We spent an energising evening with the Good Gym team in Tower Hamlets helping spread the word about Trees for Streets…
For those who don’t know, Good Gym is an amazing charity that brings together exercise and good deeds. They are now an official Trees for Streets partner – supporting us in our mission to ‘Fill our streets with trees’.
Our first ever Good Gym event found us in Tower Hamlets. Their team of local runners had volunteered to leaflet local houses with fliers promoting our street tree sponsorship scheme.
We’d agreed to meet the Good Gym team by a café in a park next to Bethnal Green tube station. Waiting expectantly with our boxes of leaflets, it wasn’t long before Area Activator, Laura Williams, arrived in her bright red t-shirt. She was a blast of positivity. She’d agreed to meet up with us half an hour before her team were set to arrive. Lizzie, our Local Engagement Manager, went over the areas we wanted to deliver our leaflets into, and Laura then worked out how to split up her team to cover off these streets.
Gradually one by one the Good Gym team arrived in their red t-shirts. When all were gathered, we briefed the team on the Trees for Streets scheme and tonight’s task. Lizzie handed out piles of leaflets and street maps to the enthusiastic runners. And before we knew it they’d all disappeared.
One hour, and well over 2,000 leaflets later, the red shirted runners started to re-appear in the park, and by five past eight, the entire team had returned. We’d run a little competition to see who’d deliver the most leaflets in the hour, and the team who delivered the most leaflets was presented with a small token prize.
Our Project Director Simeon was impressed by the speed and enthusiasm of the GoodGym runners:
“The amazing thing with Good Gym, is that a small group of runners can do within an hour what one person might take a couple of days to do”
One of the team also took a another pile of leaflets to distribute later before saying good night.
We are so appreciative of the wonderful help from Good Gym. It’s a perfect partnership with local volunteers, helping spread the word about a charity project that aims to help green the streets of their neighbourhood, whilst getting involved in a healthy sociable activity.
We’re always looking for volunteers and local community groups who’d like to help us with our mission to fill our streets with trees. Do drop us a line at team@treesforstreets.org if you’d like to find out more.
