Big Goodgym Stockport welcome to Natalie and Fred!

On a banger of an evening, 6 Goodgym firecrackers met at Life Leisure to run the ~3 km to Merseyway shopping centre, and specifically to Plastic Shed.

After the uphill run through Edgeley, on yet another home Stockport County FC game night, we were sparkling with perspiration and eager to put the Catherine Wheels in motion to sort through some plastic bottle tops... little did we know that we were needed for a much more en-lightening task.

Hidden away in yet another hidy hole, where nearly 1 million sorted lids are also stored, was a mountain of plastic bags 5 feet high with other soft plastic that had been donated over the years. Our task was to separate them into colours and remove any unwanted plastic that their equipment would struggle with.

Over an hour and 10 min later, we broke the back of the pile of plastic, leaving only embers of shredded plastic at the end. The task really ignited our desire to reduce plastic use and we have a good idea of the most popular bread brands in the area - Warburton's Danish White coming in top place.

We may be back soon! Keep an eye on their Instagram too for more pics of the task.

As part of the ThisGirlCan #LetsLifeTheCurfew, we got together for a social run to highlight the importance of safety during running in the darker evenings 🌃

We met at Life Leisure Avondale and ran a 5km loop round Edgeley and Shaw Health whilst dodging Stockport County fans on their way to a home match ⚽️

Tonight we welcomed Victoria to GoodGym Stockport - it was great to meet you and we hope you can persuade your colleague to join us soon!

St Gabriel's Mission Church in Adswood have been having a tidy up around their grounds. With the hedges encroaching onto the pavement, they had a cut chopping session during the day time but nobody to clear up afterwards.

So who might they ask?

Goodgym Stockport of course! Hannah, Meera and Ben ran the 3 km from Life Leisure Avondale, fully lit up with bike lights and flashy armbands following a convoluted route to Adswood. We met Heather upon arrival who had already started clearing some of the branches and leaves so we donned gloves and got stuck in.

Using the old adage of "many hands make light work" we quickly removed all of the prickly branches, leaves, and other shrubbery into 2-3 large rubble bags, to leave the path accessible to passers by. We loaded up the van with settled bags of branches and tree stumps that would be unloaded at the tip the following day.

We got a quick pic at the end before making our way back, using Heather's local knowledge to take a slightly less convoluted route.

Good task and good group to get the job done. We even got the chance to snap a lit up Halloween decorated house on the way.

Edgeley Community Church asked for help with clearing the weeds in their back garden.

Six GoodGymers set to and within an hour, we'd managed to fill three green bins (!!) and made the area look much more tidy.

We're getting our last few gardening tasks done before the clocks go back and the darkness sets in!

It was lovely to welcome Katie from GoodGym Trafford back to another of our tasks!