During a mild late-September evening, a core group of five GoodGymers laced up their trainers and ran out to join Round Hill Society committee member Dominic—a true force of nature in the local neighbourhood.

The Autumn Community Clear-up is now officially done (Ehm, almost)! The team tackled the Cats’ Creep first, clearing away the worst of the overhanging branches to keep the pathway clear. From there, we channelled our best energy into scraping weeds along Round Hill Crescent, successfully clearing an impressive 80 metres of pavement.

Usually, a massive surge of weeds often strikes after the late summer rains (!) throughout August and September. Scraping during this specific autumn window is crucial, as it targets winter annuals and perennials right before they go dormant. Fortunately, GoodGym never goes dormant! We had a fantastic session, and I reckon we will be back for similar action very soon.

Shout-out to GoodGymer Sarah on hitting the big 50 on the Heroes Leaderboard! 🏃‍♀️✨

Driven by community spirit, GoodGym fuses fitness and volunteering by connecting GoodGymers with local partners and volunteers through a "one workforce approach." I borrow that brilliant term 😉 from yesterday’s Active Sussex Conference, which showcased the innovative Stronger for Life programme. This award-winning initiative improves strength and balance, prevents falls, and combats muscle loss from inactivity among older adults and stroke recovery patients.

Join GoodGym for another session!

From our occasional meeting point at the Peace Statue, it was a short and sweet 300m trek for seven Brightonian GoodGymers to Waterloo Street Community Garden, including newbie Chris - welcome!

Once there, we got stuck into some enthusiastic bulb planting, putting down the groundwork now for a colourful spring display.

We had a friendly black cat keeping a close eye on proceedings. But further investigation revealed that said cat is the reason the garden doesn’t have any bird feeders: our feline friend enjoys playing with them (the local birds, that is, not the feeding devices).

With all the bulbs planted across big pots, little pots, round pots and long pots, it was time to head to nearby Bottoms Rest for a well-earned drink, post-run recovery and a chit chat.

What a purr-fect evening.