It's always satisfying to be able to complete a job in one session - and we did that for St Edmund Campion this week.

Eight GoodGymers were tasked with painting over a mural in the school courtyard, ready for new designs by the children. They're transforming the courtyard in memory of a much-loved teacher who recently passed away.

We quickly set to work on the wall, covering Jesus (who Sol thought looked a bit like Joe Wicks ) with a green backdrop for some garden-themed painting to follow.

As there wasn't quite enough space, or paintbrushes, for us all to be painting, a few volunteers did some weeding and dead-heading of the plants at the same time.

We weren't quite as quick as a Joe Wicks workout, but within an hour we'd got the job done, covered in minimal paint ourselves. We look forward to seeing what the children do with their blank canvas.

The answer is definitely tu-lip! But that is not the question. The real question is what colour the tulips will be, and we can't wait to see them come up this Spring so we can find out. Thanks to a large donation of mixed tulip bulbs, we will have plenty of light (and dark!) bulb moments this week. Today's was at St Edmund Campion Primary, where the tulips will add a splash of colour to the wildflower bed at the entrance to school before the wildflowers come up and have their moment of glory. Even though it was a grey day it felt lovely to be out in the fresh air chatting and digging with Sarah, Gillian and Rachel. Well done team!

We discovered the grass isn’t always greener when two GoodGymers helped St Edmund Campion prepare their flower bed for planting.

The school asked us to turn over the soil ready for the children to sow their wildflower seeds when they return from their Easter break.

A combination of dry ground following the recent sunshine, and the carpet of grass growing through underneath it made this a good workout - but with the help of task owner Sarah and her daughter we completed our good weed for the day!

PS. Welcome to Maidenhead, Andy - look forward to seeing you on another mission soon!

We returned for another paint job at St Edmund Campion. Getting there is half the run, we were off to a great art with a walk/run to the school.
On our walk to the school Tara and Kanika noticed some road painting that was in need of the Goodgym magic touch. Kanika, Jess, Diya, Anita, Tara and Nivi were quick on the draw with a start on the inside of the fence posts.
There was no chance of us getting hot under the colour it was absolutely freezing. To keep us all toasty Amy led a quick up session us warm top to glow. We didn't quite complete all the post painting but it looks bright and colourful.

As the task drew to a close Sophie, Michelle, Amy, Dean, Juli, Georgeta and Nicola ran as fast as their legs cold carry them.

Well done to everyone who came out on this mild December evening for our last group run of 2021.

After a quick 'round the tree' warm up including all the sumo squats, mini sheep, etc that we are all coming to know and love, I enjoyed a lovely, chatty, 1.5km walk to St Edmund Campion School with Anita. Meanwhile, Georgeta, Jack, Jen, Jess, Matt, ran 4km in search of Christmas lights, arriving just 5 minutes after us.

Our task for the evening was more rainbow fence painting, picking up where we left off when we came in November. We can paint a rainbow, paint a rainbow... By George, this is a long fence! We tried to be Zippy, but we didn't want to Bungle it so we didn't quite finish it. Not to worry, we hope to return in January for round three...

Once our time was up we enjoyed some juice (thank you to the school for leaving this for us!) and a quick obstacle course before walking and running the more direct but uphill route back to our start location. There we stretched, reviewed Sophie's potential wardrobe malfunction situation (seam still in tact - phew!) and said our Merry Christmases and goodbyes.

Special mentions go to Jen for her festive figgy pudding headband and to Jack and Georgeta, who both hit personal records for distance run this evening. Well done also to Sophie, who did her 15th December Daily Dash this evening, taking her total December distance to 75km. She and the other dashers will have passed the half way point by the end of Thursday - epic stuff!

The evenings are dark and chilly now, but that didn't stop Dean, Diya, Georgeta, Jack,Kanika, Nicola, Ruth and Sophie joining me this evening to get fit and do some good. A big welcome to newcomer Jack - he only moved into the area 9 days ago and its brilliant that he's got stuck into GoodGym so soon!

We started the fun by playing the beans game to warm up - pretending to be jumping beans, runner beans, French beans (we did the can-can and Diya added a beautiful 'ooh la la'), and so on. Perhaps the best thing about this was how Dean arrived and didn't seem to find it all odd that we were all wiggling and wobbling around being 'jelly beans'.

Then we set off on the school run. Kanika and Diya walked approximately 1.5km, while the rest of us ran a more circuitous 3km. Kudos to Dean, who threw in an extra hill here or there just for fun, and thanks to Georgeta for back marking.

Our task at St Edmund Campion School was to refresh the paint on a colourful picket fence and to paint some new playground equipment with preservative. Sophie and Nicola made a bee line for the play equipment (it looked like a bar, so...), while the rest of us tackled the fence, chatting happily about everything from sailing to scaffolding as we worked. As the designated section of the fence neared completion, Jack, Kanika, Diya, and Georgeta drifted over to the bar to help 'quality controller' Sophie with the finishing touches.

Then onto the highlight of this evening - time to celebrate Kanika's 50th good deed! Kanika joined GoodGym Windsor & Maidenhead around 6 months ago, bringing with her a handful of good deeds from GoodGym Newham. She's been on a roll ever since - helping out with everything from weeding to spreading woodchip, with a particular penchant for painting and an awesome commitment to helping at the Maidenhead vaccination clinic. Kanika embraces the fitness side of GoodGym too, with lots of bike rides to community missions in Windsor, walks here, there and everywhere, and a new-found enjoyment for running too! Kanika we love having you as part of the team. Congratulations on your fantastic achievement!

We celebrated with 50 jumping jacks, 50 squats of various kinds, a medal presentation, and by scoffing lots of coconut macaroons. Yum!

A special mention also for Georgeta, who completed her 25th good deed this evening! I'm sure it wont be long before we are baking and making medals for you too Georgeta...

We finished off the evening with a 1.5km run back along Altwood Road and Boyne Hill Road, and some stretches. All in all a great evening! Well done team.