Welcome to Eloise for her first GoodGym MCR outing this evening! Great to meet you and hope to see you at another task in the future.

This evening, we met at the task at Gorse Hill Studios, to help make the first steps in the development of their Green Rooms initiative. With lots of weeds, overgrown raised beds, and a grand plan in mind, there was plenty of work to do 🌳🍃

Hannah, Peter, Stefanie, and Ben took on the raised beds and bushes nearby, while Eloise tackled the ivy and bushes on the other side of the green space along with Katie from Gorse Hill Studios. In amongst the ivy and bushes, several Christmas trees were found 🎄 still with the stand attached, alongside a few footballs ⚽️. With loppers, clippers, and plenty of elbow grease, they managed to prise out the overgrown vegetation.

Meanwhile, the wood being rotten on the raised beds made it easy to disassemble but the weeds made it a much tougher task. After removing the plastic undersheet through which many weeds had taken root, we kept digging away, making sure to allow the local moths and snails 🐌 to safety. In amongst the weeds, we found strawberry 🍓 and gooseberry plants, still thriving despite the weeds, many of which we managed to save and plant into pots to perhaps use in the Green Rooms fruit & vegetable garden.

We managed to remove as many of the weed roots as possible and thoroughly dig over the area, removing the wooden border around the area too. Peter was a dab-hand using the loppers and made light work of the hedges growing through from next door, unearthing a bug hotel 🐛🪲🐞, while some nifty saw work from Ben removed the majority of another bush growing through. The disused compost bins were emptied of weeds and rubbish and the soil dispersed.

A final sprint finish saw us weed the path to the shed that made the area looked more welcoming, especially after the removal of a wall several days before. The break for tea & biscuits was very much needed to keep us going ☕️🍪, with the weather closing in a bit too 🌧

Really active and fun task that made a big difference to a local community group. We will be back in stages to help out when we can so keep an eye out for those in future! Great work team 💪👏

The Green Rooms Idea

The 'Green Rooms' project at Gorse Hill Studios aims to transform under-used outdoor spaces into vibrant, accessible green areas that engage the community and enhance biodiversity.

The 'Garden Rooms' will feature a sensory garden, vegetable patch, and wildlife habitats (including a pond), while the 'Green Theatre' will provide a multifunctional outdoor learning and performance space.

The Rhubarb Community Cafe, run by volunteers and young people, will serve produce grown on-site, providing work experience and nurturing community connections.

These spaces will support horticultural therapy, environmental education, and local events, promoting well-being, sustainability, and a deeper connection with nature.

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.

Congrats to Stefanie for reaching 10 good deeds with GG MCR!!

This evening, we met in Salford to give GRIT Studios a helping hand with their new site. Peter and Ben met by Salford Central train station, currently under refurbishment, to make the ~2.5 km jog to the site, with Stefanie meeting us there by bike.

The GRIT Studios site in Salford has come on leaps and bounds since we were last there scraping paint from the windows. The space is now 85% occupied with artists with the windows decorated with the common room looking much more homely with less rubble and exposed brickwork on show. They are hoping to fill the remaining space this week with more public workshops and events in the next month or so, so keep an eye out! Here's hoping to some planters and maybe even a bench to make it a bit more welcoming too.

We were tasked with cleaning the external tiled walls that stuck out like a sore thumb after the rest of the building had received its makeover. With an array of implements including sponges, scourers, metal scourers, brushes, brooms, plus different types of cleaning pads, we donned marigolds and grabbed some buckets of mildly soapy water to give the walls a good clean.

Some marks and stains were easier to clean than others but bit by bit, we managed to remove quite a lot of muck, dirt, and grit from the tiles and windows. Doing this in full view of people using the treadmills in PureGym was something of an experience, with some passers by showing an interest into what was going on. After several changes of water and stepladders to help reach the high up places, we completed the task and cleared up any last marks before heading home by bike or on foot.

Stefanie and Ben both joined with Ardwick Climate Action 🌳 for their site clearance and litter pick of the green space (not a park) near Dryden Street.

Along with other volunteers Dan, Gordon, Abigail, Gosia, plus a council member and other members of the community (plus Juno of course), we set about to collect as much discarded waste as possible 🚯

Little did we know how big a task that would be... In amongst the hedges and bushes, a whole host of objects were found, including:

• kettle
• bedding
• condom wrappers
• clothing
• pillows
• vapes
• bottles and cans
• mop
• woven basket
• takeaway containers
• laughing gas canisters

Once the site was looking more sightly, we moved onto St Saviours graveyard. Here we collected yet more bottles and clothing, including coats, socks, and a high visibility jacket, plus lots of empty "packets" and a suitcase 💼

At the end, we must have collected 35-40 full refuse sacks of waste and neatly collected it near a council bin to arrange collection, before moving it en mass to a site mote protected from the wind and possible animal life to raid it.

Was great to get involved and a good 2.5 hr workout on a Saturday.