We were back at South Reading Community Centre for some more painting in their quest to give the center a face lift! This week we were focusing on some of the rooms used by different groups off the corridor we'd painted a little while ago.

After moving furniture, armed with polyfiller, masking tape, sanding blocks and sugar soap, we got stuck in with prepping all the rooms to get them ready to paint. Julie joined for her first task, and although she'd never decorated before, we had a polyfilling pro on the team!

Working around the first room with our rollers and brushes, we managed to get it looking much nicer, then we decided to divide and conquer on two rooms at once! Chris, Shirley and Julie got stuck in on the big room, while Jenni helped Harry from the facilities team with the small room. However, with a group due to use the big room later that afternoon, the race was on to get as much done as possible, so with a dash to the finish line, we got as much done as we could, with some edging and one wall still left to do...

... but we'll be back again to finish off the last bits and get to the other rooms soon!

We had four GoodGymers volunteering at Prospect Parkrun. Although the course was muddy in places, the skies stayed blue and spirits high. We were spread across the route marshalling, supporting the finish line, and helping with the clear-up once the last runner had crossed the line. It was great to see so many people out enjoying the run despite the muddy conditions, including one goodgymer Meg who managed the double duty of running and volunteering. Another solid team effort and thanks to Prospect Parkrun for having us.

On another parkrun tour I single-handedly sorted finish tokens from nearly 500 runners at Maidenhead parkrun. The Braywick Park course was slightly challenging, being fairly narrow in places and quite busy but the scenery was attractive. I did not do my best time as public transport made me later than planned which was a bit disorientating.

We were back at South Reading community Centre on Saturday, continuing to get some of the building painted and looking lovely and welcoming. We were able to admire the upgrade made to our white painting of the corridor last time, with the cartoons now covering the walls and bringing some more colour to the space!

Our task for this weekend was to give to entrance area a lick of paint, and it definitely needed it! With grubby walls, scrapes and some cobwebs, we had plenty to get stuck in with! Shirley got stuck in with some pro-polyfilling, Jeni (for her first GoodGym task!), Chris and Jenni got to work with masking taping around all the doors, windows and the posterboards on the walls, and Emily got to work with the magic sponge trying to get off the worst of the marks.

With all the preparation done, we were ready to get stuck in with painting! We worked from one side of the space to the other, taking it in turns with rollers and brushes, and making sure the high bits were done in between, to get everything looking much brighter, cleaner and welcoming.

As we were finishing up, the owner of the community cafe next door popped in to check our handy work... and a request for us to paint some walls for them in future, so we'll be back again at the community centre soon!

On a very chilly Monday evening, six goodgymers met in Reading town centre, for our first task of the year! Emily, Mike and Zelie joined us for their first task and are now able to get their red t-shirts!

We set off towards a known-littery spot around Broad Street and the Hexagon and we weren't short of litter to fill our bags, although some of the spots we went to were suprisingly (and pleasantly!) litter free!

With cold toes and fingers, after 45 minutes we called time with 8 bags of litter collected, we set off to warm up with hot chocolate, mince pies and something tasty for dinner on the cards!

Our next session will be on Saturday, and this time we'll be inside! Join us for painting at South Reading Community Centre

After our first task of the morning to get us prepared for painting, and refuelled with tea and biscuits, we got to work on the painting. A transformation from off-white to white is hard to detect in photos, but it certainly looked a lot brighter in real-life!

To maximise our speed for the task, Chris used the extendable roller to get to the top of the walls, and I started along the bottom... hopefully there were no spots missed, but we'll be back again in January to do any last bits if needed!