As part of Brighton & Hove TAKEPART Festival of Active Living, Brighton Goodgymmers participated in a group session organised jointly by our friends from Brighton Table Tennis Club, Real Junk Food Project and the Catholic Parish of East Brighton at the Fitzherbert Community Hub.

Thirteen of the best Brighton Goodgym gang showed up and we welcomed not one, not two but three first time participants: Majed, Nick and Irene.

The session also falls on Refugee Week a festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Brighton Table Tennis Club (BTTC) has become a Club of Sanctuary, welcoming refugees and asylum seekers since 2016 and Brighton Goodgym has always had members very passionate about supporting people from all backgrounds and participating in events and walks welcoming refugees and others to our lovely city.

Personally speaking as a third generation refugee; someone who was born with a piece of paper instead of a passport as a form of identity I think sometimes we tend to forget what the word Refugee means. Refugee is defined as a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. But the definition tends to forget the human tragedy that comes with the fact that a human is called 'Refugee'.

Being a refugee means that somehow you no longer have a home but at the same time everywhere is home!

You are welcomed by many but the voices of those who dont want you are louder.

Governments don't know what to do with you, it feels like wherever you go you carry with you oversized luggage that exceeds the 'allowed' limit.

If you are having too much fun in your new 'home' you feel guilty because of those who couldn't have the same opportunity, if you end up closing up on yourself to heal your wounds then you are labelled as anti-social and failing to integrate in the society.

You do your best to learn the language of your new home but when you do you realise that you missed out on a history of social references that you have no idea about. Like what is Eurovision? Who is Kate Bush? What is Rhubarb? and dont get me started on sayings and expressions, when I first heard 'The Writing on the Wall' I was looking around to see who and where they scribbled on the wall!

But then when you take a moment and look around you and see your fellow Goodgym people in their red Goodgym tshirts playing table tennis, laughing and feeling jolly after they have completed the voluntary session of sweeping, cleaning and weeding...you realise...that you are home...Brighton is home :)

Six runners met by the Victoria Statue, ready for a slog up the hill to Brighton Table Tennis Club 🏓. This club provides inclusive table tennis lessons to local people, and Tuesday night is Ladies Night 🙌

After meeting some other GGers at the task, we were given instructions by the task owner and got to work 💪

Michelle and Thomas hoovered and mopped the reception area to make the place look welcoming for club members. Meanwhile, Sarah, Jane and Amro got stuck into the rampant weeds growing along the front of the building, while Ben, Sherman, and Rosie tidied up the shared garden over the road. We soon had the weeds pulled, the litter picked, and the borders looking braw ✨️

If that wasn't enough, some brave souls jogged to the seafront for a fitness session combining hill sprints and a core workout 🥵 Being by the sea on a sunny warm evening is one of the joys of being in Brighton, and we're looking forward to some lovely summer evenings with our GoodGym squad in the months ahead 😎

Keep an eye on our Instagram @ggbrighton for the latest reel crafted by Rosie, featuring some highlights from tonight's session. Looking forward to seeing you at an upcoming session soon!

Today 18 brave GoodGymers met at Victoria Gardens on a freezing 2 degrees celsius evening...brrrrr

Before the start of the session, we welcomed back Rosieand Meland we celebrated my milestone of reaching 100 deeds by doing good since September 2017 😀. Admittedly I could've reached this number a lot sooner, if I showed up to every session I signed up for and changed my mind at the last minute! Guilty 😅

Today's task was an exciting one! We ran to Brighton Table Tennis Club that joined forces with the Real Junk Food Project to create a junk food cafe in the hall next to the BTTC. We were greeted by Rachel from BTTC that gave us a set of tasks to choose from:

A) A task for the Bold(s) and the Beautiful that like to live their lives on the edge: carrying heavy metal closets up 3 flights of stairs, carrying 'already damaged' sign boards, moving a heavy wood pallet with nails coming out of it and moving various other items. B) A task for those who like to play it safe and probably sleep with the lights on: litter picking in the car park, weeding, sweeping, dusting and collecting freebies kindly offered by the BTTC C) A task that really doesn't fit any category: paper shredding!

I won't be naming names and disclosing who did what but you can see for yourselves in the photos below 😀

After the task was completed, we ran to the terrace in Madeira Drive for a fun fitness session arranged by the one and only Tara. Albeit 7 GoodGymers who called it quit and ran back home, the remaining 11 runners started with running loops around the ramp, doing an intense session of 4 minute press-ups, a 3 minute AMRAP (As Much Raps As Possible) of cardio, a 2 minute Warrior 3 Yoga pose followed by a jumping-squats-off between Jay and Tara while the rest of us cheered their favorite athlete.

We wrapped up the session, said our goodbyes and ran back to base feeling a little better for completing another GoodGym deed 😀

---

-- Amro Tabari

On a glorious sunny day, 7 GoodGymers showed up at Brighton Table Tennis Club to perform the week's Community Mission. We were met by Gary who assigned us few tasks to do: weeding and watering the plants. Michael, David, Roy and Michelle took care of the front side of the BTTC building while Frannie and Susan took care of the backside of the building. Yours truly took over the task of watering the plants in the green area opposite to BTTC. In one hour, we were done; returned the tools, did some last minute clean up and said our goodbyes. It was fun and we can't wait till we do another Community Mission again next week.

At the Brighton Table Tennis Club we arrived and met Tim, small baby in hand. Initially we were going to weed the new area of plants that had been planted on the lawn opposite but it was pointed out that there really wern't any weeds! So with various tools,ladders and a bucket of water Nancy, Frannie, Jacob, Sherman, Abi and myself cleared all the weeds from the base of the building, washed the walls, cleared dog poo & gull poop from various surfaces and this writer cleaned the windows while singing George Formby songs (one for the kids there!) The club really is an inspirational place and Tim told us that after opening again last week and particularly with the kids still being on Easter hols the place was packed. It really is incredible what they have done for the local community there and you can feel the buzz around the place...it's a constant hive of activity. I'm sure we'll be back.

The Brighton Table Tennis Club (BTTC) are a fantastic organisation who open their doors to those who need a safe and welcoming place to hang out. The club hold regular practice sessions for those with disabilities, children who are refugees and have no other means to socialise, as well those children who's families don't necessarily have money available for after school activities. The club also reach across many other support networks across the city and their fully story can be found here: [https://brightontabletennisclub.com/about]

With a distinct change in the weather, both in meteorology terms and pandemic restrictions, six Brighton Goodgymers helped Gary, BTTC's caretaker to clean up in the hall of St. John the Baptist Church. The hall is being used as a Foodhub, run by BTTC, providing food to local families who need support during this time and hot meals for refugee families who have extremely limited support.

Laura, Frannie and Sherman got to work deep cleaning the kitchen, pulling cutlery and utensils out of drawers and cupboards to make sure everything was sparkling.

Rosemary and Paul swept and mopped the main hall floor making sure there were no crumbs left in the corners to attract little four pawed friends in to investigate.

Unsure of how the next few weeks are going to go we tentatively said our goodbyes in the hope we can get some Goodgym action going again asap!