A surprisingly mild evening led 9 Goodgymmers to the Greenhouse Project, a multicultural play and arts project on Lodge Lane in Liverpool. Sophie & Aatefa ran and beat everyone else to the task, arriving first, whilst most of us took a more leisurely approach and walked to the task. We were pleased to welcome Michelle back who returned for her second task - great to see you again Michelle! And our Goodgymmer of honour, Jo, quite rightly arrived on a chariot – well, a bike – and we headed inside for our task briefing, introductions and announcements.

And what an announcement we had! This evening marked a phenomenal achievement from Jo – it was her 200th task! Jo joined Goodgym in 2018 so has been a dedicated member for over 8 fantastic years. And it’s a family affair, both Jo’s daughter Roz and son Ben are members, and have done tasks together with Jo, Ben having joined the Ealing chapter too. And Goodgym is just one feather in Jo’s many-feathered-cap, she’s a devoted volunteer and dedicates time to other organisations including but not limited to Foodcycle, providing free community meals and reducing food waste. The team presented Jo with a card, some gifts to take home, and some chocolate pastries to share at the end of the task in her honour.

After our congratulations it was time to dive in. This time our task was split in 2: covering the fence with tarp to provide some much needed privacy to the children’s garden, and adding leaves back on to the plastic bushes which decorate the yard. Sophie gave some great ideas on technique for covering the fence before heading over with the team to the bushes, and Naser, Jo and I worked on the fence. Once we’d established approach, which involved weaving the tarp at intervals to help keep it in place, and attaching from the top at regular intervals, it was steady work to cover the whole thing. Jo’s idea of how to weave ended up being exactly the right decision and soon the fence looked great, secure and private.

The leaf task sounds unusual (putting leaves back on a bush?!) and is surprisingly therapeutic. The little leaves on the plastic bush can fall off, so our job was to reattach them so it continues to look nice and full and doesn’t have empty patches. With 6 pairs of hands working methodically, the bushes were soon returned to their former glory.

After admiring the result of our hard work, we headed inside for the group photo and the all important chocolate pastries to celebrate our Bicentenarian Jo. Much to our surprise we were then presented with a very kind card from the Greenhouse Project, thanking us for our hard work and support over the years. This was a lovely gesture and we were very touched to receive it. We had a quick debrief, with a busy Saturday coming up with Parkrun Sticker Saturday, followed by a lovely task at the Bombed out Church planting daffodil bulbs to prepare for a beautiful display in Spring. And it was time to head off back into the mild evening for home. A nice task where we could clearly see the impact we’ve made in such a short space of time, and a great opportunity to celebrate our lovely Jo and her dedication. Huge well done and congratulations Jo, what a huge number of hours doing good things for the community in Liverpool.

Today we were back to see Pat at one of our favourite regular task sites, the wonderful Greenhouse Project on Lodge Lane, which is a multi-cultural early years education centre focused on play, arts and nature. We have helped out there in a variety of ways over the years including mulching, cleaning, litterpicking, pruning, weeding, and even sticking leaves to a hedge, but tonight was our lovely annual task of gift wrapping presents for the local children who attend the Greenhouse. As it usually is, this was our last task of the year, and a treat to be indoors at this time of year for a cosy, festive evening fuelled by mince pies and full of chatter and good cheer.

With such lovely vibes the gift wrapping is always a very popular task, and this year we outdid ourselves with nineteen attendees including not one, not two but three new members turning out for their first task - welcome Craig, Tsitsi and Saoirse! We weren't even sure if we would all fit into the one room but luckily everyone managed to squeeze in to find a big pile of toys, games, craft sets and art supplies waiting to be wrapped. With so many keen volunteers we had all of the gifts wrapped and labelled super quickly, leaving plenty of time for chatting and catching up before the end of the session. Steph H showed us a video of her performing her excellent solo at the wonderful Choir With No Name Christmas gig a few days ago. Lucien and I will be leaving Liverpool at Christmas time and although we will definitely be back to visit - and hopefully soon - we aren't sure when or even if we will be back to live, so the group gave us a lovely send-off at what could be our last task for a while with a very thoughtful card and present, and a beautiful speech given by Sallyann. We will miss you all so much!

On this bittersweet note we all said our goodbyes, wishing everyone a happy holiday, and set off into the cold outside, warmed from the inside by the happy glow of another year of doing great things as part of an amazing community.

On a particularly humid Monday, a crew of Liverpool Good Gymers headed to The Greenhouse Community Centre on Lodge Lane with the aim of doing some good! Heetu led the run from the suitcases with her usual enthusiasm, meeting others at the task. Sian even perserved with a broken single-pedal bike to get there on time!! We were all very excited to find out that this tasked marked 150(!!!) good deeds performed by Sally Ann!! A fantastic achievement, truly worth celebrating. So grateful and proud to have her as part of Good Gym Liverpool. Some of the team soon got stuck in weeding around the greenhouse centre whilst others started the arduous task of shoveling and transporting mulch to various areas around the building. By the end of the task a large part of the grounds was well-weeded and covered with an even level of mulch. Some of the team had also managed to litter pick the surrounding area, helped by Sam, a member of the local community. At the end of the session, the grounds were looking particularly tidy and we were all pleased to have helped out and had some exercise doing so. Well done to all.

Santa said he loves coming to Lodge Lane because he loves getting a shawarma from the Lodge Lane Bakery. He was chatting to Pat from the Greenhouse project when we arrived, delivering a few extra presents and seeing the toys that had been donated.

The Greenhouse Project enables children, young people and their communities to access support. They offer indoor and outdoor activities and every Christmas every child gets a gift. It’s really special and the most amazing, wholesome, festive good gym community mission in the calendar.

Good Gymers help to wrap all the presents. Pat said that this year they were short on gifts and Santa had no more in his sack as they were still in production at the North Pole so Good Gymers came to the rescue, we arrived with games, crafts and toys and then there were more than enough gifts for every child.

We bought snacks to enjoy and played Christmas songs as we wrapped away. Heetu was the quality control ensuring we didn’t waste any paper. Ema, our area coordinator was ill so couldn’t make it but she sent all the Good Gymers gifts to say thank you for the year which was a lovely surprise. Santa also gave us some mince pies that had been baked by Mrs Claus.

The wrapping production line meant that we were finished well before the end of the session. We said goodbye to Pat and Santa feeling as festive as can be!

This week we were back at The Greenhouse project with a slightly less festive task than last time - slotting leaves back onto the hedge outside. Not as strange as it sounds! The artificial hedge seems to shed it leaves like the real thing so we were tasked with replacing the leaves to cover some of the balder spots.

As there were a good bunch of us, we split into two teams, one team tackling the hedge outside and the other scrubbing some chairs inside. The outside team were quickly finished and came inside to lend a hand.

After a good scrub the chairs were gleaming! Sadly we forgot to get a before picture, so you don't get the full effect, but we certainly left the place a little brighter.

Well done everyone and particularly to Dike who came on his way to work. That's true goodgym dedication!

This week three goodgymmers ran through the rain to one of our familiar haunts, The Greenhouse Project on Lodge Lane.

We met 7 more goodgymmers there and quickly got to work.

The task this week was cleaning the walls. This might not sound like much, but with a nursery full of budding artists, it was no mean feat. Turns out toothpaste does remove crayon!

Armed with buckets and sponges, we managed to get both rooms and the hallway spick and span - well done to everyone! Special shout out goes to Mo for completing his first task. Lovely to have you on board and hope to see you again soon!

Well done all, hopefully we'll be back at the Greenhouse Project soon to help out with their forest school!