A HUGE congratulations to GGSHF LEGEND Rachel for completing her 400th good deed!

Rachel donned the GGSHF cape and wore it in style last night as we headed just around the corner and up the hill from The Showroom to join our very welcoming friends at Common Thread.

With many donations building up we were on hand to help sort.

Labels were created and bags of clothes were thrown onto the floor for us to sort and sift through into categories ready for the next Common Thread event where people bring their own unwanted clothes to donated and swap them for a bag of clothes that they do want!

A great alternative to fast fashion and unnecessary consumerism.

We got through an elevator full of bags of clothes and said our goodbyes to the CT gang.

Some of us went to nearby food fave Mexican Street Food Chef to celebrate Rachel's achievements which was really nice!

Until next time, happy running! :)

The Parkwood springs lantern festival is a yearly celebration of the community, bringing in light, fire, drums, fun and joy to this beacon of the cityscape.

Friends of Parkwood Springs organise the event, with the participation of super creative lantern makers.

This year the theme was "under the sea" and us Goodgymers - Celine, Ellie, Michael and Joseph - were tasked with helping to carry the fish from the top of the hill - the old beacon - back down to the playing fields at the end of the procession.

Welcome to Michael whose first Goodgym good deeds it was!

I did not know it would be so much more fin, sorry fun!

First of all the big fish was biiig! it was about 5 metres from nose to tail of gloriously stunningly bright colours, with even an articulated head and tail.

Then, after a long drum roll from the famous Sheffield samba band, its belly was opened upwards on both sides to reveal ... a shadow puppet theatre!

To the delight of what felt like hundreds of children, an impromptu puppet show was performed by the children coming behind the scenes and moving shadow puppets on the screen; it felt like gently organised chaos, and all children who wanted to take part took part, sometimes multiple times!

When the procession left the beacon, we waited for all to have left so we could safely carry the fish - a mere 9 people! - down the slope, avoiding the trees as best we could.

A very successful festival!

It was back to The Durham Ox for the last Sustrans task with Simon at the helm for this year.

Simon had been volunteering for Sustrans for over 25 years and now he has retired from work he is looking to travel more and enjoy his time without so many commitments.

This week we took up our snow shovels and removed a huge amount of wet leaves and dirt from this dogleg part of the National Cycle Network (NCN) around the back of the Durham Ox pub.

Once cleared we headed to The Showroom to buy Simon a drink or two to say thanks for all his help and hear a bit more about the man behind the legend! Simon will be back, just not for each Sustrans task.

Michelle very kindly got Simon a card (see photos) to thank him for all the hard work he has put into the tasks we've worked on with him.

Six goodgymers met, and we were quickly organised into a number of streets near the Botanical Gardens.

We were delivering leaflets to advertise the Yorkshire Chocolate Festivsl (Saturday 19th October 10am-4pm).

Every penny raised will go to Roundabout, South Yorkshire’s youth homeless charity, which makes a valuable difference to the lives of some of the region’s most vulnerable young people.

More details and tickets are available at: https://www.yorkshirechocolatefestival.com/

We finished almost in daylight but the autumnal evenings are slowly starting.

After a lovely evening of deliveries, Annie invited us to her place for tea and snacks. Thanks Annie!