Today saw a great turnout for our first non headtorch run of the year!

Today was international Victoria day but rather than base our welcome on that we shared what we would do with our bank holiday weekend.

It should really have been Leanne day as she wasn't just crowned goodgymer of the month, but also got to wear the good deed cape for doing an incredible 1300 good deeds!

We also welcomed Ellie and congratulated Nick snd Babs for being married for 35 years!

We then set off to two tasks-

At Rowntree Park we were greeted by Stu who split us into 3 teams. The first team got to grips with a load of soil that we had previously shifted from from the gardens to the back of the lodge. This time we moved it to its final location into the raised beds.

The second group tackled a load of green waste and moved it from across the park over to the table tennis area. With Max particularly enjoying taking a ride in the giant wheelbarrow

Team 3 were instructed to remove the sedge from the garden, and after a quick Google to find out what sedge is, felt competent enough to know what they were doing. However the sedge in Rowntree park was about 50 times bigger than the ones in the photos on Google! Eventually the sedges, Sedgeric and Right Sedge Fred, were moved to their new homes closer to the lake.

All 3 teams finished their jobs with enough time spare to fill a couple of barrows worth of wood chip from the wildlife area and move it to the gardens. We were briefly joined by Jackie who earned her place in the team photo by grabbing a couple of handfuls of wood chip!

The second team stopped off at Southlands church to clear a bed of everything except the Magnolia tree! We pretty much completed the task just in time for team Rowntree to collect us and head to the park for some fun fitness.

Tonight we played heads, shoulders, knees and coins and the team with the most won a creme egg. After much tackling and slightly too much violence for goodgym, it all came down to a deciding game of rock paper scissors.

We then headed back to base and a decent crew stayed on for a drink, possibly to get one of Babs brownies!

Despite the soggy start to the day we had a fantastic GoodGym turn out! Soph, Jo and Ben made very light work of the set-up and stuck around to make sure everyone felt welcomed with teas and coffees. Ben made a new friend in King the guide dog, and his owners, and the girls had such a good laugh in the kitchen that they were (very kindly) told-off by the chair yoga teacher who was trying to do a guided meditation next door!

It was all go at Wilberforce House , to help the Easter Bunny lay a sensory trail for their families. We got cracking! We put the batteries in the beeping eggs and tested that they still had their beep! We put up a gazebo in the gusty wind and brought out the boxes and boxes of egg prizes. But our most important job was to check the lawn for thistles, toadstools and other hazards. We even picked up after the Easter Bunny, so no little fingers would find the 'chocolate' droppings by mistake! From the full bags, it looked he brought his bunny friends onto the lawn for a party last night! We hope the children have a truly eggciting time!

Alan from Bishopthorpe White Rose Junior Football Club was ready and waiting for us equipped with various tools and a large, empty wheelie bin.

Once we'd wheeled the wheelie bin down to the furthest corner of the site (and climbing over a small fence) we got started on removing the old, plastic tree guards. This was made more difficult in places where there were a lot of brambles and the trees themselves were covered in spikes. We also removed a lot of larger, green, mesh-type tree guards by cutting the cable ties holding them together. Leanne discovered they made excellent carriers for the smaller tree guards and easier transportation over to the big bin.

After an hour the big wheelie bin was full (despite Nick squashing down the contents and almost getting stuck) so we retired to the clubhouse where we were rewarded with hot drinks, bacon butties and chocolate! There are more jobs to be done so we'll be back soon no doubt.

Swap set-up, sorted and put away!

We've got the book sale set-up down to a fine art - Angela shuttled back and forth with boxes of books from the cupboard, while Becca arranged the children's section for maximum appeal. It was the first time Elle had attended as an organiser - rather than a customer - and she got stuck in, with just the right level of attention to detail (no micro-categories here!). The result? A bumper set of books out ready for the Easter holidays.