Last night’s GoodGym Nottingham task was meant to see us helping at the Meadows Foodbank. However, for the second week running, a last-minute change of plan was needed, this time due to illness (get well soon Mark!).

Luckily, Leah had a stash of purple bags and gloves in her car, so not to be defeated again, we quickly switched gears and turned our attention to litter picking around the local area. As there were so many of us, we split into two groups and collectively managed to fill 4 bags of litter which had been lurking amongst the fallen leaves – impressive given how clean and tidy the area actually looked and that some of us were wheeling bikes around whilst picking!

It may not have been the task we originally planned, but we still got out, got moving and made a difference. Thanks to everyone who came for being so adaptable, and we will hopefully reschedule our visit to the Foodbank for a future week.

A big welcome to Georgie who joined us for the first time!

Next week we will be at the Brandon Lawerence Sports Centre – sign up here.

On the chilliest night of the season so far, nine GoodGymers returned to the Meadows Foodbank and Pantry for our Wednesday task. Mark always has lots of lovely jobs in store for us and this evening was no exception.

Jules, Marie and Rachel worked through a pile of recent donations in the clothing section, picking out anything that was warm and wintry to go on the clothes rails. Anything else was sorted and put away in the boxes and some items were bagged up for the charity shop.

Meanwhile, Leah and Nigel headed upstairs to the stock room, finding the nearest and furthest ‘best before’ dates on a range of food items. Tom and Hannah started making up some small bags of miniature toiletries that had been donated to the foodbank, whilst Matt and Khiltee sorted out some toiletries gift bags upstairs before heading down to help out on the shop floor.

We welcomed Marie to her first ever GoodGym task, we hope to see you again! We were also joined by Talia, a journalism student from Nottingham Trent university, who is writing a report on community initiatives as part of her final year assessment project. It was lovely to chat about GoodGym with Talia and we wish her the best of luck with her report (hopefully we will see her back as a GoodGym volunteer in future!).

Thank you to Mark for hosting this at the foodbank. It's always such a pleasure to do tasks there and we hope to return very soon.

Florence, Jules and I went along to help clear up after the annual Cat Patrol Christmas event at St Jude's Church.

As was the case last year, the event volunteers had a lot of the packing up under control, but we were glad to be able to assist with sweeping the large halls, emptying some of the bins and giving a bit of love and attention to the star of the show, Darwin the cat.

Darwin had spent the afternoon greeting visitors alongside Santa himself, so didn't seem too keen when we asked for a photo, but it had to be done.

Jules and first-time GoodGymer, Gabrielle, attended a recent volunteer day at the Forever Stars Serenity Garden in Highfields Park, Nottingham. They were part of a team helping to prepare the garden for it's next petal installation day. Find out more on the Forever Stars Facebook post..

Forever Stars is an East Midlands charity dedicated to supporting families who've experienced stillbirth, infant loss, and perinatal or neonatal death. They provide a range of services and facilities, including the Serenity Garden which opened in 2021. The Serenity Garden currently has two sculptures within the grounds. These sculptures have been designed for petals to be added to them when families wish to have a remembrance petal for their baby.