Big kudos to the 6 GoodGymers who helped return bags to runners taking part in the Manchester Marathon this year! Welcome to Ewan who picked a big task for his first GoodGym Manchester outing.

We arrived bright and early to get our hi-viz, packed lunch, and briefing from Claire, one of the bag collection team leaders. We were allocated Group 2, to start unloading and laying out bags from lorry number 2 for the initial waves of starters. With a system in place to order the bags from highest to lowest on the ground and then only having a single layer of bags on the lorry bed seemed to work out OK. Once the harnesses had finally arrived, Jordan along with a couple of additional helpers enabled us to reach to bags at the back so we were ready for finishers coming in.

Bit by bit, bags were safely returned with their owners, with many suffering a little bit in the unexpected Manchester sun and heat. Through a combination of good prep and teamwork, I think we managed quite well, even when it got a bit busy in the rush hour between about 12pm and 1pm.

Once we had a very brief break, we were assigned to lorry number 11 to repeat the task again, this time Stefanie getting in the harness to get into the lorry and get the bags in reach of those on the ground. With us being right at the end of the queue of lorries, lots of tired looking runners managed to reach us only to have to go back the other way to get their t-shirt, freebies, meet friends & family which seemed a bit of a trek after completing 26.2 miles!

With the bags in order and many having been returned to the runners, we reached the end of our shift after 5pm to sign out and watch some of the finishers on Oxford Road nearby.

Long day but was made much more fun as a group and having a decent packed lunch and snacks on hand. The warm and sunny weather helped too.

What a wonderful weekend of weather to get out in the fresh air!

Peter, Jordan, and Ben came out to help The Bee Sanctuary on the southern tip of Highfield Country Park in Levenshulme for their regular Sunday volunteering session.

With our now apparently renowned expertise in painting, we were tasked with preparing and priming a few areas to tidy up the volunteer shed and the entrance gate. Jordan and Ben took turns climbing the ladder to paint a border on the volunteer shed, a new installation for the group. The volunteer shed was installed with a compostable toilet and used to store their tools and, important for this session, their paint. The roof was also a "living roof" with vegetation on top too. Between us, we managed to apply primer to the full circumference.

Peter on the other hand was tasked with chopping back some brambles near the entrance and scraping away the paint from the metal bars. There always seemed to be more paint to scrape off! Once ready, all three of us applied zinc-based primer to the metal railings once clean and dry and managed to cover a decent section, with the paint pot nearly empty once we had finished for the day.

In between painting and scraping, we took a full part in the tea/coffee break with biscuits and Sheila, the lead volunteer for the group, gave us a grand tour of the Bee Sanctuary site. Covering several wildflower meadows, three ponds, plus plenty of dead hedges and hedge boundaries, there really has been a huge amount of work over the years to clear the mono-culture of brambles with a more biodiverse area of grasses, flowers, and wildlife. There was also a quiet "Forget-me-not" area for remembering those who had passed for local people.

We will certainly be back soon to help out and hopefully finish the painting we had started. It was also great to meet the other volunteers and Loki who did his best to help out in between chasing sticks.

GRIT Studios have been going for 3.5-4 years with bases in Stockport and a studio in Manchester, Deansgate. now they have a space for "Gritters" in Salford. An old natwest bank in Salford shopping centre has been left empty and unused for 6 years(!) so hopefully the space can be put to better use!

Upon arrival, it was clear it would be a big task. With builders in this week to do bits of plastering and filling in holes in the wall and ceiling, the space was safe to use.

Jordan and Stefanie donned their overalls to fill in walls and plaster, including over a disused lift shaft with paint to give a clean slate for incoming artists 🎨🖌. Pavel, Gameel, and Peter helped scrape and clear paint from the windows, clear large items as rubbish🗑, and clear rooms of any bits left from previous incumbents. Ben helped scrape paint, paint over removed wallpaper, and clean windows🪟.

After a couple of hours, we had done what we could with a likely repeated trip back to finish any specific tasks with opening days not too far away.

It was really great to help out and good numbers to get a lot done in a short amount of time. Hope you enjoyed the task and see you soon!

We returned back to St Mary's Church for a second week to fix any final loose floor tiles. ⛪️

Meera and Laura ran the 3km to the Church, with Ben, Hannah and Jordan meeting us there. It was great to meet Jordan doing his first GoodGym task in Stockport. 👋

It was great to see that those we fixed last week were still looking good despite being walked on. 🙌

Today we mostly focused on adding dried mortar to increase the stability of the loose tiles. 🔨

Another great task!