Another sunny evening spent improving green spaces in Cambridge 🌿

We were back at The Fields Child and Family Centre working in the children's garden, which had been taken over by weeds. In need of some help to finish the work started by the Centre team, Sal called in the big guns. Known around the city for our elite weed-fighting skills, of course Goodgymers accepted the (community) mission.

Ilse, Beth and I jumped on bikes to make the dash to the Centre and Scott ran across town double-quick time (not at all because he was running late). We were delighted to welcome new recruit, Rowan, who joined us for her first task 🫡

Met by Sal, we got straight to work. Rowan, Scott and Beth were on weeding duty, Sal was sweeping, and Ilse and I cleared the raised beds (leaving grass in one for the dinosaurs, obviously).

It was T-shirt and shorts weather at last, and as some GoodGymers were wrangling copious amounts of mint, it was feeling fresh and summery. With many hands, we had the area cleared within the hour, leaving it ready for playing and planting over the coming weeks. We had chance to hear about the positive work Sal and her teams are doing in their Centres across Cambridge, both to improve the environment directly and providing learning opportunities for the community. 💚

Before we left we had time for a quick team photo, which would not have been out of place on an album cover from the early 2000s. Less squadron and more Blazin' Squad.

We did good, got fit, and stayed connected. GoodGym mission complete 🙌

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Pun credit: Scott

For today's session we combined fitness, business and pleasure with our leaflet delivery and monthly social!

Catherine, Beth and Caroline met first and caught up during for a gentle 4km run (made to a round number!), jogging across town to meet Michele 🏃‍♀️

The foursome then set off with leaflets promoting Arthur Rank Hospice's 'Star Shine Night Walk', pinning on supermarket notice boards and dropping off in pubs around town 🔦

We made sure to end at the fantastic Free Press pub for our March monthly social, where we bought an array of crisps as an extra treat to accompany our drinks. The jalapeño & dill divided the crowd, but we all kept going back for more! 🍻

A HUGE shout-out to Michele on her 10th good deed with Goodgym - congratulations! Here's to the next 10 🙌 🎉

A bit of soggy plogging for this evening's task.

Five Googymers braved the rain to help keep the streets of Cambridge clean and tidy. We jogged along Mill Road and split into two teams to litter pick our way back to the meet point. We found the usual coffee cups, plastic bottles, and a shocking number of cigarette butts. Nick had been at it before we met and collected a bag full of batteries! As a bonus we saw a Dinky Door (tiny street art), which is always fun.

The weather might have been miserable, but catching up and improving the local area always feels good.

We're half way through the January Challenge and we end the week with a few more kms and some all important good deeds.

Well done team 🙌

We had a tea-riffic time with Turtle Dove this evening, continuing the inventory of their stock.

3 GoodGymers walked, ran and cycled to the task, which was thankfully under cover and therefore much warmer!

This week saw Ilse putting her childrens wardrobe organising skills to good use by sorting uniform, Beth took on plates and I was on cutlery. Childhood time spent categorising marbles came in very handy! It was a team effort at the end, and 170 teaspoons and 153 butter knives later, we had got the cutlery categorised and counted. A very satisfying job.

We even had time to enjoy some cake 🧁