Thanks to everyone who joined in our group run yesterday evening to help Nature's Haven, and a very warm welcome to newcomer Caroline. Big thanks to Tony for this evening;s report:

A small Windsor and Maidenhead council grant to the Nature's Haven and the Community Centre on Marlow Road is being used to plant a dwarf orchard and enhance the front of the building.

Before work got underway to clear the area for planting the Good Gym crew were able to start the evening with some fiitness first. With so many Good Gymers we used the Zebra crossing to access the Cresent, this resulted in an instant Google map worthy traffic jam, red of course.

With Amy leading from the other side of the road there was much leg waving, arm flinging, and some runs up the hill, dim street lighting ensured that personal best times were won by not necessarily getting to the top.

Then the digging and cutting started most people got bushed by the bushes, and stuck in the ivy, unfortunately the ‘wild boar rent a digging app’ was down so we had to do all the work not just MBWA. Eventually the triffids size stumps were overcome to leave vast creators of good planting soil.

Soon it was time to enjoy some fire pit moments with hot drinks and giant marshmallows so big that they caught fire really easily. Skill and pan ash was needed to stop them being charcoaled.

We understand that the Community Centre are currently looking for a press and some barrels...

MBWA (Management by Walking About )

We had lots of fun this evening helping the Cookham Arts Club take down and store their display boards and other equipment at the end of their Spring exhibition.

The storage space is under the stage - so this called for lots of squatting, crawling around and artful manoeuvres such as the 'boarding pass'. John from CAC was working with us so we could learn how to stack everything correctly. You could say we were at boarding school.

I did wonder at one point whether Juli and Jen would ever make it out from behind the boards we were stacking up in front of them - I loved their commitment to the task, but did't want them to go over board!

Thankfully there was a way out, but not before we'd made a human chain and had a game of Chinese whispers with Tony. Never a dull moment at GoodGym!

Meanwhile there was plenty to do outside the board room to keep Nick and Gillian from getting board. Wrapping paintings, dismantling tables and more shifting and lifting kept them busy.

Big thanks to the GoodGymers who got on board with this task! The board of the club were really pleased with what we achieved.

Title pun credit to Juli!

Happy bird-day to us! This week marks 4 years since we launched GoodGym in Windsor and Maidenhead and it was brilliant to see a record number of GoodGym chicks and chaps at our celebratory group run/party. This evening's brood included 25 of us, the biggest number since launch night back in 2020.

Our evening was a fun mix of team games and an eggcellent task: filling knitted chicks and bunnies with chocolate eggs for Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Services' Easter fundraising campaign. As one GoodGymer from team 'Diya's Darlings' put it, we helped with 'reverse births for our four birthdays'!

A warm welcome to Didem and Amy, who were joining us for the first time. I warned them at the start that this 'group run' might not be 100% representative of our typical Wednesday evening, but maybe it was the perfect introduction to the weird and wonderful stuff we get up to?

There was loads of laughter, silliness and cheering, we did some walking and running round the park, we used litter pickers and hoops, hi vis and gardening gloves (in our relay game) and there was a lot of chocolate (although this time we didn't eat it as was part of the task). With many hands we blitzed the task super quick and made a difference for a local charity. There was also quite a lot of fancy dress and a healthy dose of competitive spirit.

Just a 'normal' GoodGym session then!

Something we don't normally do at GoodGym is have epic games of GoodGym themed Pictionary or 'Guess the GoodGym beneficiary' quizzes, which we did enjoy last night. However these games gave us plenty of opportunity to share stories about what we've been doing for the last 4 years, so hopefully it was a nice overview for newcomers as well as an opportunity for everyone else to reminisce.

The chick stuffing task was a cracking task, partly thanks to task owner Yazmin being so organised and bringing everything to the community centre for us, and partly because the chicks and bunnies were SO CUTE! Huge kudos to the army of skilled crafters, including a team of GoodGymers, who made these little characters.

Now you shouldn't count your chickens, but we couldn't play 'guess the number of chicks' without a count, so Yazmin and I risked it. The grand total was 356, which is worth a fantastic £1068 to the charity.

At the end of the evening I tallied up all the points from the various games and the final scoreboard read:

2 Awesome for this 30 points (although I regret not awarding Jess points for her amazing Victorian child meets washer woman fancy dress, so maybe that number should have been higher)

The Mighty Ducks 40 points

Diya's Darlings 49 points

The Regal Bunnies 58 points and the win! This team really shone in the Pictionary and pun rounds.

Having said that, I really think everyone who came along this evening (and who has contributed to our last four years) is a winner. We've now helped over 90 charities and community groups, venues and projects in our local area. We've done 5,375 good deeds in our local area, including 625 visits to isolated older people.

Winner, winner, chicken winner!

Well done to the 14 superstars who came out this evening for a slice of the GoodGym action. After the recent rain it was great to get out for fresh air, fitness, gardening and most importantly CAKE in celebration of Matthew's 50th good deed and Nicola's 100th (and her 101st!) It was also lovely to welcome Tori for the first time.

We had a change of task because our chair man wasn't available to lead the chair mending session. Instead we ran and walked the 1km to St Luke's for some more gardening. Kudos to the runners, who put in some extra laps of Kidwells Park, and to the GoodGymers who live near the school, so did the journey twice. This time the to do list included emptying planters, re-homing plants and clearing leaves.

Oh the places you'll grow!

Nicola nuts, Tori tiramisu, Angela apple, Toni duck, Juli jelly, Rachel raclette and Georgeta grapefruit tackled the planters, and did a lovely job of tucking the evicted plants into their new beds. There was also an intense chat about a drain.

On track for some terrible puns

Sophie sushi, Jess jellybean, Adam avocado, Matthew mars bar, Scarlett sugar and Ben (who missed the foodie ice breaker and is probably wondering what just happened) took the wheel barrow and hippo sack to the running track on a leaf clearance mission. Of course you wouldn't be-leaf the puns this prompted. Just as they were getting into their punning stride, we decided it wheely was time to leaf, after all there was cake to eat!

150 reasons for cake

Huge congratualtions to Nicola and Matthew, who have totted up an awesome 150 GoodGym good deeds between them. I presented them each with a medal and then we all enjoyed lots of cake. Juli made a gorgeous vegan chocolate cake for Matthew's 50, complete with the number 50 made of grapes, and Georgeta made a stunning carrot cake for Nicola's 100, which was topped with angel wings and a big 1-0-0 made by Sophie - thank you bakers!

As is now customary for a 100, we also had a poem:

Three cheers for Nicola Hine!

Fitness and good deeds she likes to combine.

And now she’s done 99

Good deeds (plus 2), so it’s party time!

Sorry I’m a bit late with this rhyme

Our GoodGyming plans didn’t quite align

And I think my writing is in decline

But we’re all friends here, so never mind!

Nicola’s in her GoodGyming prime

She’s made bunting out of twine

She made an awesome Windrush sign

And made the path a nice straight line.

She helped to clear that pond of slime

She sweeps up leaves and cleans up grime

She decorated our Christmas pine

And back marks so no one is left behind.

Communication is her place to shine

Her reels are much better than mine

Her run reports are so sublime

And her insta advent calendar blew my mind.

Outside GoodGym she doesn’t just recline

She does parkrun – even the incline!

Her blanket for niece Thea was a gorgeous design

And her travel photos are simply divine.

You’re a top GoodGymer Nicola Hine!

So let’s raise an imaginary glass of wine

Hip hip hooray we all shall chime

And on this cake we all shall dine.

14 Goodgymmers breezed through the task at St Luke's School!

Everyone made their way to the school and we gathered in the car park to hear our list of tasks from Juli:

• Dismantle the shed
• Remove the plants from the planters
• Dismantle the planters
• Remove the soil
• Clear weeds between the paving slabs
• Sweep the area

Although this sounds like a lot, the shed was quickly reduced to planks, the plants were uprooted, the planters were ousted, the soil was cleared and the weeds were extracted and the area was swept! If you blinked you missed it all!

All the debris was piled into the skip out the front and the soil was placed in a heap next to it. This was done using the largest wheelbarrow we had come across, so not as many trips were needed, and some old fashioned people power!

The team couldn't believe how quickly the list was completed and everyone gathered for a group photo on the benches in the lovely clear play area.