10 Goodgymmers ran, walked and cycled their way to the beautiful Ray Mill Island on the shores of the Thames to help the Friends of Ray Mill Island sand picnic benches.

This fantastic new community group have taken on the task of looking after Ray Mill Island to help provide a more welcoming area for visitors. Goodgym have previsouly helped to paint the toilet block so a new mural can be painted to cheer the area up. Tonight the group were tasked with sanding the picnic benches to prepare them for a coat of varnish. This will help to maintain them and ensure they last for longer for people to enjoy.

We met task owner Nivi and other members of the Friends of Ray Mill Island group including new Goodgym recruit Dionne! (Welcome!. We were handed sandpaper and blocks and set to work. Although this sounds a simple task, it was no picnic. A great arm workout was in store and the benches began to spring into life.

After and hour of sanding and chatting 9 benches were ready for a new coat of varnish.

A Goodgym task would not be complete without a little fitness session. Tara had joined us and led us through a standing yoga session. This was a calming end to the evening in a quiet corner of Maidenhead.

No man is an island…but Ray Mill is one! We were excited to head to an arty task for our Wednesday night session this week, supporting newly-formed community project Friends of Ray Mill Island.

Our mission was to help volunteers from the project to paint the back wall of the island’s toilet block white. This provides a blank canvas for artist Virginie Colin, who will be creating a beautiful mural celebrating the diverse wildlife in the surrounding area.

In the glorious evening sunshine we were soon on a roll-er, and we enjoyed hearing more about the Friends’ plans for the island. As well as the painters, Diya, Kanika and Sara got to work on sanding down some benches that were in need of a bit of TLC. And a big shout out to Adam and Nivi, who arrived early and did some hedge trimming too.

A warm welcome to Julie, who joined us for the first time this evening and did a great job as part of the painting team.

If you’d like to find out more about what the Friends have planned, there is a Community Open Day on the island from 3-7pm on Sunday 23 June.

We can’t wait to see Virginie’s amazing artwork unveiled and follow the progress of this project.