The Everton Telegraph is a community newspaper produced three times a year. Good Gymers, along with some other local volunteers, helped to distribute the summer issue with John from the Everton community gardens.

Dike, Clara, Steph and I arrived early so we put inserts into the paper to tell everyone about Friday’s social at the community garden.

Dan, Sian and Sophie ran from Hope Street.

We were split into groups- Sophie and I, Bekah with Jess and Clara, Dan, Sian and Dike got driven away by John a bit further afield (but not as far as St Helen’s) and Steph and Sallyann stayed at the gardens to prepare them for Friday and do a bit of watering.

It was a balmy evening. We got a fantastic response from the locals when we delivered the paper. One recipient said ‘Just say it’s the Telegraph!’ Everyone was expecting it and some offered tips.

Well a few of us met at the suitcases to run to Everton park and the others met us at task near the "love, love parks, love everton park" wall.

But the LLPLEP wall was not the object of our affections this time but a different sort of hidden natural granite wall which was "mosscared" to reveal a lovely place to enjoy the views by Miriam and Dan. Need to get our new good gym word approved by Susie Dent or at least on the panel of "I’m sorry I haven’t a clue"!

While we could hear the delights of satisfaction from the mosscared team the rest of us where trying to identify baby saplings in the grass bank and remove them to avoid them taking over the whole area. We also gave a few trees a trunk trimming or technically limbing up to trim away the baby branches.

John our Everton park leader presented us all with a leaflet of all their events where the good gym team are proudly there front and centre on the cover! We ran home thinking of all the fun times working in Everton park, filled with gratitude and appreciation that we have had the opportunity to work with John over the past years helping the Everton community.

P. S. - While some of us ran home, Naser continued to pick up another couple bags of rubbish making the green space even more fabber! Take a look at the additional photos uploaded to site the final greeness without rubbish!

P.P.S.- I so think it would be sound to have goodgym dictionary !!!

On this beautiful Monday evening, we headed back to Everton Park to help out Friends of Everton tackle the unwanted brambles and trees.

Armed with clippers and Saws we split into two teams to tackle two key areas of the park. It was great to welcome newbie Jessica - looking forward to see you at another task soon!

One area of the park required us to clear the brambles from the orchard, so the fruit trees could thrive. The other, to clear the trees so the Love Everton sign was visible for all!

The difference was astounding - excellent work team! However, we didn't quite get to the bottom of it, so we will be back soon!

Rather unexpectedly there was a bit of an incident when a Goodgym member's belongings had gone missing. Fortunately quick thinking and commendable reactions rectified the situation, and ultimately no damage was done. But one takeaway was the support of the whole Goodgym team, who pulled together to respond and support each other. It really demonstrated the adaptability and team-spirit of the group, and was lovely to see how well GG members look after each other.

Hey team,

We had a lovely spring evening for our return to Everton Park! It was great to enjoy the longer daylight hours and kick off our year's events with John. The sunshine was a real bonus, and those views across Liverpool and out to North Wales? Absolutely stunning. Big thanks to Bekah for leading our team, and to Liam, Dan and Amina for jumping right in!

Our main focus was clearing a patch of ground that had collected a fair bit of litter – think plastic bottles, general bits and bobs, and even a few rogue firework cases! We got stuck in and managed to fill four whole bags, which is a fantastic result. Plus, we gave some overgrown bushes a quick trim to tidy things up a bit.

It was brilliant to be back at Everton Park, and it was super satisfying to see the difference we made. Looking forward to heading back there soon for more volunteering fun!

So how much wood could a Goodgymmer chuck if a Goodgymmer could chuck wood?............

Autumn is well and truly here and tonight was our last night of 2024 with John and Friends Of Everton Park. We have been helping out over the months in the beautiful Everton Community Garden taking out the old rotting wooden raised bed frames which are being replaced. Each bed is able to be gardened without requiring to kneel or stoop so they have a lot of frame! So its quite some effort to dismantle as despite being rotten they are fixed together by hefty bolts and nails. Many techniques were used to release some of the stubborn planks..... some of the Goodgym team crowned themselves as nail technicians.

The old wood will be burnt on bonfire night so we were just in time to finish up and complete the dismantling of the last two remaining wooden frames. Both in time for the bonfire and in time for us to finish for our traditional winter break from Everton Park. Thank you John for all your wonderful tasks during 2024 and see you in March 2025.

Things that make Monday nights one of the best nights of the week..... in no particular order: 1. The opportunity to be outside -tonight felt like we are on the verge of autumn a warmish start leading into a cooler finish with the light starting to fade

1. The opportunity to feel part of the city - tonight we headed to Everton Community Garden an inspiring oasis of fruit veg and flowers all tended by the local community led skilfully by John who is always so welcoming to us.
   

2. The opportunity to give a little back to the amazing initiatives across the city - tonight we were tasked with removing the rotting wooden frames of two raised beds whilst trying to not disturb the actual raised beds.

3. The opportunity to learn new skills. John is always supportive and willing to share his knowledge and expertise and tonight was no exception. we needed to use various techniques and tools as whilst some of the wooden sleepers were rotten through other ones were still strong and gives with bolts and screws which all had to be negotiated.

4. The opportunity for a physics lesson may arise at any point - at one particularly difficult to remove section of wood Pauline called out.. we need a fulcrum and then said 'Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world' and then mentioned Archie someone...well i could not find an Archie signed up for this task . However with a lesson in fulcrums Pauline managed to remove the stubborn wood which had us all clapping and cheering. Physics lessons never felt this much fun before.

5. The opportunity to work together - its the start of the new school year a busy time for teachers and parents and its also the season for various lurgies. so tonight we were a small team of four but we achieved the task working together.

6. The opportunity to be welcomed into the community space and group tonight it was so lovely to be back with John and greeted by Barton who we all love (John's chocokate labrador that we all assured John we were happy to have around). We were able to see some of the fruits of our previous labours and talking of fruits John insisted that we all picked a bag of tomatoes to take home... they are absolutely delicious. we finished the evening by being invited to the open evening social at the end of the month.

7. The opportunity to spend the evening with a group of people that are just .... well fab.