Another year of GoodGym helping at the Macmillan Coffee Morning - a community fundraising day organised by the Maidenhead United Football Club which features varying events over the morning and a litter pick led by GoodGym.

Seven GoodGymers were joined by 2 ladies attending the fundraiser in the litter pick. We spread out around Braywick Park and 50 minutes later, returned with bags and bags of litter. Everyone then treated themselves to well-deserved cake and hot beverages. A lovely morning spent in the sunshine for a good cause.

A warm welcome to Sarah Chan who joined us for the first time. We hope to see her again soon.

It was all hands on deck today at the Baby Bank. With a huge amount of clothing donations to sort through, Sheila was on 1st checks, Carol on 2nd checks and Caroline on Shoes and Adult clothing. With more donations coming in all the time, we tried our best to keep up. We found that many donations were unsuitable due to clothing being stained, ripped or too bobbly. These all found their way into black bags, which were added to the existing mountain due to be recycled any day soon.....

Georgeta and Meggie got straight down to watering at the community allotment, and filling up the water butts ready for other volunteers to use during the week. Meanwhile Sheila helped taskowner Sue take down the beans which are at the end of their productive phase. We then all got stuck in, starting to fill bags with soil from the raised bed so that the wood could be renovated. Sheila took home some beans and Meggie an over-sized radish

11 GoodGymers met at the Community Centre to continue the good work of tacking crocheted poppies to a 3 metre net panel. This panel will be part of the 21 metre memorial piece that Craft Coop is putting together for Remembrance Day.

So what is this Le Coquelicot Tapestry, you ask? Well, it's French for The Poppy Tapestry, inspired both by the topical Bayeux and our resident French GG-er, Anne-Laure. Sol jokingly suggested we should charge £2 for people to see this Poppy Tapestry and we thought it'll be more appealing if it sounded French. Enter, Anne-Laure and may we present, Le Coquelicot Tapestry. Voilà! :poppy:

Many hands made good progress as we chatted and laughed, resulting in just another social and productive GoodGym mission.

3 volunteers from GoodGym helped marshal at the annual Thames Hospice Sunflower Walk. We were stationed on the half marathon route, Carys at Boveney, and Sheila and Anna were at the end of the Long Walk, with iconic views of Windsor Castle. We cheered, clapped and congratulated the walkers taking on this challenging distance, many walking in memory of friends and relatives who had been cared for at the hospice. The weather was mostly kind to us, but the showers didn't dampen our spirits, we were so impressed with the participants. It was great to again be involved in this Fundraiser, and hopefully it will raise lots of money for this vital service

Meggie, Sol and Sheila welcomed Claire to her very first GoodGym mission at the Community Allotment. We were also joined by taskowner Sue, which was great as she knew exactly what she needed us to do. An area of the Allotment which had been used for composting needed to be cleared to make way for some new raised beds. While Sheila moved planks and stored wood away from the area, Sol moved leaves and twigs away from one bay, while Meggie and Claire filled bags with the matured compost from another. By the end of the session we had successfully cleared the area and had several bags of compost ready for use. It was a really satisfying task and we could all see the difference we had made. We look forward to seeing Claire at a future GoodGym session.