Stephanie, Ellie and Katie made their way to today's Goodgym task at Knaphill Lower School. The team met Vicki and Mark and helped with planting some flowers and plants into the flower bed in the garden area.

Goodgym members have been volunteering with the garden for several weeks and it was great to see how it's coming along.

It was great to welcome Ellie to her first task and we hope to see her again soon!

The Phoenix Cultural Centre is an amazing venue! I myself have attended a community music and food/drink festival there outside with a friend; it was my first time inside the building. We found out the huge site used to be the headquarters for KFC but now a community centre new to GoodGym we helped to decorate and transform some of the areas into brighter creative settings. There was a large table to move that Ola, Julie, Stephanie and myself moved together from one part of the building to the other. The rest was mostly decorating with posters and our own creative input. Elaine who met us there was lovely, she made us so welcome! Was happy for us to help her... Looking forward to helping out more at the centre! What a great project for Woking!

Saturday’s task at Knaphill Lower School came with a welcome change — sunshine! With blue skies overhead, it was a perfect morning to get stuck into some outdoor volunteering.

The job for the session was helping prepare materials for the school’s bug hotel. A pile of branches needed cutting down into smaller lengths so they could be packed neatly into the structure and create plenty of cosy hiding spots for insects and other mini-beasts.

With cutters in hand, I set about cutting the branches into suitable lengths to be stacked and packed, gradually turning the pile into bug-friendly building materials ready to be added to the hotel. It was a slow but satisfying task, and one that will help create a great habitat for wildlife around the school grounds.

A productive morning and a great step towards making the bug hotel even more welcoming for its tiny future residents!

Work continues at Knaphill Lower School Garden. This week only Julie was there to support Vikki and Mark as they get closer to completing the restoration. The beds are taking shape and Julie dug and weeded the front beds so that they are ready for some more topsoil and then the fun bit - planting will be happening soon so do sign up for the next session!

*Junior Park Run *

Another damp and dreary morning couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the runners, with around 12 children taking part in their very first Junior Parkrun!

Karen and Olalekan enjoyed an early catch-up before heading off to their respective roles, helping the children safely around the course and making sure everyone got their finish times.

It was fantastic to see so many smiling faces despite the weather – another brilliant GoodGym session!

As I arrived at Woking leisure center some keen GoodGymers were already there waiting. As I grabbed a cheeky espresso from the cafe, GoodGymers Jemma and Julie joined me. As we were catching up, Anne sent a message letting us know she had arrived at the entrance with the litter pickers. Anne, Jemma. Agathe, Julie and I waited for one last GoodGymer. As we were all keen to get into some 'plogging' action, we each spread out and started to canvasing the entrance to the leisure centre and a little bit of Woking park, quickly making a big difference.

Olalekan, kindly let us know he was running a little behind, so I offered to hang back and let the others to stretch their legs and get started. They headed of towards Egley Road and I did some squats to stay warm. It did not take too long before Olalekan arrived and we were off. As I started to run out of the leisure centre, ran down Westfield Avenue, past the football grounds, seeing little bits of littler, here and there. I realised I had gone the wrong way!

After a quick call to Anne heading the main group, I had just turned off too soon so Olalekan and I back tracked and went up along Wych Hill lane. Back as a group we continued the great team work as we worked along Egley Road, and filling our first litter bag, awesome work from Woking GoodGymers 😁

Starting on a new bag we entered the cul-de-sac along Hawthorn Road, a magnetic license plate was found along with lots of cans and bags. As we came closer to Hoe Stream we knew it wasn't long to reach the leisure centre. As we had finished filling the second bag we added that to the bin.

We thought it would be a straight run along the stream back to the leisure centre, but realised that toads had taken some of the path to migrate to their breeding pond! After observing them with our torches, we, obviously, were careful to avoid them!

Thanks go to Agathe for the lovely drawing she made to illustrate our task.