Tonight... NINE of us gathered to help Age UK Barnsley with a painting task and celebrate GoodGym Barnsley's 2nd Birthday!

An eager and hungry group of us set off from the usual start point, warmed up by high knees, zombie walking, lunges and squat frog jumps! Once we'd reached the pedestrian area of town, I got the group running in a chain, with the back runner increasing their speed to get to the front of the line. This brought everyone's heart rate up nicely on what was to be a very short run!

We were back at Age UK for the second time, to finish a painting job we started in July. We'd previously painted all four walls in the room with one coat of emulsion so tonight's task was to do a second coat and gloss the paintwork. Everyone grabbed their preferred tool and we had half the group rollering the walls and half doing the edges. James' height came in handy again as he foccused on the edges between the wall and ceiling! Tonight's topic of conversations centered around travelling, holidays and food, oh we're a cultured bunch! Once we'd finished the walls we finished up by glossing the skirting boards and tidying everything away.

By this time we were all starving and very much looking forward to our evening celebrating our 2nd birthday! It's not often that we sit down and catch up outside of GG so everyone was in high spirits and hungry! We ran the 400m to the restaurant, The Falco Lounge, a newly opened place with cool decor and fashionable food! It was a lovely evening with a great group of people!

It's been an amazing year - we have achieved a lot, helped new charities and gained new members!

In the past 12 months, GG Barnsley has helped 22 groups/charities/stakeholders. Of those 22, 14 are new to us in this last 12 months.

The group's we've helped are:

• Friends of Locke Park
• ELSH
• Barnsley Council (central area team, kingstone ward, town hall)
• Carers garden
• ELIM Church
• Wilthorpe Park
• Penny Pie Park
  
• YMCA - the main buliding and the allotment
  
• Lavender Court Together Housing
  
• New Lodge Community Centre
  
• Park Run Barnsley
  
• Hope In The Community
  
• Bluebell Wood Children's hospice
  
• BSARCS
• Trans Pennine Trail
• Ardsley Park
• BIADS
• Worsbrough Common Community Centre
• Emmanuel Church
• Athersley North Recreation ground
• Age UK
• Worsbrough Mill

We have done everything and anything asked of us - tasks included painting, gardening, litter picking, putting up and moving furniture, fundraising, fixing things, destroying things, laying gravel, cleaning toys, tidying, playing games with the elderly, sweeping sand, making christmas hats, putting up decorations AND digging for raspberries! To name a few!

Some of our successes this year:

• Gained more members
• Reached more groups in the community
• Three members of task force
• Two new run leaders
• Adopting part of the TPT
• Social evening with elderly residents

Quality rather than quantity

Many hands make light work!

Thank you to everyone, you should be very proud of everything you have done to help the local community in Barnsley!