How many GoodGymers does it take to put a ladder up? We're still not sure...but we had a very enthusiastic turnout for a Wednesday night of chair-fixing, painting, and plenty of cake at Maidenhead Community Centre.

As well as our tasks for the evening, we held a belated celebration for our amazing friend Kanika, who recently marked an incredible 500 good deeds! We were reminded of the poem written when she reached 100 (repeated here with an extra 400 added for good measure):

500 good deeds by Kanika!

This GoodGymer is one awesome chica.

Skilled with a paintbrush, a spade or rake,

And she doesn’t fuss when she can’t have the cake.

She’s always smiling, thoughtful and calm

An animal lover, who would do no harm.

Her capacity for good knows no limits,

She even bought us all baby Guinness.

She cycles here and there on her Carrera

Even the Brighton 50km didn’t scare her!

She walks a lot too and even parkruns

She inspires others to get off their bums.

As a Taskforce member she goes beyond and above

She helps me share the GoodGym love.

She has lead on over 30 a session

And she fits this all in around her other obsession...

You think I mean Diya, but that’s not it!

I’m talking about a team with a red and white kit

Thank you Arsenal for bringing Kanika to the UK!

And now there’s only one thing left to say…

We love you Kanika, we do

We love you Kanika, we do

We love you Kanika, we do

Oh Kanika, we love you!

Thank you to everyone for coming, to Rachel and Sheila for the yummy baked goods, Amy for a medal complete with a tiny high-vis jacket, and to Georgeta for being brave enough to scale the ladder!

Eleven crafty Goodgymers gathered at the Community centre to create colourful bunting. First they carefully drew around the templates to make six triangles on each felt sheet. Next they cut out the triangles and arranged them into a coloured sequence. Finally they were stuck on string in a repeating pattern. The bunting looked amazing and will help decorate the library for Maidenhead's Big Read on 7th and 8th of March.

A single wall stood no chance against the onslaught of roller brushes and paint brush wielding not-so-dirty dozen Goodgymmers!

The photos "paint" the full picture of this evenings session. Task owner and GGer Jack was very pleased with the output of this fantastic group.

Watch this space for another potential session for a second coat.

Shift 3 of the Lantern Parade felt like a breeze! Angela and Jess stayed back from the previous shift to help (thank you!).

The seven of us working alongside the Norden Farm staff and other volunteers, made light work of the post-event clean up. After reclaiming lantern sticks from the public, we grouped them into batches of 10 per their colour. These were efficiently taped together and transferred to the library side of the road where a van was parked to load 'em up. We also helped gather discarded lanterns, remove signs from lampposts and Anne-Laure even did some heavy lifting to help the Stage crew.

Everyone - including task owner Kayleigh - was surprised at how fast things got done. The new high-vis vests courtesy Viv, got a good outing (and photographing) and we all walked away satisfied and happy to have been part of this joyful annual event once again!

Viv, Sheila, Mike and myself met at the Maidenhead Town Hall and welcomed Frances to her first GoodGym deed. We were the first shift out of three GoodGym shifts today at the Norden Farm Lantern Parade. We were tasked with preparing the lanterns, attaching them to wooden sticks with batteries and wiring, ready to be connected and handed out to the children before the parade would start. The theme this year was Animals and each school made their own paper lanterns, each school featuring an animal. Anything from swans, badgers, ladybirds to cats, foxes and some other hard to identify creatures... Along with other voluteers, we made light work of that, and the lanterns were ready in no time. Next we placed some posters on lampposts, as instructed and, finally, we had a moment of respite before the public was due to arrive, and the handover to GoodGym shift 2. Good time for a cuppa and a group chat. We hope Frances has enjoyed her first GoodGym session and looking forward to seeing her on many more to come.

Sophie and Sol met for a gentle 1km jog to the task location and met the rest of the group (plus Flora the dog!) and task owner Helen by the park, after we'd admired the Christmas lights on one particular house that had really made an effort! Helen handed out litter pickers, bags and gloves and we split into small teams. Helen had specific areas in mind that were the hot spots for litter so we set to work after a short health and safety briefing. After an hour we had collected around 8-9 large bags of litter! Great job everyone we definitely made a big difference and lots of passers by were thanking us.