Chip chip hooray for Diya!

Another great session at Ockwells! When push comes to shovel, its hard to imagine anywhere I'd rather be on a Wednesday evening. Amy, Anna, Carina, Diya, Gillian, Juli, Kanika, Rosie and Sheila had a great workout and lots to celebrate too as Diya completed her 50th good deed! Find out more about Diya's superstar achievements in the cake part of the report.

A very warm welcome to Rosie, who joined us for the first time this evening. It is fantastic to see that you've already signed up for your next good deed! And congratulations to Gillian on your first GoodGym good deed and second GoodGym session this week. Rosie and Gillian (and any other newbies reading this!) if you would like to join the GoodGym W&M WhatsApp group please send your number to amylovell@goodgym.org. It is a great way to connect with other GoodGymers and stay up to date.

Our job for this evening was spreading woodchip to improve the designated path in Little Thrift Wood. This is a task we've been chipping away at for a few months now and it is super satisfying to see how the great woodchip mountain we faced at the start has now been reduced to a small hill. As ever it was also lovely to see our task owner Jason, the Countryside Manager for RBWM, who laid all the tools out beautifully for us.

This evening was a group run rather than a community mission, so that meant fitness was on the menu as well as chips. And what a workout! We started off with a warm-up lap of the first Ockwells field and some dynamic stretches, before running or walking the 1km-ish route to the task location. Then we took things up a level, challenging quads and upper body as we shoveled woodchip into wheelbarrows and buckets, and then pushing it a bit further in the great wheelbarrow relay to the other end of the path. We each covered an estimated 2km racing up and down the path.

Even though we were on barrowed time with the darkness drawing in, we still made great progress and had a barrow of laughs! To explore Ockwells a bit further we took a slightly different route back to our start location, where we stretched and ate cake (huge thank you to Kanika!) to celebrate Diya's big 5 0 GoodGym milestone. Diya want to know just how awesome Diya is? Read on!

Diya joined GoodGym back in 2016 in Newham, before lots of us Windsor & Maidenhead members had even heard of GoodGym. In her GoodGym career she has done good deeds in at least 4 different GoodGym areas and she made a huge difference to the life of an isolated older person as a coach runner in Newham (and continues to do so in W&M outside GoodGym through the RVS befriending programme). Diya has been a regular at the Maidenhead vaccination clinic, giving up a huge chunk of every weekend in the battle against Covid. She has also contributed to our group by capturing 100s of brilliant photos and she is proof that you don't have to love running to love GoodGym. Diya has made fantastic progress towards her goal to cycle the London to Brighton event and she even promises to make her debut at Maidenhead parkrun soon. Above all, thank you Diya for always smiling and being such a supportive member of our community.

Chip chip hooray for Diya, and for everyone who worked hard this evening.