Last night was a special GoodGym Portsmouth session – and a little different from our usual Wednesday evening!

After a run led by Jen, we headed to Aspex Gallery, where we were joined by volunteers from across Portsmouth – 25 of us in total!

The evening was part of Aspex’s COMMUNAL programme and Portsmouth 100, celebrating 100 years of Portsmouth as a city. Huge thanks to Aspex for bringing us together to imagine the next 100 years of volunteering.

We were welcomed by a brilliant photo wall of 50+ GoodGym Portsmouth photos celebrating connection, joy and community.

And a huge shoutout to Alex from GoodGym Central, who joined us from London. Alex was there when GoodGym launched in Portsmouth in 2018!

Using Appreciative Inquiry, we shared stories of volunteering at its best and explored what made those experiences special. Our themes included joy, purpose, friendship, community, environmental impact, inspiration – and embracing the weird!

Then we jumped forward to 2126, imagining the National Volunteering Awards. The acceptance speeches were hilarious, heartwarming and full of ideas about the future.

Perhaps in 100 years we won’t need litter picking because nobody drops litter anymore. ❤️

We finished by asking how we can share the story of volunteering – including asking “How do you help your community?” rather than “What do you do?”, and celebrating what’s in it for volunteers: friendship, connection, confidence, purpose and joy.

Because volunteering isn’t just about giving.

It’s about what we create together. ❤️

Huge thanks to Aspex, Portsmouth 100, Ideas Alliance, GoodGym Central and everyone who came along.

Here’s to the next 100 years! 🌱

Wow, what a turn out! It was great to see so many GoodGymers out tonight - thank you everyone for coming.

We welcomed Dani from GoodGym Lewisham for a spot of GG Tourism whilst he is house-sitting locally, and met Lucifer for his first ever session - head to their profiles to give them a cheer!

Tom had plenty of tasks for us tonight, the main job being spreading woodchip over the children's play area and around the pond. With lots of lifting and shifting, and plenty of raking, many hands made light work of the task.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team got to work weeding and pruning on the side path of the orchard. We temporarily lost David to a large bush where he was extracting a bramble. Sinéad's trimming of the rosemary bush left a pleasant aroma for the rest of the evening. The discovery of Fred the Frog led to a lot of distraction, and even a photoshoot, courtesy of Jane.

We enjoyed and evening of education, with history lessons with Jim, spanish with Dani and nature studies with Sinead. Other conversation topics includes Sandi Toksvig, Mastermind and David the Gnome.

We ended the session with picking apples and grapes, ready for our lunchboxes for the rest of the week.

Fran, Rebecca and I whizzed around this small green space and made a big difference!

Today we welcomed Fran to her 1st Victoria Park session. We were all tasked with weeding and clearing the beds and path between the Portsea and McKenzie Gates. Pushing back the grasses, leaves and weeds encroaching the pathway - clearing lots of sticky weed amongst the plants. We were sheltered from the wind and the rain held off fortunately. After filling quite a few buckets, we were able to sit in the sun with refreshments after finishing the session. The roses are starting to bloom and smell lovely. Plus the two new baby long-eared bunnies have arrived and are really cute if you're passing.