Our members give back at Stave Hill

A group of Bootcamp SE16 members gave up a morning to work on Stave Hill Ecological Park rather than work out in it, and the park is in better shape for it.

Stave Hill is where we have trained since 2013. It is a nature reserve first and our training ground second, looked after by the people who manage it and used by half of Rotherhithe, Canada Water and Surrey Quays. Giving a Saturday to a volunteering day is simply what you do when a place has given you that much for that long.

What the group got through

• Cleared out and reorganised the shed, so that setting up before a session takes minutes rather than a small archaeological dig.
• Raked and reseeded the grass around the steps, giving the most heavily used patch in the park a chance to recover and come back strong for the months ahead.

It was proper work. Gloves on, tools out, a couple of hours of raking that left more people with sore forearms than a kettlebell session usually manages. It was also, by common agreement, more fun than it had any right to be.

Why a fitness group does this at all

Bootcamp SE16 has always been about more than burpees and kettlebell swings. Anyone who has been coming for a while will tell you the training is the reason they joined and the people are the reason they stayed. A volunteering morning is that community doing something together with no reps to count and nothing to compete over.

There is also a plain practical argument. We use this park twelve times a week, in all weathers, with equipment and a lot of feet. Green space in this part of London takes a beating, and the grass by the steps takes more of it than most. Looking after the ground we train on keeps it usable for everyone who walks through it.

What these mornings are really like

Nobody is assessed on their raking technique. People who see each other twice a week in the half-light before work get to have an actual conversation. Members who had only ever nodded at each other across a session end up working on the same patch of grass for an hour, and by the end they know where the other one lives and what they do for a living.

That is the quiet thing about a group like this. London is a difficult place to meet your neighbours, even when you are surrounded by them. A morning spent doing something useful outdoors with thirty other people solves that faster than almost anything else we do.

Thank you, and come to the next one

To everyone who gave up a Saturday morning and got stuck in, thank you. The shed is tidy and the park team noticed.

We will run another volunteering day, and everyone is welcome, including people who have never been to a session. If you have been thinking about trying Bootcamp SE16 and the idea of a workout feels like a big first step, coming along to help out is a very easy way to meet the group first. Keep an eye on the noticeboard at sessions and on our social media for the next date.