This past weekend, Brighton GoodGym-ers have been running or volunteering while engaging their heart with their friends Susan and Joel in Mind.

We are big fans of Parkrun and are always keen to lend a hand.

Bevendean Down is known for its amazing views and challenging climbs. It is a smaller Parkrun but with a loyal following.

Myself, Stefania and new member Lucia helped out the other volunteers.

We all enjoyed cheering on the runners including Doug another Goodgym friend. Stefania and Lucia joined forces to do the important role of timing the run and the runners. While I scanned barcodes. We had stunning views of menacing clouds and a rain shower which just missed us.

We headed to Bevy Community Pub for a well earned breakfast. There we chatted to other runners and browsed the community stalls.

GoodGym sessions, parkruns and races like the Brighton Half are not just great ways to challenge ourselves and support our fitness goals, but also provide an opportunity to come together and remember friends like Susan and Joel, GoodGym-ers who sadly lost their lives.

Massive thank you to everyone who supported the fundraiser for Mind.

We’re fundraising for Mind because their work supports people like Susan and Joel, providing mental health information, advocacy, and peer support. Since the pandemic, the demand for mental health services has been increasingly overwhelming, and charities like Mind are doing essential work to help keep up.

If you’d like to donate, you can still do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/brightongoodgym-halfmarathon2024?utm_term=MqPB5rDjy

Apple Harvest Day is one of the biggest events in the social calendar of Stanmer Park, organised and run by volunteers from the Brighton Permaculture Trust (https://brightonpermaculture.org.uk). This year, as many before it, fresh apple juice, properly scrumped cider and a fruit crumble ‘extravaganza’ were dished out to the autumnal hoards. All to a soundtrack of live bands, while storytellers held the younger punters in rapt attention in the magical orchard space.

The evening sun shone, as GoodGym assisted in the clean-up and pack down following the main event. Ben, Carla, Caroline (honorary GoodGym member), Doug and Tabi shifted juice, lifted and packed crates, scrubbed and power washed all the apple pressing kit and generally helped the team get things back in order ready for more autumnal apple goodness to come.

On the same day, Michelle, Nicky and (I think) Frannie run a 10K for Rise and Carla, Sarah, Pippa and Mike did a trail run on Devils Dike.

A special thought goes to Joel who could not make this community mission.

After a glorious sunny bank holiday weekend, it felt a bit windy-er our yesterday’s enjoyable outing and GoodGym group session at Wilding Waterhall. This is a project of The Living Coast Partnership restoring chalk grassland, improving biodiversity and supporting public engagement on a former golf course up in the middle of a scenic wildland just on the doorstep of the South Downs National Park.

It was our first GoodGym Brighton outing with double sport action, with Philippa leading a group of our enthusiastic runners, including Jane, Nicola, Ben and Angela who found her way without getting lost in the wild 😊

And, with Stefania riding by bike together with Juliet, Sarah and new member Maddalena. WELCOME! Joining Doug, and Richard coming from the further West and Frances, who is always the first one up and ready for the community action of the day!

We saved 1.2 kg of CO2 riding or walking to Wilding Waterhall rather than travelling by car. This is what the Brighton & Hove BetterPoint App tells me to encourage sustainable travel across our city!

We were hosted by Laura from Brighton & Hove Food Partnership for tacking a spring deep clean in what was a former golf clubhouse. The list of cleaning tasks was neat, clear and long but, as usual, we managed to sort all out with our GoodGym superpower, despite the missing hot water, the lost buckets and the hidden additional hoover with dodgy electric supply 😊

Brighton & Hove Food Partnership has just taken over the management of Wilding Waterhall venue that is now available for hiring to host projects like “Land Use Plus” and “Meat Share” to encourage nature friendly farming and improve food production practices that impact less on climate change. Read more here about Wilding Waterhall: https://thelivingcoast.org.uk/project/changing-chalk-wilding-waterhall-2 And, on BHFP website about their projects https://bhfood.org.uk/land-use-plus-project and https://bhfood.org.uk/meatshare-project/

Summer is here, it's official! 13 Good Gym runners met to run and walk up the steep hill to Brighton Unemployed Familes Project. We celebrated Pippa's 50 good deeds in her absence and welcomed new member Michael . Oranganised by Sarah, this seemed a simple task at first but proved deceptive. Joy from Brighton Unemployed Families Project told us the project had been running for 42 years and provided practical support, education and much much more to local families. Recently one group of families had 13 different languages between them! It was a lovely large space that backed on to Tarner park. Our task was to sort the many donations of baby and children's clothes. First it was suggested we sort by type of clothing, then by gender but then mother-to-be Catherine suggested by age. This proved the winning formula and our team made good progress. We were amazed by the end of the session that we had sorted at least half of the clothes. And there were some very cute clothes including baby sleeping bags and an elf's costume! The other team had to take many boxes up to the top floor where there was more room and also were very successful in sorting the clothes, although I think by the end of it some of us were going a bit ga ga !