It was beginning to feel a bit like Christmas yesterday as GoodGym Nottingham took part in a very special task for the charity, Bags of Blessings.

Matt, Rachel W, Vicky, Rachel L and first-time GoodGymer, Jess, met at 11am and were greeted enthusiastically by Chris and Cathy. They gave us an introduction to the charity’s work and the amazing things they do and, after a quick Health and Safety briefing from Mike, we were ready to start work (but not before Cathy had made a round of tea and coffee to warm us up!).

Our job was to pack toys and gifts into bags which would be distributed to young people in need around Nottingham in the run up to Christmas. The items had already been sorted into age ranges and either male, female or non-gender specific, so we split these between us and worked our way through various age and gender groups. As well as toys, the bags were packed with things like books, soft teddies, stationery sets, crayons, some items of clothing, stocking fillers and a Christmas card (items varied depending on the age of the recipient).

At one point our pile of Christmas cards started running low, so Vicky took on the task of composing and writing festive messages in a pile of cards. Matt and Jess also finished up by stickering a pile of stationery sets that had already been put into bags.

Once the bags are packed, they go off to another team of elves who wrap the gifts and pop them back in the bag. In early December, the amazing Bags of Blessings volunteers then distribute the bags among local foodbanks and projects who pass them onto the children.

We spent 2-hours on this task, but the time flew by. It was so much fun and a great atmosphere working alongside Chris, Cathy and Mike. All of our tasks are fun, but this one really felt like we were having a clear and direct impact on those in need, and whilst packing the bags we could literally imagine a child opening their bag on Christmas Day.

Before we left we did a quick calculation of how many bags we had packed – an impressive 270!! Credit to Matt who contributed over 80 of these (and was the only one of us to keep a personal total!), but overall we were chuffed with our efforts. The charity has managed to increase the number of bags given out every year since they began, and in 2024 they have plans to distribute well over 2000 bags. We are delighted to have contributed to this total!

A huge thank you to the GoodGymers who took part in this task and welcome to Jess.

See the photos for a list of items you can donate to Bags of Blessings and a list of donation points can be found at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Rq7G6jTP/

About Bags of Blessings

Bags of Blessings are a charity, local to Nottingham, which distributes donated gifts to deprived young people in the Nottingham area.

They put collection boxes in local schools, churches, and businesses, with the request for small, pocket money toys, stationery, books, or items of confectionery. They then sort the donations into age groups, gift wrap each item and put 4 or 5 gifts into a red cotton bag to be distributed to young people aged 0-16 via food banks, homeless and refugee charities or organisations which support disadvantaged children.

They believe that every child deserves to experience the magic of Christmas and Bags of Blessings steps in to help Father Christmas do this for thousands of children each year.

Five GoodGym Nottingham members made their way to Lindum Grove to help kathryn with some much-needed jobs around the community garden.

We welcomed new members Julia, Tim and Matthew, who were joined by Rachel W and Jules.

Kathryn would like to pass on a big thank you for another great GoodGym session. She was very grateful that some people even stayed longer than the hour to continue to help her out. Also thanks to Tim who fed back that it was 'a great feeling that I helped in a local community area'. We are glad to hear that everyone had fun!

A stonking 9 GoodGymers turned up for what I think was one of our most unusual litter picks yet. At least in terms of finds!

It was great to see so many people 😍 Special shoutouts to Chris for completing his very first GoodGym task, to Soliane who'd just got back in from a run round the corner and popped over to join us with about 3 minutes' notice, and to Nigel for completing his 15th task.

After pairing up, we spread out across the park and filled a wholly satisfying heap of bags with litter. And not just bottlecaps, crisp packets and cigarette butts. Not by a long shot. "Weirdest Item Wins" doesn't always get that weird, but the litter louts of St Mary's Rest Garden gave us so much, I have no idea who to award the honour to. What do you think?

We had:

• A coconut with straw
• A fur coat
• A car bumper
• A road sign
• A parasol umbrella
• A Blue Peter badge (appropriately found by Peter)

Sound off in the comments with your vote!

We returned to the beautiful Forever Stars Serenity Garden at Highfields Park for our latest task on a slightly breezy but fine evening in Nottingham (how many more of these light, warm Wednesday evenings do we have left this year…?).

We met Martyn on arrival who armed us with gardening gloves, tools and the kind offer of refreshments. We then set to work weeding the flower beds, starting around the pagoda area where most people sit. Martyn was in the process of painting the pagoda, so some of us had a few near-misses and almost got a bit of a splattering from above!

We welcomed 2 brand new GoodGymers to this task – Bobbie and Chris. It was lovely to meet you both and we hope you enjoyed your first task. Special mention must go to Bobbie who decided to also take on the job of edging the flower beds to neaten them up. She edged like a pro!

Whilst at the Serenity Garden, we also had the opportunity to check up on our young shrubs that we planted on our last visit (check out the report here). They were going strong, although the recent rain and warmer weather had caused some to be slightly hidden by the grass and weeds. Fortunately we had some time left at the end of the hour to try and clear some of this to give the shrubs more space.

A big well done to our volunteers on this task: Chris, Bobbie, Tom, Rachel W and Rosemarie

Thank you to Martyn at Forever Stars for having us once again.

Check out all our up-coming tasks around Nottingham here including our pub quiz next week - all welcome, please come and join us!!

Our latest task took us back to one of Nottingham’s most iconic locations, the Green’s Windmill and Science Centre.

A quick rainstorm in the afternoon caused us a bit of worry, but thankfully by 6.30pm the skies had cleared as six of us met up for our pre-task run. Leah, Nina and Rachel L had all arrived by bike (that’s a whopping 50% of the group!) so we quickly popped our bikes inside the windmill grounds before setting off. Oh, and Leah cycled for the first time so even more well done to her!!

Our mission was to find the Sneinton dragon which was a half a mile down the road. It was gentle slow jog so we didn’t get out of puff, ideal for having a good old chat and getting to know new members, Vicky and Luna, as we went.

According to its website, the dragon stands seven feet high and has a 15-foot wingspan, and ‘it lurks in the shade of the trees lining an urban street corner’. Some of us didn’t even know it existed despite driving past many times! After a quick photo with the dragon, we jogged back and did a few stretches before starting our task.

We were joined by Gaurav, Tom and Rachel W as we met Jamie from the windmill who explained what he needed us to do. Rachel W and Rose took on the job of painting one of the fences to neaten it up and weather-proof it. Meanwhile, the rest of us did more weeding of the paths around the flower beds and by the entrance gate. We were pleased to see that the sections we tackled on our last visit were still looking pretty clear, but the recent rain meant there were still plenty of weeds to get our claws into.

After an hour of work and a beautiful group photo under the apple tree, we jumped back on our bikes and feet and all headed home.

Thanks to Jamie for having us and to all our members who attended. Special welcome to Vicky and Luna - we hope to see you again very soon. Also a big well done to Tom who just returned from tackling his first ultra marathon in the Lake Distract where he finished an epic 15th in the Lakeland Trails Ultra 55k challenge!

WANT TO JOIN US NEXT TIME? Check out our up-coming sessions here.

Well, it was actually a Chinese lion, but you get the gist.

Rachel, Leah and her two Mini GoodGymers met up with Kathryn at Hermitage Square to help with the setup for the weekend's festival. We started out drawing a giant "yellow brick road" from the entrance to the main performance area with pavement chalk (definitely a job for the smaller ones to save the bigger ones' backs), then cable tied gazebos together, taped banners and tablecloths to tables, unloaded kit from cars, and got lots of bin bags ready.

Once we'd run out of jobs, we headed up to meet the parade at its start point on Edale Road, where we were met by Robert who'd been Parkrunning. We were given the honour of stewarding the front section of the parade, right behind a giant gramophone on top of a car and the Nottingham Chinese Lion Dance team. Not your average Saturday morning!

The parade was huge – much bigger than we had expected – and thankfully we had a pretty easy ride of it with no emergency services vehicles trying to get past, or anyone doing themselves a mischief. Even Leah.