On a damp, overcast afternoon, Liam and Aatefa met at Williamson Square at 11:30 to support Savera UK's march through Liverpool city centre to raise awareness of honour based abuse. Although the dark clouds threatened rain - and delivered a light drizzle to keep everyone refreshed - the weather largely held off long enough for the afternoon to get off to an incredible start. The march kicked off with a burst of high energy courtesy of the fantastic Katumba drummers, whose vibrant rhythms set a powerful, upbeat tone for the day. Before starting off, the crowd gathered to hear a moving opening speech from Afrah Qassim, founder and CEO of Savera UK. With the march underway, the group marched through the heart of Liverpool, making their way up Church Street and Bold Street toward the iconic Bombed Out Church (St Luke’s), drawing enthusiastic attention and solidarity from shoppers and passersby along the route. Liam and Aatefa served as marshals along the procession, keeping the group safe, organized, and moving smoothly through the busy city streets. Though the rain grew heavier as the afternoon wore on, it failed to dampen the spirits of those attending. The march culminated at the Bombed Out Church for a cultural event featuring inspirational speeches from MP Naz Shah and Afrah Qassim, alongside a lineup of wonderful performance artists. Ultimately, the event was a resounding success, doing crucial work to raise awareness around honour based abuse and stand in solidarity with victims and survivors. The determination of everyone involved proved that even a heavy Liverpool downpour couldn't wash away such an important message. To learn more about their vital mission, access support services, or get involved, please visit the official Savera UK website: https://www.saverauk.co.uk/

To complement our parkrun super Sticker Saturday, GoodGym Liverpool has taken to the occasional "Parkrun on Holiday". This time, we were ticking off "C" on the Parkrun alphabet and heading to the coast for the Crosby Parkrun.

This extra run was arranged by Clara, and Clara's phenomenal organisational skills soothe my soul. She'd ascertained attendees, sorted a WhatsApp group so we could stay in touch without spamming the main group, and shared all the important information including public transport options, parking, amenities, and event schedule in advance so we all knew exactly what we were doing. As a fairly organised person myself, it's an absolute pleasure to attend a session Clara has arranged so thank you Clara for all your hard work in keeping us all together ♥️

The weather forecast was looking, shall we say temperamental, and Clara and I met early at the leisure centre and sheltered under the cover. We were soon joined by Liam and Aatefa and headed to the briefing point, where we were given the first-timers brief including the turnaround point at the iron man statue the Parkrun Crosby team have affectionately named Bing (get it?).

We were soon joined by Amina and got the all important group photo. Liam was nearly in hot water for not sporting his GoodGym t-shirt, but when it transpired he'd recently completed his 25th Parkrun, and was debuting the much sought after 25th purple t shirt on this, his 26th parkrun, all was forgiven.

It was then time for the general brief and GoodGym got a shout out welcome as parkrun tourists. One of the volunteers was celebrating her 400th time volunteering, a phenomenal achievement.

And off we went! The weather was kinder to us than expected, there was a little light drizzle mid-run but nowhere near the expected downpours ⛈️. It's quite a challenging course, running first on the sand (the 'out' was fine as the sand was quite firm, the 'back' much harder as the sand was more clay-like and sticky). We were all glad to reach solid ground for the section along the prom, up to the lifeguard station and back. Along the prom, one of the friendly volunteers was high-fiving us with Sweep, a beloved puppet from the children's show Sooty & Sweep. Then came the most challenging section of all - grass!

We all regrouped at the finish line, 25km completed between us. Amina had done well to make the run and had to get back for her bank holiday weekend plans, the rest of us headed for a Goodgym-style breakfast at a local cafe 🍳

Somehow despite the super challenging course, Aatefa had STILL managed to maintain her new sub-30 minute streak with an amazing time of 29:18. And I learnt it had actually been my 25th Parkrun! Might look into that purple t-shirt...

I certainly wouldn't have so many under my belt without the Goodgym Sticker Saturdays, so thank you GG Liverpool for endless motivation to get out running on a Saturday morning, and thank you Clara, Aatefa, Amina and Liam for a lovely morning of seaside fresh air, exercise, and a lovely cafe (particularly one that serves an iced matcha latte with coconut milk 💚).

We said goodbye and Aatefa and Liam made their way back to the city centre for ANOTHER Goodgym session, this time volunteering at the Savera march and festival. Well done guys what an amazing effort 🌟 But that's another report...

It was a beautiful late summer evening and it seemed everyone with a car to show off had headed to the Everton Park viewpoint. Amongst the sound of exhausts and tyres on tarmac came four panting Goodgymmers who had run from Hope Street. Run leader Liam with Sophie, Laura and Fred met myself at the lookout point and we waited for John for instructions.

It was a sapling attacking mission, the saplings were spawning of the trees and off tree trunks. We were each handed loppers and we got to work, cutting back the saplings to their base.

We got some curious onlookers. The boy racers gathered at the viewpoint pulled up beside us and asked what we were doing and what we’d be doing with the waste. They looked incredulous when we told them we were doing the task for fun and to stay fit.

We worked fast and furiously. In one hour, the five of us had made a good dent on the sapling invasion, they had been defeated, until another day…

John said the council would come to collect the sapling cuttings, ‘maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the next day, but someday’.

As we walked down the hill in the setting sun… roll credits…

I was finishing up a family phone call outside the Liverpool Irish Centre when I saw someone trying to catch my eye. When I approached, it turns out it was new member Fred, who attended his very first session yesterday at Princes Park, and enjoyed it so much he came back to another session today! Although I hadn't met Fred yesterday, he'd recognised the distinctive red GG t-shirt - the t-shirts work! - and so we were able to head in together and introduce ourselves to the team.

Goodgym Liverpool have worked with the Liverpool Irish Centre before, a few years ago, before my GG time. Due to lockdown and personel moving on, it's been a while, so when we saw they were holding a Volunteer Open Day, we thought it the perfect time to head down and re-introduce ourselves.

Fred and I were swiftly given our first task: masking-taping and painting Gold the bordered edges on the walls. Fred carefully and effectively added the masking tape, and I started to paint. That first border was, frankly, underwhelming. The 'gold' was a somewhat murky brown, and so opaque it looked like it would need at least 8 coats to cover the green and white paint underneath. Fortunately for me, Fred quickly ascertained that the paint needed to be mixed, all the colour was at the bottom. We looked around and asked for a suitable stick, and after a false start involving a couple of straws, were handed a fork to use. Fred got stuck into the paint can with the fork, and in front of our eyes it turned into a beautiful rich gold colour. Lucky indeed ☘️

We continued on our with our masking-taping and (now much more effective) painting, and before we knew it had finished an entire wall. On to our next job! Touching up the jade green paint wherever it was needed around the room. I got the torch out and eagle-eyed any minor imperfections, and Fred expertly touched up everywhere needed. Around 2 hours after we'd arrived, we were offered drinks and the promised 'refreshments', which turned out to be a sizeable buffet of pizza, wedges, mozzarella sticks and mac & cheese bites. Whilst I grabbed a plate and settled down with the team, slipping into 'Goodgym Sales/Business Development' mode, Fred put me (and us all) to shame by continuing on, casually refusing the suggested break.

It was of course during this brief break when I was sat eating pizza (in sales mode!) that Sallyann and Liam arrived, straight from work. They got straight to it and joined Fred on paint duties. Shortly after I managed to tear myself away, and Fred and I continued our quality-check whilst Sallyann & Liam got to painting the stage area.

The official Volunteer Open Day finish time of 8pm soon arrived, and Fred and I decided to call it a night. However Sallyann & Liam were full of enthusiasm and offered to stay later, much to the delight of the task owner who still had a lot to do (they could still be there now for all I know...)

It was great to reacquaint ourselves with the Liverpool Irish Centre and we're already discussing when we can go back. The team have done a huge amount over the past few months to renovate the centre, and there's still more to do. We look forward to returning to the Emerald... centre.