Seven GoodGymmers met Michelle from the Craft Coop at the Community Centre to begin work on their monumental poppy display for Remembrance Day.

Michelle shared the story behind the installation: the Craft Coop are creating multiple panels of knitted and crocheted poppies that will be hung from a church in Windsor as a flowing memorial. Many people — including some GoodGymmers — have already contributed poppies, and the team have collected around 12,000 so far.

All of these poppies need to be attached to netting panels that will form a dramatic “river of poppies.” The panel we worked on tonight was a test piece, used to calculate the final weight of the installation (including when wet) to ensure it can be safely displayed.

Shelia, Hannah, Jen, Jess and Anne‑Laure took on the task of attaching poppies under Michelle’s guidance. Each poppy needed to be sewn securely to the canvas without overlapping too much — a chance for the Craft Coop to refine the best layout and attachment method for the final panels.

Meanwhile, Amy and Deepti were entrusted with creating the two large feature poppies that will be included in the installation. They stitched together pre‑cut plastic canvas, added the black centre, and began attaching the red pom‑poms. These oversized poppies are already looking fantastic and will be real showstoppers once finished.

It was satisfying to make visible progress, but this project will take many volunteers and many hours to bring to life. Keep your eyes peeled — we’ll be putting on more sessions to help this beautiful memorial become a reality.

Nine keen good gymers arrived at Norden Farm on a mission to create a local beach for the summer holidays. Tonnes of sand were emptied using shovels, spades and hands. Teamwork made light work of the task and bags were emptied in record time! After some efficient raking the beach was covered by large plastic sheets to protect it from a cat's playground. Hopefully the giant sandpit will provide hours of digging fun for the summer play-scheme.

Six enthisiastic Good gymers visited the new home of the Green Skills Library in Maidenhead to help clean up. After much scrubbing, elbow grease and polishing the kitchen shone and sparkled. We emptied buckets and bowls of dirty water down the sinks, a satisfying task!