Monday evening brought another brilliant GoodGym Liverpool session, this time on the Mount at the beautiful St James’ Gardens by the Anglican Cathedral. As always, the evening started with movement and good company, with part of the group meeting near famous Suitcases for a run before heading down to the task location together. After a warm-up and an easy run through the city, we arrived ready to get stuck in.

The gardens were waiting for a bit of love and it didn’t take long before everyone found a job to tackle. Armed with tools, gloves and plenty of energy, we spread out across the space to help tidy and refresh the area. Some of us focused on clearing overgrown sections, cutting back vegetation to help reopen parts of the pathways and make the gardens easier to enjoy. Others got busy cleaning, litter picking and generally sprucing things up to bring a bit of order back to the space.

Bit by bit, the area started to transform. Paths became clearer, corners looked brighter and the gardens felt more open and cared for. After plenty of teamwork, laughs and muddy hands, we wrapped up the session feeling accomplished before heading back, knowing we’d made a real difference to a much-loved local space.

Five thousand, six hundred and thirty five good deeds

Five thousand-six hundred moments so dear

Five thousand, six hundred and thirty five good deeds

How do you measure, measure 8 years?

In daylights, in sunsets, in parkruns and breakfasts

In walking, in running, in laughter so rife

Five thousand, six hundred and thirty five good deeds

How do you measure eight years in our life.

How about Love

How about Love

Seasons of Love

Five thousand, six hundred and thirty five good deeds

Done by, three hundred-forty three volunteers hands

Seven Hundred and twelve times we helped a community

How do you measure eight years in GoodGym plans

In brushes, in litterpicks, in weeding and planting

In painting, in clearing, in cheering so rife

Five thousand, six hundred and thirty five good deeds

How do you measure eight years in our life.

How about Love

How about Love

Seasons of Love

(apologies Jonathan Larson)

Celebrating is something that comes second nature to a GoodGymer. Every week for eight years we’ve celebrated the amazing communities we get to work alongside and be inspired by. We’ve celebrated connecting with older people who may be a little isolated, hearing their stories and sharing a smile. We’ve celebrated running and walking together, and all our achievements and milestones along the way, big and small. And we’ve celebrated milestones in each other lives, weaving together our own stories as we dig, plant and weed. If there’s one thing you can say about a GoodGymer is that our group is full of people cheering each other on! Celebration is second nature.

And if we are ever lacking in energy, feeling a bit glum in this complicated world, we know that an hour or two working side by side with neighbours, communities, and projects in Liverpool will lift us up and remind us that Liverpool is a city full of love.

It’s no surprise that when it came to our 8th Birthday celebrations, that even people who couldn’t stay for the evening popped in to help Bekah and Heetu set up before heading to another commitment (lovely Clara) and that everyone coming mucked it for this GoodGym style DIY party.

We had use of the fabulous DoES Liverpool space arranged by our ever amazing Bekah (where would we be without the effort love and care of our Bekah!) and everyone brought food to share (including Bekah’s now famous sausage rolls!) and Liam provided the music (after a somewhat intense discussion about what playlist to choose - why 80’s/90’s bangers of course!) With party decorations a plenty the room soon filled with the buzz of joy just to be in each others company, and one of our favourite things we also got to meet new people as Aatefa brought two friends along as a means to pursue them to sign up (It was lovely to meet you Kate and Sadia) (If Aatefa has her way her whole class would be joining GoodGym!)

We talked about what our favorite tasks have been (seeing the sunsets from Everton Park always gets a mention here) and what we would like to do in the coming year.

And I managed to share some statistics from our 8 years together reminding people that each and every task has been an act of love in a world that often feels scary and isolating for so many of us. There is no greater achievement in this world than connection, creating community as an antidote to what ails us, and community as a radical act of love.

“Community is much more than belonging to something; it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter”

In eight years (including the time spent in national lockdown) 343 GoodGymers have cumulatively completed 5’635 good deeds in Liverpool. This includes: 349 visits to people who are older and isolated, helping with the things that usually slip through the net of social services, and finding that the task is what brings us there, but the chat and the cuppa is what we always remember most.

712 Group Tasks, planting, clearing paths, painting rooms and fences, wrapping presents, cleaning walls, lopping trees, sorting clothes, weeding, brushing yards, shifting furniture, stewarding runs and festivals, and not to forget litterpicking! Often in the dark, sometimes in the rain, always in laughter.

8 years, 32 seasons of love Happy Birthday GoodGym Liverpool

It’s Not All About the Stickers!

It’s month three of 2026, and our enthusiasm for stickers has not waned—but our monthly parkrun meet-up has always been about so much more.

On this bright spring day, eight GoodGymmers arrived at Princes Park. It was Princes parkrun 15th birthday and the week of Goodgym Liverpool's 8th birthday so plenty to celebrate.

As we gathered at the start line, it was immediately obvious the massive difference Monday’s task had made. It’s a well-attended parkrun, and as overhanging bushes and mud had encroached, there had been less and less space for everyone to gather. Today, the pavements were visible again, the space freed up, and the vegetation looking decidedly healthier after a good prune.

GoodGym got a shout-out at the briefing for the work that had been done, and marshals were calling out their thanks as we made our way around the course. It’s so lovely to reap the benefits ourselves and see just how much it has helped everyone. Kudos to Steph for making the connection with the Friends of Princes Park last month.

The route is two and a half laps. Aatefa flew round as always and despite not being able to come to breakfast ensured that we got the group photos

Huge congratulations Steph on a PB! Steph has been training consistently, and it’s really paying off. With a half marathon on the horizon, she’s more than ready.

Talking of training, Liam is going to do the Run Leader training, which we’re all really pleased about. In true Liam fashion, he arrived after the runners had already started—but still ran strong, overtaking people along the way. Apparently when he passed me, I was chatting (as if!).

Clara continues to inspire —speed-walking the course before launching into a lightning-fast 100m sprint finish. Bekah joined her today and reported she had to skip at times just to keep up… and that final sprint? Phenomenal. And that’s coming from Bekah, who is known for her fast walking—so ............!

Well done to Suren who completed his parkrun beforehand by running across the city from home to the park to cheer everyone on and come for breakfast.

As we gathered for photos, I spotted a GoodGym t-shirt—it was Alex from Hackney/Walthamstow! After a chat (and me delaying her, naturally - have you met our Dan who moved to London? Will you be in our photos? will you come for breakfast?), we had the obligatory photo before she rushed off later than she expected to meet her friends. Lovely to meet you, Alex.

Jo—our parkrun legend with 408 runs and 345 volunteer credits—saved the day when Bekah realised she’d left her bag behind. Jo contacted the team, located it, and arranged for it to be kept safe. Absolute star.

Then it was on to Minna Café, where Eleanor and Steph were waiting with Heetu —who we’ve all missed while she’s been working away. She only got home last night, and yayyy we are so happy to see her back!

Minna was busy as ever, but Ellie had somehow secured a table for ten… and as if by magic, our surprise tenth Goodgymmer arrived—Dike! After a night shift and a short rest, he still made it to join us. Incredible effort.

And huge congratulations to Dike for a phenomenal result at the Liverpool Half Marathon—1 hour 47 minutes! With the Brighton Marathon coming up in April, which he is running to raise funds for Sense we know he’s going to smash it.

So… back to the stickers.

Steph, as always on the ball, handed them out. Liam is already aiming for a full card and was asking if that earns him a holiday in Barbados! As Ellie reminded us, the prizes and categories are top secret—but just in case, don’t go applying for that passport yet…

We meet. We fill our sticker cards. We look for ways to earn more and try to guess the secret categories.

But the truth is—we’ve already won the biggest prize.

A community where each of us is seen, supported, and respected. A space where we come together in unity and friendship. A shared desire to do good, and to give our time to help and support.

We are Liverpool GoodGym.