Wednesday 18th January 2023
Report written by Amy L (she/her)
Who wood have thought we could have saw much fun out logging good deeds in the dark on a freezing Wednesday evening? I've spent so much of the evening eating cake that I don't have time for a big report, so like a sawn off bit of den-building pole, I'll keep it short(ish)! And then I'll log off...
Things that made this evening tree-mendous:
1. We came... in droves! We were a really big group despite the freezing weather, and it was great to welcome newcomers Jude, Clare, Garry and Tony as well as a forest of familiar faces.
Five runners branched off to get in some extra steps on the way to the task, while the rest of us walked and carried the tools. The walkers negotiated some amazing mud as we took a wrong turn on our root. Never a dull moment!
2. We sawed... up all the old den building poles Ranger Tom left us in the woodland classroom, so there is now plenty more firewood for the Nature Centre to use in their outdoor learning programme. We saw-ted this bit of the task out so rapidly that we also had time to carry the new den building poles from the reserve into the classroom and to do a 1 minute plank!
3. We celebrated... some truly awesome GoodGymer achievements. Thanks to the Nature Centre for allowing us access to their building so we could do this in the warm.
In an all-time GoodGym career highlight, I had the honour of formally presenting Sheila with the Sean Coxhead Inspiring Individual Award. This award, which takes the form of a beautiful glass trophy, recognises individuals in the GoodGym community who have demonstrated remarkable dedication, kindness or effort. You can read more about Sean Coxhead, to whose memory the award is dedicated, by clicking here. This evening Kanika and Georgeta, who both independently nominated Sheila, shared with the group why she is such a star. The Maidenhead Advertiser agree she's a star, and you can read what they've said in the pictures for this report.
Incredibly, this week Sheila also achieved her 250th good deed with GoodGym. She is the first from the W&M group to tick off this milestone. Many of her recent good deeds have been social visits, through which she has really brightened the lives of some of our isolated older residents. She has also listed 80 sessions, led 103, and written the reports for a whopping 113, enabling us to run more sessions and bring more GoodGym to our area than I could do on my own. To celebrate her big 2-5-0 we gave Sheila a medal including a golden, sparkly rake , 'cos she's been raking in the good deeds and she's GoodGym gold!
Huge congratulations also to Kelley! We presented Kelley with a medal to celebrate her 50th good deed (and her 51st and 52nd!) We love having Kelley on our team. She always makes us laugh (especially if there's a dentist's chair around), she captained a team at Endure24, she is dedicated to her fitness, she has excellent tulip connections and she takes stunning photos. Well done Kelley!
And last but not least, (bin)GO Diya for winning our January Challenge Bingo game! Diya has been all over the bingo game since it launched, and since she also loves a selfie, we celebrated her achievement with a framed picture of her face all over the bingo card. Very much deserved!
We celebrated all three of these super women with cake baked by super Georgeta - a red (GoodGym) velvet stunner! She also made scrumptious cupcakes and Sheila worked her baking magic for the gluten free crew. What a tree-t!
Working in partnership with Groundwork South, Braywick Nature Centre acts as a community hub to promote awareness of the natural environment with events, walks and talks across the borough, and through educational sessions for school, youth and other groups. The service also offers support for local conservation and amenity groups. The nature centre houses displays and exhibitions on wildlife, sustainability and local history, and has a large classroom for use by schools and other groups and is only open to the public when events are taking place. The nature centre is situated in an old stable block, originally part of the estate belonging to Braywick Lodge. The 19th century mansion house was demolished in 1969, however the stables were refurbished in 1989 to provide a centre for environmental activities in the borough.
See moreThu 19th Jan 2023 at 8:49am
Love this report, and the loved last evening even more! Such a happy set of celebrations! That clip from the MA is awesome - very cool! I'm running out of allowed number of exclamations in one comment!
Thu 19th Jan 2023 at 8:59am
Kanika ๐
Thu 19th Jan 2023 at 9:13am
What an amazing evening and exceedingly amazing group of people!!!... ๐๐๐And a report to match it all, thank you Amy for organising all this! You are a star and we are so lucky to have you! ๐คฉโญโญโญ
Thu 19th Jan 2023 at 10:21am
Brilliant evening, thanks to everyone, especially to Georgeta for her fantastic baking, and Amy for leading such a dynamic group
Thu 19th Jan 2023 at 11:48am
So much to love about last evening! Absolutely loved the happy vibes and glad we had a warm place to have a proper celebration and not a freezing, "well done, here you go and off we go" action. Congrats again to Sheila, such a role model for us all โญ โญ โญ
Thu 19th Jan 2023 at 12:02pm
Congratulations Shiela, that's wonderful!
Windsor and Maidenhead
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