It was a good-sized group who gathered for today’s task in the Borough, courtesy of Beautiful Balin, a local community garden group, based in-and-around the Tabard Gardens Estate.

We kicked off today’s activity with a workout, useful for blowing away midweek blues.

After a short run to Tabard Gardens, the team wasted no time in selecting their mini-band-of-choice and tackling upper body moves (yes, bicep curl and tricep kickback, we’re looking at you), single leg squats, and some full-on seated calf stretches.

Just as we were finishing up, Peter from Beautiful Balin arrived, complete with sophisticated strategy for today’s leafleting task.

Background

Beautiful Balin are a community-run garden group based on the Tabard Gardens Estate. The Estate’s Spring Festival, supported by Southwark Council, is taking place this Saturday, and the group wanted to reach as many households on the Estate as possible. A free event with food and family activity (complete with a fantastic weather forecast), this is one weekend activity that local residents will want to hear about.

Steps, stairwells and door-to-door sprints

With 1500 homes to reach, it was a workout in itself.

Peter had drawn us estate maps, and divided us into teams, with the corresponding number of leaflets. This was a precise plan-and-a-half.

After a brief briefing, which included the how-to’s on dealing with ‘troublesome letter boxes’ (yes, it’s a thing), off we ran to our respective blocks.

Who knew leafleting was such a workout. Steps, stairs, and a quick sprint from house to house proved to be the only way to blitz such a large area.

It was fun, it was fast and it was effective.

Until next time

We raced back to our meeting point a little after 12:30, satisfied that was an hour well spent.

Handing our remaining leaflets back to Peter, we headed back to base for a final stretch.