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.