The Pagoda Arts Centre works to be “a big family for those people who have an interest in Chinese culture”, and it was a big Goodgym family who turned up on a bright, chilly February Saturday morning to help prepare for Chinese New Year.

Five of the Goodgymmers met at local Princes Park for Parkrun, then headed straight to the task afterwards (and by headed straight, we of course mean via a local coffee shop to refuel!)

On arrival, a fantastic 14 Goodgymmers had turned up to help out, and introductions were in order as we had three new members who had each separately heard about Goodgym and decided to join us. Welcome Mel, Pri, & Aditi!

With so many willing pairs of hands the team sailed through a number of tasks, to prepare the centre for the Chinese New Year celebrations the following day. We cleared out an alley, moved furniture to make space for the performance, litter picked, swept and cleared leaves and weeds from the exterior, mopped floors, hung decorations, cleaned toilets – you name it, we sorted it! Hidden talents were unmasked when veteran member Sophie casually confirmed which way to hang a Chinese sign, revealing she’d studied Chinese and translating the sign for us. It just goes to show you never know how much people have to offer, and even after all these years Goodgymmers can still surprise us.

In no time the centre was looking clear and refreshed and there was even time for a rare treat of a cuppa together provided by the centres kind staff.

The Pagoda do a huge variety of great work including ESOL lessons, Tai Chi, Orchestra performances and a number of events for the Chinese community, so it was fitting our help was so varied and we were glad to contribute to the fabulous celebrations taking place over the weekend.

Gong hei fat choy!

The task tonight was at the Pagoda Arts centre, a mere stones throw from our usual meeting point. So after meeting on Hope Street the runners and walkers set off in opposite directions with the runners taking a meandering 2.5km route to meet the others there.

On arrival we were briefed about the task - clearing a grassy verge of grass, weeds and litter.

If we were being perfectly honest, we were initially sceptical of our ability to perform a task fit for a strimmer. 40 mins later however and the transformation was evident! All whilst trying not to disturb the tai chi class going on inside. Well done team!

5 GoodGymers freshened up this beloved cultural centre.

The Pagoda Centre is a hub for Chinese culture and community in Liverpool, a city with the oldest Chinese population in Europe. The centre is slowly trying to reopen as lockdown eases and to welcome back members who access their many services.

Our task for the morning was to freshen up the place for their returning members by painting the lower half of the walls in the centre's main hall. With John and Lorna on one side, Eimear, Pauline and I on the other, we managed to complete the task in just over an hour. Smartening the place up and making it feel clean and welcoming.

Centre Director Zi Lan offered us all a packet of face masks so say thank you. This was a first! We are often offered biscuits, but this new gift sure was a sign of the times! Luckily, dispite the pandemic, we're now able to get back into the community and offer some GoodGym people power.

Great work team!

Find out what's coming up over the next few weeks here.

19 runners warmed their cockles by getting fit and doing good with GoodGym Liverpool, despite a chilly evening.

With lots of our regulars taking an impromptu night off, the team might have been smaller than usual... but not when Amy H. is around! Amy brings a new standard to the suggestion of "bring a friend" and likes to bring not just one friend, but a whole cheering squad! Well done Amy, you are our recruiter No. 1!

With a pretty simple, downhill and super short run to the task, you'd think that nothing could go wrong getting there. Alas, I seem to have some geographical mind block when it comes to the Pagoda Centre but after a nervous hesitation, we didn't go too far off course (compared to last time we ran there at least!).

We were greeted by Zilan and the sight of an office worth of furniture stacked up in the main hall. A very patient group were also trying to enjoy a Tai Chi session next to this mess and with our team stomping around. Oh dear!

Zilan explained that the Pagoda Centre (Liverpool's Chinese youth and community centre) hasn't been painted in at least 10 years... maybe more. So we got to work smartening the place up, tackling the main office, three bathrooms and a corridor. It was a tricky job, working in close proximity to each other, to walls and furniture, as well as some dodgy paint and some rough drips. But all in all, we left the place in a much better state than we found it, feeling fresh and bright.

A big shout out and welcome to so many newbies: Davey, Esme, Ellie, Casey, Tafwauli and Fiona - you all did a fab job and we'd love you to run with us again soon!

After the task, it was uphill back to base. We stopped half way for a quick fitness session with half the group tackling hill (slope!) sprints and the other half doing some strengthening and conditioning drills. Everyone gave it there all.

Fantastic work folks, so great to have you on board!

Next week is our BIG CHRISTMAS RUN when we'll be jingling all the way to the Liverpool Irish Centre followed by drinks at Liverpool Arts Bar. Find out more and sign-up here.

A record-breaking 28 runners joined GoodGym Liverpool for some good-deeding in the sunshine at the Pagoda Centre.

An enormous group of runners ran the short distance (all down hill on the way there ;)) to a project we hadn't worked with before. Pagoda is the city's Chinese cultural and youth centre and home to the famous Chinese Youth Orchestra. Sadly, it is massively under-resourced and under-funded. Enter GoodGym, ready to offer our unique brand of people power to help out this brilliant project.

We split into 2 teams - indoors and outdoors. The indoors team did a cracking job of sweeping and mopping the centre's floors and washing down doors. Meanwhile, outside, there were some mega weeds to hack down, overhanging branches to clip back and general tidying and clearing around the centre's exterior.

This week we were made up to welcome a fantastic FIVE newbies. Great work Becki, Lola, Gabriel, Joanna and Sandy!

It was also wonderful to welcome back Karen, as well as Lyn and Jan - it's been too long x

As we finished up the task, the centre manager told us that they'd been wanting to tackle the mega weeds for 3 years. GoodGym ran in a tackled the job in half an hour. And we had fun doing it too. That's the power of GoodGym :)

Since the run to and from the task was pretty short this week, I made sure the team got sweaty at the fitness session and took them to cathedral gardens for some cheeky hills training. Everyone was panting but smiling by the end, so I'd say that was a job well done.

You were such an impressive bunch tonight, getting stuck in wherever you saw an opportunity to help. Nice one!

Want to do it all again next week? Make the most of your Bank Holiday Monday - find out more here.