We had a great turnout of runners, with 10 of us meeting at the Peace Statue and running to the task. Two others cycled to the site, and three more met us directly there, making a fantastic group of 14 ready to get to work. We welcomed new member Susie, and Charli returning for her second session, to the team.

We were helping out at St Thomas Fund, a residential rehabilitation service in Brighton & Hove run by the charity Change Grow Live. They offer a safe space for adults on their journey to becoming free of drugs and alcohol. Sean, who welcomed us, gave a fantastic introduction to the organisation, the site and their mission, explaining that our task was to transform a bindweed-covered area into a usable space for yoga and meditation.

The area was completely carpeted in weeds. We even found a rake that the tenacious bindweed had tried to consume! We had a laugh wondering how long you'd have to sunbathe before it took you over, too. But the team, including Sean, with tools and gloves provided by St Thomas Fund, made short work of it.

Nicola and Sarah did a particularly fantastic job of rescuing a fig tree from the grip of the bindweed. By the end of the session, the whole area looked transformed. You could see the soil in the beds again, and we filled somewhere between 10 and 20 bags with weeds and rubbish.

Sean seemed to be really happy with what we achieved, emphasizing how the collective effort of so many volunteers can make a huge difference in a short amount of time. It was a great feeling to see the space ready for residents to use for peaceful activities. A big thank you to Sean and St Thomas Fund for having us.

16 Goodgymmers made the short jog over to Brighton Community Kitchen on Queens Road for our regular clean-up mission. We welcomed new Goodgymmer Charli, who has recently made the big move from Worthing over to Brighton, for her first task.

The Brighton Community Kitchen does vital work in the community to teach valuable cooking skills to those who might otherwise might not have access. Recently they have been working with the Marcus Rashford-backed project to provide meals over the holidays to children who are eligible for free school dinners. They have hosted classes for both the children and their parents to impart practical day-to-day cooking skills.

We were excited to see that the Kitchen has recently been upgraded with new sinks and a Food Dehydrator. The dehydrator particularly allows them to preserve vegetables that wouldn't otherwise by used, store them and later use them as ingredients. There was a big batch of Tomatoes, Onions and Carrots in the dehyradator during our clean.

Jo greeted us with her usual enthusiasm and gratitude, along with her famous todo list on the wall. This time we cleaned all the windows both inside and out, transformed the drawers from chaos to order, gave all the stools and work surfaces a good cleandown, scrubbed the ovens and of course sorted the cheese graters! Our extra large turnout meant we were able to knock-off all the tasks in no time.

With our tasks finished and everything ticked off of Jo's list we sauntered off into the summer night back to our own (slightly less sparkly clean) kitchens.

Most GoodGym volunteers report high levels of satisfaction, with a strong sense of making a difference and increased social connection being key drivers to getting fit while making good.

At our group session yesterday, 11 handy GoodGymers fulfilled their expectations while volunteering to scrape weeds from the streets of Hanover 😊. After running uphill, we gathered in Islingword road to meet Chancellor Tim Rowkins and other residents who engaged with the session by handing over their tools and help, including Rose and Elaine.

Firstly, we manually pull-out weeds, ensuring to get the roots to prevent regrowth, and we then cleared all around to make the area looking well tidied up. Thanks City Clean Tidy Up Team for providing brooms and shovels! We managed to save the Red Valerian, known as Centranthus Ruber – a perennial herb with deep pink, almost crimson, flowers that are commonly found growing alongside roadside verges and on old stone walls, in bungaroosh. Did you know that Bungaroosh is a composite building material first introduced by the Romans and used almost exclusively in the English seaside resort of Brighton? I didn’t.

It was another of our Good sessions, helping Brighton & Hove council to keep our city streets clean! Cllr Tim Rowkins, deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Net Zero & Environmental Services of Brighton & Hove City Council, also updated us on the major plans to expand recycling to include all plastics and food waste in Brighton & Hove. Very Good!