Tonight’s GoodGym mission in Maidenhead was a sandy one! While beach cleans aren’t exactly common around here, this one came with a twist—we weren’t cleaning the beach, we were removing it.

A couple of months ago, we helped create the pop-up beach for Norden Farm’s summer festivities. But with autumn creeping in and flip-flops firmly back in storage, it was time to bid farewell to the sandpit!

Shifting 13 tonnes of sand is no small feat—and definitely tougher than laying it out in the first place! But the GoodGym crew rose to the challenge. With teamwork, grit, and sandy socks, we helped the Norden Farm staff make a serious dent in the dunes. There’s still a bit left to tackle, but the bulk of the beach has officially been packed away.

6 GoodGymers helped out at the Kite Festival run by the wonderful Norden Farm. This is a lovely, free event, and the people of Maidenhead turned up in their droves. Viv helped with the set-up of the event, putting up gazebos and signage to help with the smooth-running of the day. Lisa was stationed at the entrance, encouraging people to make donations to help with costs and fund future events. Rachel and Sheila armed themselves with litter-pickers, although generally not much litter was dropped. It was perfect weather for kite-flying and it was lovely to see so many kites airborne and whoops of delight from the children. It was such a happy atmosphere. Georgeta and Jen joined us for the take-down but not before we had enjoyed some of the music and joined in with the bird rave (you had to be there!) . Jen took down all the signs from around site whilst we did a final litterpick, and then were sent out to remove the big advertising banners from the roadside with some rather inadequate scissors! A fun event that was great to be part of, and Jen can recommend the gelato!

Five Goodgymers got their steps in delivering leaflets to spread the word of the upcoming Kite Festival at Boyn Grove park for Norden Farm.

Splitting into two groups and disappearing into familiar residential routes for some. After an hour each and all leaflets delivered we reconvened and discussed our opinions of the houses we visited.

Big house, small houses, angry dogs, surprise dogs through cat flaps and eager residents snatching the leaflet from the letterbox before we made it off the drive.

We compared sizes and shapes of letter box or sometimes no letter box. It turns out delivering leaflets requires more skill and a higher step count than we thought.

All good fun.

7 Goodgymmers paraded around Maidenhead in the rain delivering leaflets for the Norden Farm Latern Parade!

The team met and after a swift briefing and photo they split into two groups. Jen, Anne-Laure and Georgetta set off to cover Fotherby Court and Langdale Close whilst Ben, Angela, Viv and Jess covered the Wallingford Way estate.

The Wallingford gang finished quite rapidly as there were lots of inaccessible flats and so they set off to meet the others and finsh off their area. It seems this team were speed leafletters as everything was soon done......but Jess had another estate up her sleeve and so everyone headed for Greenfields and rapidly dispatched more leaflets.

Discussions tonight covered the variances in location of front doors and also height of letterboxes - some down low, requiring some squatting to reach, and others just right for a small forward lunge and arm extension! Overall this task had it all - Do Good and Get Fit!!

With some leaflets left over everyone took a handful to deliver in their local streets.....the more the merrier at the latern parade! a little washed out we took another photo, but I'll let you guess in which order the photos were taken!

Norden Farm's Kite Festival was on today and GoodGym was on hand to help out all day from start until the end.

Act 1: Sol joined the first shift helping with the set up which included unloading and assembling tables, chairs and wind banners. She did a round of litter pick around the site as well.

Act 2: Diya and Kanika got to escort Nordenia, the queen of Norden Farm, around the park. She has grown much taller in this past year! They then litter picked around the site, enjoying the multitude of kites dotting the sky (and the ground). Another round with Nordenia and some more litter pick ended their shift.

Act 3: Roberta and Sheila took up the mantle of Nordenia escorting and litter picking. They spotted another GoodGymmer Lisa who was around in Norden Farm's yellow rather than GG red helping out on the day as well. Angela got the very tough task (no, seriously) of guarding the separate area for professional kite fliers. She spent her entire shift baking in the sun!

Act 4: Georgeta joined Sheila to help with the end of day take down. It wasn't easy as nobody wanted to leave with the weather being so good and warm. They managed to get some gazebos packed up and litter picked the site one final time. And Georgeta took some beautiful close-ups of a few stunning kites.

An absolutely brilliant event that we love supporting and great to see it be such a success!

2 goodgymers answered the call from Norden Farm to deliver leaflets about their family events to homes in the area. And it was raining. A lot. And I forgot to take a photo until home!🤣