to free up the pond area for its proper use. Discovering a few baby dragons* added to the magic of the event, along with a confused toad and lots of ladybirds.

(* thankfully these turned out to be the non-fire breathing variety, which are Newts to us (!) They were carefully looked after by a member of the team to be returned to a safe habitat).

A busy hour soon runs out, so a final group photo provided the icing on the rake for GGG's birthday mission. Special welcome to Iyabo for your first good deed with us - and lovely that you could join us for our lunch to celebrate our birthday!

Coming up...

On Wednesday we're continuing our painting of the hall at Charlton Manor Primary School.

On Sunday we've got our (optional) group run and litter pick on Woolwich Common.

And the following Wednesday we're helping at St Richard's.

Thanks all & see you at the next task! ⭐

It's week two of the 2026 January Challenge, and this week's Wednesday group run took 12 GoodGymers to the Prince Phillip Maritime Collection Centre in Kidbrooke. This is one of our regular missions, often involving moving pallets, ceiling panels & boats, but tonight's task was an adventure in winter gardening.

We got to the task ready for anything after a run from Charlton House, where we were briefed on our tasks, including some weeding of the raised beds, a spot of litterpicking, and turning of the compost heap - you could say we were met with a worm welcome...! The compost project involved removing the top layer of vegetation, spreading the soil beneath on the plant beds, and replacing that plant matter back - a quick biogeography lesson in practice for us, and a great growing environment for the fresh plants come spring!

As usual, time slipped through our gardening gloved fingers, so it was time for a group photo and back to our roots. Great work all & see you soon 😊

Ps. check out our insta video to see an overview of the session!

Coming up...

As well as our regular Parkruns volunteering, on Saturday we have leafleting for the White Swan and Sunday is our 10th birthday celebration when we'll be renovating the pond at Brooklands and heading to Sapori's for pizza afterwards!

Next wednesday we're painting at Charlton Manor Primary School.!

We joined The Charlton Society for a special litter-pick to clean up Charlton Village ready for the Christmas holidays. At first glance things didn't seem to be too bad but our team have a nose for rubbish and soon found some hot spots - down Charlton Church Lane, in the car park and round the back of the Co-op. Our finds included a broken chair, quite a lot of vapes (going to a scrap metal dealer for disposal), lots of bottles, two boxes of nitrous oxide cylinders (reported to the Council).

An hour of walking, talking and picking resulted in nearly 12 bags and a sparkling village. Thanks to the Village Greengrocer for rewarding us with apples, pears, tangerines and bananas - a really fruitful morning's work!

10 Walls Painted 9 Hedges pruned 8 (hundred) flyers posted 7 Gardens weeded 6 Litterpicks 5 ParkRuns Run! 4 Marshalls Cheering 3 Sheds sorted 2 Ceilings gilded and 1 run report to write now...

OK, so tonight's task did not involve all of the above. However, 10 goodgym-ers did meet for a very productive painting task this evening!

A meet up at Charlton House for a quick warm up led to a lovely run through some Charlton streets featuring several impressive festive lights displays. We ended at Charlton Manor Primary School where caretaker Michael briefed us on our task, which involved painting the walls & cupboards in the Key Stage One assembly hall, used by both the school and various community groups such as the Rainbows.

Brushes, rollers and containers at the ready, teamwork was key as we cut in, rollered & reached for the the top spots with the finest Magnolia emulsion. Time flew by but we covered lots of space, which now needs to dry for the next coat.

Big welcome back to Roshan for his second task with us in a week!

Great work all and Roller On the weekend for our GGG Social...!

On Saturday we've got Clean up Charlton and coffee. Next wednesday is TBC - watch this space!

Until next time 😁

8 goodgym-ers met the Friends of Hornfair Park team for a chat & cleanup session today. We were greeted by a couple of Rockin' Robins ready to cheer us on, and soon, armed with litterpicks & bags, we plotted our route. It's a big park with lots going on, so the area outside the lido was first, which involved a battle against the hedges, then on to the tennis court perimeter and fences at the edge of the park. 

A veritable cocktail of weather awaited us, starting with a weak Winter Sun, progressing as the task went on to the beginnings of a Dark & Stormy.

The same could be said of our litter pickings, which ranged from discarded clothing, lots of trademarked takeaway boxes (no free advertising here...) and the evidence of a few parties including vodka bottles, beer cans and even a large lampshade resembling a disco ball...!

A great team makes the task fly by & soon we'd run out of time but had made an impact on getting the park a bit tidier, so excellent work all.

Take care & see you all soon 🙂