Today we had not quite the premiere (she has done a Birmingham group run before) but the presence of a GoodGym VIP. So we brought out the red T-shirts rather than carpet for our visitor, Nurjehan from GoodGym Haringey. She joined myself and Jonny at a rolling task as we helped a collective of volunteers from Erdington to prepare the old Maplin site in the town centre for a mural. This was the idea of Jo, a local resident who has set up Erdington Community Volunteers, to bring people and other groups such as ourselves at GoodGym, together to collaborate on projects such as this. She explained that this was her idea that has been a long time in the organisation and it sparked her to get the whole group together.

When we arrived, a great deal had already been achieved, as half of the barrier fence had been painted and they had already run out of paint. Fortunately for us it gave enough time to introduce ourselves and I was able to meet Nurjehan for the first time, having spoken online through emails about the Fitness Sessions that I put up during lockdown and following each other on Strava. It was such a privilege to have her with us, taking time out while on a visit in the city. Introductions done and all of us signed in for contact tracing, we picked up rollers and got to it!

We found three boards alongside each other to be able to chat and paint at first. Some of the other volunteers had long poles to get the taller bits and we all tried desperately to avoid covering ourselves with paint. I think I won that challenge with just a few specks on my hands, while Jonny gave himself a little affectation of grey hairs from paint spray and Nurjehan managed to spoil even the GoodGym T-shirt of all things as she got rather covered straight away. Thankfully it was a water based undercoat, so she will hopefully be able to avoid hanging her head in shame on return to GG Haringey.

We had to split up for the next boards as we were already on the last stages. Before we knew it, the whole thing was done. A few group pictures later and Jo’s idea was one step closer to becoming a reality. Next up, four local artists will be painting up their landscape designs to brighten up this abandoned area.

Even better, the YMCA cafe around the corner is the supportive hub that have got behind these residents groups and there were refreshments available for volunteers. So we sat and had a social distancing chat with each other and the other community groups that had got together.

This was by far one of the best Community Missions of late. One where the before and after of a large group getting together was clear to see and superb links were made between many people all trying to achieve positive change in their community.

On top of that, Nurjehan deserves a huge cheer for braving the unfamiliar Birmingham roads to get to us, and showing that we can safely engage with activities in other areas in these circumstances and make a difference.