The Choir with No Name is an organisation close to Good Gym’s heart as Ema, our Area Activator manages the choir and one of our Good Gymers, Steph sings with them. It’s such a brilliant charity. A weekly meet for people who have been affected by homelessness or who have felt marginalised in any way. This annual concert is a real highlight in the Christmas calendar. Sian, Heetu and Sallyann walked to the Tung Auditorium on this chilly December evening. Miriam walked up from Lime Street station and Ellie joined us a bit later straight from Christmas shopping in town. We were walked through the plan of action by Cat from the choir. We were on donation bucket duty, merch selling and survey promoting. We were across our stations as people arrived, during the interval and at the end but then we got to sit down in our balcony seats and watch the concert. It was amazing. Our very own Steph put in an impressive solo performance during the second song. The choir were joined on stage by the Asylum Link choir who performed a welcome song from Togo amongst others and a beautiful song penned by a local musician called ‘Bridges not Walls’ which had the whole auditorium up on their feet. The choir from Person Shaped Support ‘sing sing sing’ also put in a set that was moving and heartfelt. The Choir with No name sung some amazing festive tunes including Scouse Christmas classic ‘The Power of Love’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood which was rousing. Our Ema had a dedication made to her from the choir, a song called ‘Dominick the Donkey’ for which she had encouraged as much silliness as possible in her absence. The choir spoke of how they missed her so much. The choir gave a special thank you to Good Gym for their fundraising efforts at the recent Santa Dash. The choir talked about how their meets offered a ‘soft landing’ to their members; a place to call home. They talked about the meaning of home, whether it’s a physical place, the people you know or a feeling of belonging and that all of these things were important for a home and I think Good Gym definitely shares this sentiment. Our buckets were full of generous donations by the end of the night and we all felt thoroughly festive. Thank you Choir With no Name for having us.

The Santa Dash has been a regular fixture in the Goodgym Liverpool Christmas calendar, and this time we were participants and fundraisers. This event grows and grows - we heard over the tannoy that with over 11,000 Santas, this is the largest Dash in the world!

Steph, Clara, Miriam, Dike, Rachel and Bekah donned the red suits to run, and Pauline and Steph showed their colours with blue suits to walk the route with friends and family. Leonardo was intrigued by the idea of thousands of Santas running around the city centre, and came out to support the runners and see it for himself - yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. We passed pubs already full of Santas, and Leo was surprised at how early the Santas had started on the beer. Those of us more familiar with the dash - less so.

We were fundraising for The Choir With No Name, a choir for those impacted by homelessness or otherwise marginalised by society. Each week the choir meet for a cuppa and a catch up, choir practice, then sit down to share a hot meal. With a budget of less than £40 to feed up to 55 people (!) this type of fundraising makes a real difference. At the time of writing, the Goodgym Liverpool team have collectively raised over £775, a fantastic amount which will go directly to the Liverpool chapter we've volunteered with before.

It was a pleasure to meet Rachel for the first time, who was instrumental in the fundraising and contributed some very generous donations. Lovely to meet you Rachel - we hope to see you at a Goodgym task soon.

The Santas worked their way around the route through the city centre, and even the rain couldn't dampen the festive spirit and the streets were lined with people cheering us on. We were serenaded by a choir, treated to live music, joined by stilt walkers and the running Santas even struck up their own songs as they ran (no mean feat). Due to terrible planning, this was Bekah's third 5k in 26 hours (with Sally Ann partly to blame for making those stickers so damn appealing at yesterday's Goodgym monthly parkrun), but this was the big one, and with the thought of all those generous donations pushing her on, she was able to dash the dash and finish the third and final run of the weekend. Several of our runners were either new to 5ks or getting back into it gradually, and everyone put in a fantastic effort and exceeded their own expectations - we came away with some well deserved medals!

It's a lovely event, super fun to see the Santas all over the city and such wonderful community spirit. See you next year!

P.S. many thanks to Clara for the winning pun!

This week we were back to join Elaine on Park Lane for a mammoth weeding session.

We have been working on this sight through thick and thin, contending various weeds at different times of year. This time, it was the turn of the thistle and the site had become somewhat overrun with them.

Thankfully we had a fabulous team of 11 goodgymmers to wage war on them!

In no time we had cleared the majority and left the site in a much better state. Well done everyone!