👋 An incredible 35 people arrived for our group run tonight. There was a lot to celebrate, including two people attending their first task - both called Nick! Welcome to both of you. We also had Pete winning our prestigious GoodGymmer of the month for some excellent good-deeding and helpfulness in September. Well done Pete! We also had a duathlon, 15k PB and marathon PB to celebrate - well done everyone.

🏃‍♀️ 🚴 We warmed up all together then split into two groups for our tasks, with running and cycling groups. 10 people headed to Rowntree Park to help set up the Make Space for Girls art installation. Here's what Lucy had to say about it:

🛏️ Following a preliminary trip to prepare the ground in August, we returned to Rowntree Park to support an art installation as part of the Make Space for Girls project. Based on the concept of creating a safe space - the bedroom - outdoors, it involved carefully positioning (and half-burying) a table, bedside cabinet and headboard in the ground. The earth was still fairly hard after the recent dry spell, but the team set to work with a will, using all the tools available (spade, fork, hoe, sharpened stake...) to "bed" everything in as securely as possible. The artwork looks fantastic and it was great to be able to support this great initiative for girls.

🪏 Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to Park Grove School to help maintain the forest school area. There was plenty to dig up and cut back so we all got stuck in, with a huge range of tool sizes, from the small children's hand forks to the full-sized versions.

🐝 Unfortunately, a wasp/bee nest was found and a couple of people got stung. Not very fair karma for the good they were doing. But Vicky acted quickly and we avoided that area for the rest of the task.

🙌 Luckily, there was plenty of space to be able to avoid that area and we managed to make good progress clearing the space.

💪 After that, it was time for a group photo and then a proper fitness session! Still fun though, especially attempting to traverse a child-sized climbing wall!

🍰 Soon, it was time to head back to base/the pub to enjoy some delicious lemon drizzle cake, courtesy of Babs. Thank you! We also enjoyed some fairly in-depth chat about campanology (although apparently bell ringers prefer the term bell ringer...) 🔔

👍 Thanks everyone, and see you soon!

We loved the sound of this innovative art project as part of Make Space for Girls at Rowntree Park. An installation depicting an outdoor bedroom will be going up in in early September, and we were tasked with digging some holes for the furniture. The ground was fairly solid due to the ongoing heatwave, but we made a good start and the artist appreciated our help. Hopefully we will be back soon to support the next stage of this fantastic project!

With Pete and Catherine enjoying a walk along the river to the task we were joined by James and soon put to work taking a gazeebo down, moving various tables and chairs and general tidy up. Much appreciated by Abigail and her small team and if anyone wants to help set up next sat with Mitch at Homestead Park many hands make light work....

On a hot Friday lunchtime, with temperatures well above 36 Degrees, Good Gymers met in Rowntree Park to assist with preparations for the Make Space For Girls event. Rowntree Park aren't Scared of Girls, in fact they'd like to see more of them, and this event aims to make the park more welcoming to girls and young women.

Led by the fabulous Babs, GG helped to check the gazebos were fully operational, as with any outdoor event there's always a risk of English Summer Rain. Lucy, Jane and Babs did the heavy lifting, Dragging log-filled wheelbarrows at top speed, and Lyndsey and Hannah helped spray paint signs. We reconvened below the Fit Brickhouse (aka the cafe), agreed that we'd made it to The Bitter End of the task and headed out to enjoy the park with friends.

Barbara Lucy Hannah Lyndsey Jane

Friday fun club assembled at Rowntree Park to help Stuart with a few tasks on his list. The main task was moving some more (and quite large) sedge plants and replanting them near the edge of the pond alongside those previously relocated by GG on an earlier task.
Elle and Jenna were tasked with moving some logs across to the store whilst myself and Lyndsey moved some empty plant pots in the garden behind the café (and rehomed a frog in the process).

Once the pots had been successfully moved we joined the sedge team and finished off the last couple of holes and helped get the largest sedge plant dug in.

Stuart has more tasks for us to do so we may be back again next Friday!

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!