9 shorter goodgymers, and 1 tall goodgymer jogged to the new premises of Brighton Youth Centre which is in a building that used to house an entertainment venue based around optical illusions- cue a migrane inducing spotted carpet and deep purple walls!

The GoodGym-ers got to work clearing a back storage room of fun games such as table football and space invader machines. We took the job very seriously, ensuring the table football worked after being reassembled by having a quick kick about! ;-)

We then donned our 'people at work' overalls and transformed the back room from dark purple, adding the first coat of white paint, and the office area from blood red to clean white. The one tall GoodGym-er amongst us (thanks Rob!) was designated ceiling cutter inner.

An awful lot was accomplished in a short time, leaving time for the more hardened amongst us to join Pippa for a quick fitness session around the Queen Victoria Gardens.

We always have a great fun at the Brighton Youth Centre and we will be soon back!

This past weekend, Brighton GoodGym-ers have been running or volunteering while engaging their heart with their friends Susan and Joel in Mind.

Four Brighton GoodGm-ers attended Preston Park parkrun on Sunday in order to volunteer at Junior parkrun. The parkrun was lacking volunteers due to many of the core team running the Brighton Half marathon. So four goodgymers attended and assisted today - 2 as Marshalls, 1 as tailwalker and one as barcode scanner.

It was a cold and dreary day but the sight of all the little ones dashing about with rosy cheeks and big smiles brightened the day a great deal.

We then headed to the course of the half marathon to cheer our fellow mates running and faithing the strong wind, and to bring them some homemade muffins. Thanks Rebecca, your delights were much appreciated.

GoodGym sessions, parkruns and races like the Brighton Half are not just great ways to challenge ourselves and support our fitness goals, but also provide an opportunity to come together and remember friends like Susan and Joel, GoodGym-ers who sadly lost their lives.

Massive thank you to everyone who supported the fundraiser for Mind.

We’re fundraising for Mind because their work supports people like Susan and Joel, providing mental health information, advocacy, and peer support. Since the pandemic, the demand for mental health services has been increasingly overwhelming, and charities like Mind are doing essential work to help keep up.

If you’d like to donate, you can still do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/brightongoodgym-halfmarathon2024?utm_term=MqPB5rDjy

Our Roy is the parkrun director of the Junior parkrun in Hove Park, and he always welcomes his GoodGym friends willing to volunteer and participate to this event as much as we do like to do this GoodGym community mission to see him (also). Roy has such a great spirit and he’s always active as we all are, now on a mission to finish his master!

We like parkrunning! Yesterday we were in Bevendean Downs and had a community meet up at The Bevy Pub – More Than a Pub! We are super keen to keep supporting them with our volunteering work and breakfast orders 😊 after running their 5K parkrun on the top of the hills up there – where there is a wonderful landscape, really!

And, we like (certainly I do) to volunteer at the Junior parkrun in Hove, despite slightly sleepy on a Sunday morning 😊. Either as a run back marker or as marshals, we always enjoy ourselves by cheering those little heroes running this recreational 2.5K parkrun race, dressed up as spider man, superman or fairy, or still in their pyjamas – but, always smiling!
Nice spotting our Maddalena and superhero active mummy who is on a personal mission to pass her own passions to her little ones!

And, and ... Surprise surprise… Guess who did we meet yesterday?

As our photographer, Rebecca, can confirm it was Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun!

That was an emotional Good weekend, indeed.

Ten Good gymers donned layers and braved the cold to run to the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership Community kitchen. We welcomed Georgia's return and Amaryllis at her first GoodGym session!

We were greeted by our host Jo who had a colour coded list of tasks for us to tick off. She told us of the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership's work in reducing food waste and running cooking courses, and much more!

We soon warmed up as we speedily started cleaning chairs and cupboards. Being great multi taskers we all had a good catchup while cleaning!

Rebecca and Ben took one for the team and braved the cold by cleaning outside. While other organised GoodGym-ers sorted pans back into their families!

It was lovely to see the GoodGym gang and a good start to the year!

Do you know that....

As GoodGym volunteer we could attend a 6-week cookery course at the B&H Community Kitchen by accompanying people they support, as referred by TogetherCo. This is an exemplar GoodGym’s mission that could help isolated people to build up routine and feelings of confidence.

For more information, email hello@togetherco.org.uk and ask our GoodGym Area Lead, Stefania.

On a cold (but dry!) December evening, 14 GoodGymers made their way to the tool library in Kemptown. Once there they were greeted by a cheery Gary and approximately a hundred crates of random tools in various states of rust.

The team soon got to work sorting the various items into boxes, and slowly but surely the room was transformed from a junk shop into a workshop.

Stefania then led us in a few rounds of squats/lunges etc., and then we went off into the night - some to the pub for taskforce strategising, others to a well-earned dinner.

Welcome new member Claudio!