Today we combined our October parkrun meet up at the Bevendean Downs parkrun with a community mission helping The Bevy pub’s gardener Dave with some autumnal gardening.

It’s that time of the year GoodGym is often called to help planting bulbs. We helped Dave to clear the big planters to be ready for some bulb-ACTION to spread colours and a little joy next spring in the outdoor lounge of the pub.

We love parkruns! Today was a lovely day for our 5K parkrun-ing up there, with Philippa & Rosie as time keepers and 10+ participating GoodGymers. It possibly goes without saying, but parkrun really isn’t about running at all - despite it’s name - it’s really about community cohesion, wellbeing and the coming together of the community. Pretty much like Good-Gym!

I most enjoy volunteering at the Brighton Multicultural Women Cycle Club sharing the fun, freedom and connection that cycling brings to all of us, The BMWs! We are women from diverse ethnic backgrounds WHO CAN!

The BMWS’s fun and friendly sessions gather migrant women, with roots more or less established in Brighton & Hove, to learn to cycle and develop confidence in cycling. At BMWs it is not only about BEING confident in cycling but FEELING confident. The shared feelings among the BMWs women, like stamina, empathy, love, and concern, are a powerful collective strength. This strength is rooted in emotional depth and can be a guiding force for our personal growth and building supportive, resilient communities everywhere, where we come from and where we go or live after our cycling sessions.

Inspired by the stamina of these amazing BMWs women I am now becoming qualified as a BikeAbility Instructor, so I can be equipped with the appropriate educational tools to better teach and empower them to enjoy the freedom of cycling, as I do in my daily and sportive life.

With weekly training sessions and regular group rides, new members and volunteers are always welcome at BMWs. GoodGym has already planned a community mission to buddy BMWs women to ride confidently to Lewes for the Bonfire night!

This week GoodGym Brighton returned to its annual appointment with a community mission at the Brighton Youth Centre in their shiny newly refurbished venue in Edward Street.

The rings under the eyes of our host, who welcomed 13 GoodGymers at the door, showed the clear signs of tiredness on his face due to the long working days of moving from 94 Gloucester Rd. But the arrival of our GoodGym volunteer-force turned those rings in a big smile of immense gratitude! We managed to move three massive cabinets, a wardrobe, a sofa, a fridge, 10 drums, and several heavy speakers in the record time of less than 30 minutes! It was ‘super cool’.

We love to visit and help Brighton Youth Centre. This partner organisation is one of Brighton & Hove’s longest running and best-used youth services in Brighton & Hove, helping Young People to thrive all their best creativity - from skateboarding to stand-up, dancing to D n D, street art, radio, music, theatre and more. B'fest is the Brighton Youth Arts Festival run by and for young people, 13-19 years old, and this Saturday 25th will open the doors for the first time in the new venue until the 1st of November during half term, bringing together young people from across southeast to celebrate all things creative and cultural. GoodGym is inspired by you!

We left the building with good vibes and in good terms, with the agreement of a return sometime again during the winter.

Welcome new GoodGymer Katie. I trust you will be back soon GoodGym-ing together with your new active friends in Brighton Area.

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