Date of Activity: 8 July 2025 Location: The Esther Project Garden, Leamington Allotment Participants: 5 GoodGym volunteers + several site representatives Overview of Tasks: The primary goal of this session was to assist in revitalizing the allotment site, aiming to create a welcoming and serene space for the ladies who use it. Activities Completed: We focused our efforts on essential maintenance tasks to improve the immediate usability and appearance of the allotment: • Weeding: Significant progress was made in clearing weeds from between the wooden planting pits. • Grass Trimming: The grass around the general area was trimmed, contributing to a tidier environment. • Pit Cleaning: Assistance was provided in thoroughly cleaning one of the planting pits. • Waste Removal: We helped transport a large skip bag of debris to the waiting van, clearing accumulated waste from the site. Tasks Not Completed (Due to Time Constraints): While good progress was made on the essential groundwork, the following tasks outlined in the activity description could not be addressed during this session: • Cherry picking • Building a compost store using provided pallets • Painting the shed • Painting the bath

One balmy July evening, 5 enthusiastic GoodGymers headed to the The Gap Community Centre to tend to overgrown gardens and clear access to the centre.

The Gap (https://www.thegapwarwick.org) started in 1999, as a project to help bring together community members in North Warwick, providing a range of clubs, activities and social services, with a strong belief in the “transformational power of people getting together to support one another”.

The community centre space is very well used and our mission tonight was to make sure that the gardens were spick and span and clear away plants that were hindering access to the building.

We pruned, pulled, raked and tidied and left warmed by the lovely image of the gardens - and the summer sun, which continued to shine throughout the task!

Welcome to Ed and Suyash, joining their first GoodGym task!

This was a really deceptive task - it looked like no amount of sweeping, chopping cutting back and shoveling would get this area clear. But 7 pairs of GoodGym hands proved us wrong and in a couple of hours we had the yard at Packmore's looking ship-shape.

All that is needed now is to get the leaves, branches, moss etc shoveled into bags for the council to remove. Then all is set for Packmore's Easter Event - scheduled to take place on Saturday 19th April.

Another beautiful day for some GoodGym'ing in the sunshine ♥️

Last Saturday, we had a wonderful time as dancing queens - Catherine, Lucy, Maisy and Jo (and Nugget the dog) - helped to shape the turf and bring the Labyrinth to life at All Saints Church garden in Leamington Spa. Under the expert guidance of Lucie from ARC (Achieving Results in Communities), we made great progress. While the delivery of perennials and bulbs has been delayed, we focused on digging out the planted sections of this intricate and beautiful Labyrinth. It was a perfect day to be outdoors, followed by a lovely cuppa and a biscuit to wrap it all up. This is an ongoing project, so if you'd like to get involved, there will be future sessions where you can join us in creating this amazing space.

Another beautiful day for Parkrun- this time a brisk 5k walk around Warwick Racecourse as a park walker - supporting those that aren’t quite as fast around the track. Had the opportunity to walk with the amazing Sue who has had 2 hip operations recently! A former marathon runner, Sue is getting her fitness and agility back by coming along to Parkrun’s Saturday morning challenge. Also waked with another volunteer Phil from Nottinghamshire who, at the age of 75, has visited 175 Parkrun locations - with this one putting him at over 200 that he’s taken part in! Having already completed the A to Z of Parkrun’s together with his son, they are now almost all of their way through the A to Z of Parkrun volunteering!

This is exactly what I love about volunteering - you just get to meet such interesting people! Bon weekende 💕

At last, the Guide Dog posters are getting an airing!

This task has been on the back-burner for a while, but today marked the beginning of spreading the word about the incredible work of Guide Dogs and raising awareness of their volunteering opportunities.

While visiting various organisations with public noticeboards to display the Guide Dog posters, I also took the opportunity to put up a few posters for GoodGym.

This led to some great conversations at the Cape Road Health surgery about lifestyle medicine. The lovely health practitioner, Jo, kindly offered to display the posters at several other locations as well.

The staff at the Sainsbury’s on Coten End were also very interested, so we're hopeful this will help boost our numbers. With more people joining, we’ll be able to do even more good in the community!