It's the end of an era! Today a superb task owner led his final community mission with GoodGym and what a task it was!

A big group of us gathered in St Lawrence Park in Byker, the group including many regular faces and a few we were welcoming back- hey Emma and Charlotte ! There was also a triple celebration going on today as both Tanya and Damu celebrated 100 good deeds and gained their wings, while Sam gained the cloak of goodness for her 50 milestone. Give them all a cheer for so many days of dedication to GoodGym!

Mike has orchestrated and led over 100 sessions for us and they are always a real treat in hidden gems of parks. There was a lot of reminiscing today about tasks gone by (if you don't know about the rocks in Kenton Park, ask anyone there that day as it's forever etched in memories!) and there were so many great days to reflect on as we've worked with Urban Green Newcastle to make our city parks safer places to be. Today's mammoth hedge cutting task was another example of how we can work together to do a big job in a short space of time. The before and after is quite astounding!

Mike's tasks always end with tea and biscuits but today it was with a twist as we had Louise and Sam's amazing baking, as well as no-alcohol prosecco to toast with. We also gave Mike his very own GoodGym tshirt to remember us by... he has certainly earned it.

Good luck and thank you Mike, we will really miss you.

Monday again.. how did that happen?! I’ve looked forward to the session all day on account of it having some quirkiness and the fact I haven’t actually been outside today and been totally buried in work.

I was really looking forward to meeting Paula tonight who’s certainly made a splash at GoodGym Newcastle, chalking off three good deeds in as many days, what a way to kick off your GoodGyming! Give her a big cheer. Really nice to see Aimee back with us too following her move back to Newcastle.

With black clouds looming we took cover near Stepney Bank Stables entrance while we caught up on the weekend’s activities that included two community missions and my big 250th parkrun. Yay! Regular GoodGymers know how long I’ve counted down for that one and it felt great. The inspiration for tonight’s session actually came a couple of weeks ago when we did a leafleting session in Byker and noticed how much litter accumulated around the fences of nearby St Lawrence Park. Always the primary school teacher deep down, I turned this into a challenge and made some fun bingo boards to give a twist to the session. Teams were divided, competitive sides exposed and off we went: time to tidy up and conquer!

You’ll see from the photos that each group had nine items to tick off and they had to take a photo of each to be victorious- the prizes for this included 80s inspired sweets and sheer glory. In just 20 minutes, Tom’s team (including Scott and Lucy) had won. Kudos! Just seconds behind was Paula’s team (with Damu and Aimee) also collecting every item and perhaps the most impressive random thing of the night, a pair of Turtle pyjama bottoms! Before long two bulging bags of rubbish were collected and we headed further into the park to complete an Ekiden-inspired relay race. Once again a very competitive activity with Team Turtle Pants this time taking the victory.

What a fun start to the week!