We were out pounding the streets again this weekend in support of Cambridge City Foodbank, delivering letters to raise awareness of their work.

Meeting to run to the task, Catherine welcomed Dani, who joined (definitely not defected) all the way from Luton, and Debbie who came for her first GoodGym session. Delighted to have you both join us 🙌

Taking a scenic route along the river and through the graveyard (only the best for new GoodGymers), we met Daiana, Scott, Michele, and Beth on Mill Road. An altogether jolly group of posties 📨

In pairs, each taking a main road, we split off to get delivering. Although the main focus was posting, there was time to admire some beautiful flowers (particularly the wisteria and roses) and stained glass, providing lots of inspiration. In just 30 minutes we'd delivered 250 letters. Swift work, and not at all motivated by the thought of coffee and pastries...

We reconvened and relocated to Mill Mediterranean Coffee Spot and enjoyed mammoth drinks and a variety of sweet treats while we chatted about the joys of storage units, garden centres, and bowling. Rumour has it that someone once got married in a bowling alley but we're unclear if they actually walked down the lane 🎳

Summoning pastry-based energy, Debbie and I ran back to our meet point through Midsummer common, enjoying the trees and activity on the river.

A social was the perfect opportunity to mark good deed milestones for Scott and Michele who are both celebrating reaching 10 Good Deeds 🎉 Absolutely brilliant and a solid commitment to making a difference in our community 🫶

Today was fun. As well as good deeds, we had good movement, good laughs and good pastries - all the best bits of GoodGym 💛

Another sunny evening spent improving green spaces in Cambridge 🌿

We were back at The Fields Child and Family Centre working in the children's garden, which had been taken over by weeds. In need of some help to finish the work started by the Centre team, Sal called in the big guns. Known around the city for our elite weed-fighting skills, of course Goodgymers accepted the (community) mission.

Ilse, Beth and I jumped on bikes to make the dash to the Centre and Scott ran across town double-quick time (not at all because he was running late). We were delighted to welcome new recruit, Rowan, who joined us for her first task 🫡

Met by Sal, we got straight to work. Rowan, Scott and Beth were on weeding duty, Sal was sweeping, and Ilse and I cleared the raised beds (leaving grass in one for the dinosaurs, obviously).

It was T-shirt and shorts weather at last, and as some GoodGymers were wrangling copious amounts of mint, it was feeling fresh and summery. With many hands, we had the area cleared within the hour, leaving it ready for playing and planting over the coming weeks. We had chance to hear about the positive work Sal and her teams are doing in their Centres across Cambridge, both to improve the environment directly and providing learning opportunities for the community. 💚

Before we left we had time for a quick team photo, which would not have been out of place on an album cover from the early 2000s. Less squadron and more Blazin' Squad.

We did good, got fit, and stayed connected. GoodGym mission complete 🙌

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Pun credit: Scott

For today's session we combined fitness, business and pleasure with our leaflet delivery and monthly social!

Catherine, Beth and Caroline met first and caught up during for a gentle 4km run (made to a round number!), jogging across town to meet Michele 🏃‍♀️

The foursome then set off with leaflets promoting Arthur Rank Hospice's 'Star Shine Night Walk', pinning on supermarket notice boards and dropping off in pubs around town 🔦

We made sure to end at the fantastic Free Press pub for our March monthly social, where we bought an array of crisps as an extra treat to accompany our drinks. The jalapeño & dill divided the crowd, but we all kept going back for more! 🍻

A HUGE shout-out to Michele on her 10th good deed with Goodgym - congratulations! Here's to the next 10 🙌 🎉

A bit of soggy plogging for this evening's task.

Five Googymers braved the rain to help keep the streets of Cambridge clean and tidy. We jogged along Mill Road and split into two teams to litter pick our way back to the meet point. We found the usual coffee cups, plastic bottles, and a shocking number of cigarette butts. Nick had been at it before we met and collected a bag full of batteries! As a bonus we saw a Dinky Door (tiny street art), which is always fun.

The weather might have been miserable, but catching up and improving the local area always feels good.

We're half way through the January Challenge and we end the week with a few more kms and some all important good deeds.

Well done team 🙌