For one last time as a Goodgym Area Activator, Simon met at the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road to meet a huge group of keen runners, ready to help at Caledonian Park this evening. It was truly a joy to see familiar faces from years gone by (including awesome folks who attended Simon's first session 6.5 years ago at Mildmay Community Centre - I'll find the link!). Also thank you to Astra for attending your first Goodgym session- I heartly recommend attending more sessions soon- we have wonderful people in this community!

After a short (but necessary) warm up, we ran together up McKenzie Road and the Market Road slopes to the wonderful Caledonian Park Clocktower, to meet up with Miriam and Gail, our local task coordinators.

Our objective for the night (with our 26 volunteers on hand!!!), was to shovel piles of crushed rock fines into wheelbarrows, and then transport the loads over to the forest pathways on the West side of the park. This is a lovely wooded walk, that is often frequented by children, families and wheelchair users, and we want to keep this area as accessible as possible during the Springtime months.

We separated into multiple groups to cover the whole area. Team 1 shoveled the ground fines, Team 2 pushed the barrows across the park and Team 3 raked and flattened the ground around the amphitheatre (carefully avoiding the grassed surfaces and paved sections). We also had a 4th team on hand to transfer soil from builder's merchant bags, ready for Spring planting later this month.

This is a massive task, and our crew did an smashing job over the 45 minutes we had available. 26 hands, all working in tandem, really makes a huge difference. Well done!

As we closed up our evening, Area Activator Simon lead a running group back to the Emirates Stadium, while Emily and Louise lead a walking group to The Tollington Arms on Sobell Road- a great local pub that serves incredible Thai food. Together, we celebrated Area Activator Simon's final fixture as a leader, but not his final Goodgym adventure for sure!

The weather was kind to us as nine GoodGymers gathered at Doynton St Community Garden for an afternoon session to get the space ready for spring. We were working alongside the team from Growing Green who got us set up with gloves, shears, and shovels ready to do what GoodGymers do best - chop loads of stuff down!

We spent a bit of time exploring the area which had a bit of a Secret Garden vibe, then got stuck in. Lots of dead wood and branches were condensed down and tidied up. The pile then grew steadily for the next hour as we cleared the space.

A couple of dead trees were demolished, and a very well established bramble was taken care of to let in lots more light and make the garden safer to use. Paths were cleared to improve accessibility, with ground covering ivy being given a hair cut. A mural which had seen better days was carefully packed up for repair or reuse, and the whole garden received a good litter pick, despite some more unusual finds!

We had lots of visitors through the session, including a couple of cats, a frog, a member of the local constabulary, and a few friendly neighbors keen to see what we were getting up to. Welcome to all the new GoodGymers who joined the session, it was wonderful to meet you!

Growing Green were delighted to have the extra hands on deck - we're looking forward to seeing them again in March.