We were back at South Reading Community Centre for some more painting in their quest to give the center a face lift! This week we were focusing on some of the rooms used by different groups off the corridor we'd painted a little while ago.

After moving furniture, armed with polyfiller, masking tape, sanding blocks and sugar soap, we got stuck in with prepping all the rooms to get them ready to paint. Julie joined for her first task, and although she'd never decorated before, we had a polyfilling pro on the team!

Working around the first room with our rollers and brushes, we managed to get it looking much nicer, then we decided to divide and conquer on two rooms at once! Chris, Shirley and Julie got stuck in on the big room, while Jenni helped Harry from the facilities team with the small room. However, with a group due to use the big room later that afternoon, the race was on to get as much done as possible, so with a dash to the finish line, we got as much done as we could, with some edging and one wall still left to do...

... but we'll be back again to finish off the last bits and get to the other rooms soon!

We had four GoodGymers volunteering at Prospect Parkrun. Although the course was muddy in places, the skies stayed blue and spirits high. We were spread across the route marshalling, supporting the finish line, and helping with the clear-up once the last runner had crossed the line. It was great to see so many people out enjoying the run despite the muddy conditions, including one goodgymer Meg who managed the double duty of running and volunteering. Another solid team effort and thanks to Prospect Parkrun for having us.

We were back at South Reading community Centre on Saturday, continuing to get some of the building painted and looking lovely and welcoming. We were able to admire the upgrade made to our white painting of the corridor last time, with the cartoons now covering the walls and bringing some more colour to the space!

Our task for this weekend was to give to entrance area a lick of paint, and it definitely needed it! With grubby walls, scrapes and some cobwebs, we had plenty to get stuck in with! Shirley got stuck in with some pro-polyfilling, Jeni (for her first GoodGym task!), Chris and Jenni got to work with masking taping around all the doors, windows and the posterboards on the walls, and Emily got to work with the magic sponge trying to get off the worst of the marks.

With all the preparation done, we were ready to get stuck in with painting! We worked from one side of the space to the other, taking it in turns with rollers and brushes, and making sure the high bits were done in between, to get everything looking much brighter, cleaner and welcoming.

As we were finishing up, the owner of the community cafe next door popped in to check our handy work... and a request for us to paint some walls for them in future, so we'll be back again at the community centre soon!

Monday night was GoodGym Reading's last task of the year! With almost 200 good deeds across Reading completed this year, we thought we'd make things a little bit competitive and celebrate our achievements.

So, what does a chilli pepper, a santa hat and some medical gloves have in common? They were all things we found during a round litter picking bingo!

Four goodgymers, including Meg who joined for their first session, set out to find everything on our bingo cards to dispose of during our session.

Between us we managed to collect almost everything on the bingo cards, but Jess was our winner managing to find most of the items! She generously shared her prize between us, which went down as the perfect dessert after our festive burgers at Siren bar after the task!

We'll be back again for more good deeds in 2026!