Gilly and I met to help Arbourthorne Community Centre with a massive clear out. Luckily, lots of their regular group members turned up to help.

First job was to shift a load of unwanted rubbish and furniture into a skip. The area we were clearing was a stage in the main hall, which is currently blocked off. The hope is to be able to open it up and use it in future for shows, including for the centre's singing group.

A list had been made of cleaning jobs for each room. We focused mostly on the hall, removing years of dust and cobwebs, then sweeping and mopping.

As the day went on, we talked to staff and clients and we learnt about the various groups and activities that go on at the centre. We learnt that they are looking to "relaunch" in the community and secure funding for more projects. To help with this, they will be having an open day, and that is the main reason for today's big clean.

Finally, we were treated to a fish and chip dinner. We left once we couldn't find any more jobs to do. The hall, entrance, office, kitchen, toilets, cafe and computer room all got a spruce - surfaces cleaned, carpets washed, floors swept, cupboards sorted. We achieved far more than was expected in one day! It just goes to show what can happen when a community pulls together ❤️💪

With GG run leader Ash in charge this week, we stormed up one of Sheffield's many hills to be greeted by GG Charlotte. 13 Goodgymers helped GG Charlotte spread the word about the York House 'Echo' Charity Shop through leafleting approx. 350 fliers to nearby houses. Echo is a great community charity shop, selling good quality second hand clothes, which GoodGym has helped expand through a number of clothes sorting and painting community missions.

Our activity tonight: If hill's weren't enough - to keep everyone together as a pack, Ash had GGrs squatting to regroup on the way up to City Road. Ascent successes - 380ft of ascent achieved tonight :) Well done team :)

Conscientious Charlotte ensured everyone was safe through pairing up leafleters (and one trio), to ensure no lone working. With ominous clouds forming, we headed out... At the end of the task, it had started to rain, we regrouped under the building roof while waiting for the last GGrs to return.
Notable mentions: - Serg's and Rob's joint hair tossing in the rain on regrouping following their run back up Castle Park Run heartbreak hill - all they were missing was a bottle of Herbal Essences
- James' homemade timber litter picker used during the task - Steve's Splendid Spoonful leafleting idea - Copy Kat brought along wooden spoons for team Kat and Bee to try - our fingers were saved :)

We ran back to the Showroom base in the rain. With the rain continuing, Goodgymers stretched off after our run in the nearby bus shelter :)

See you again :)

After a welcome cuppa, for this Sunday session we paired up to undertake a number of tasks to help GG Charlotte with the Echo project. Our tasks included: - Spring cleaning - clothes labelling - shirt ironing - stock rotating - litter picking - curtain rail fixing

We also welcomed new GG volunteer Claire on her first GG volunteering session.

We all got stuck into our tasks with many bags of litter collected, windows cleaned, clothes labelled, shirts ironed and a new arrangement of clothes displayed in the downstairs charity shop.

We finished our session with a lovely sharing lunch with amazing tasty treats made and brought for all including:

• samosas
• vege biryani
• salad
• poppadoms
• juices to drink
• raspberry and pistachio brownies
• bakewell tart
• prune loaf

yum yum yum yum yum said all of the goodgymers' tums

Tonight, we were met with a lovely cuppa and task briefing by GG Cheerful Charity-shop-leader Charlotte. 14 GGrs split into teams to: - move materials to clear a room for community use - segregate the remaining summer and winter clothing and store away the summer clothing - Shaaaar-room-sorter Steve did great stacking job of tidying away the summer clothes in this unused room - size/ colour code and arrange the clothes on the racks (that GGrs put out on the racks at the last GG community mission here) to make it easier for customers to search

9 GGrs finished the night with some last strava kms, undertaking a 2km run around the adjacent park together

Special mentions to: * GG Charlotte for another well planned task :)
* Sheffield January Challenge Helpful Hero Helen for topping the good deeds for January :)

Watch this space for future Echo community missions :)

Many GGrs met on a cold, wintery night to litter pick around these public sites... Helpful Helen brought litter pickers for all
to help us safely pick up the rubbish sprawl... We ran to many bins ...to get our strava metres in ....

5 GGrs completed the plog with lap of the park jog.

Good work team!

Another well attended community mission to support GG Charlotte's Echo Charity Shop project as part of our January Challenge.

There was no hanging about as one team of trusty goodgymers sorted through the coat hanger mountain into keep and recycle piles.

We organised the huge clothes donations out onto the racks for winter, and storing in the back room for summer.

Please join us next Friday for a return visit to Echo for another community mission at this project followed by sharing a group meal together at York House :)

We had a productive session, celebrated by a group photo and one peeping Tom (hiding in the clothes rack) :)