What a lovely Goodgym day (formerly known as Wednesday) in the heart of Colchester!

We welcomed Daniel with stories of Queen Boudicca's disputed hair colour and little bit about Goodgym!

Our task tonight was whittling away the weeds and yucca leaves at Folly Garden next to Firstsite to support Alex Jones and Pam maintain it as spring approaches. Armed with torches, trowels and forks we got work, filling bag after bag with unwanted vegetation. In the darkness it was hard to make out the progress but we still enjoyed our celebratory squats!

And the treats were not over with some smashing hill sprints before we said our farewells. Speed, power and grace.

Well done Boudicca's Iceni tribe!

Hot weather, poetry, dancing, Shakespeare, bands, stalls, food, drinks...and lots of positive messages of equality and inclusion...

Every year there are a few events in Colchester that do make me feel proud (as well as over 50 Goodgym events of course). The running events go down pretty well with people achieving physical feats often to fund-raise or raise awareness of an issue, a few years back the Black Lives Matter demonstration was passionate and well planned and Pride has been a great family event.

What this year made me think about was the phrase "they live amongst us". What do you think of when those words are uttered? Aliens? Many of the stalls are designed to show people about acceptance and to breakdown stereotypes. Proud Police for example as well as the local political parties may focus on their day jobs 99% of the time but occasionally show that they have overcome prejudice to get where they are...and future generations shouldn't have to go through that...

The after party at Coda was fun and JamJar Band smased it!

Strike a pose! Colchester Pride is still going as the Goodgym Colchester squad take a little break. So far we have seen a mix of stalls from Essex Wildlife Trust and vegan food to the Green Party joining the fun but the main attraction is the people. Such a lovely, diverse and family event with poets, drag acts, bands and solo artists giving their all to entertain.

Big shout out to Libby, Jenna and Dan for organising the event and setting the goodgymers up to direct traffic and litter pick. The in term for litter picking and jogging is 'plogging' but we were dancing and litter picking so perhaps a new phrase needs inventing...jigging? Hmmm sure you can do better!

We are going to help with the tidy up at 5pm and then off to the next of our double task bank holiday Saturday.

Colchester really showed its true colours today and it was a rainbow...also lovely to see charities like Outhouse East and hear that Colchester Pride has charity status too this year as well as Colchester Black Lives Matter in Colchester.

Tonight's community mission was all about helping make an area smarter and more presentable to the vistors at Firstsite.

Eddie gave us the brief of going round the large room and painting over any areas on the walls that were in need of a bit of TLC.

We set about the task with our usual GoodGym gusto.

Everyone was pleased to see each other and catch up on each other's lives.

We are blessed to have such a fine group of people in GoodGym Colchester.

Thank you to Catherine for the the title of the report and Rosalind for taking some of the photos.

Finally thank you everyone for coming this evening and helping making a difference.

Regards,

Ian

Another Wednesday evening and another community mission for GoodGym Colchester.

Welcome to Mikaela for her first time with GoodGym Colchester.Mikaela is a experienced GoodGym member having done nearly 25 Good Deeds with GoodGym Hounslow.Loveley to have you with us and hope to see you again soon.

It was also a noteable evening for James as it was his 10th Good Deed with GoodGym Colchester.Well done James.

We met Eddie the Site Manager at Firstsite and collected the various tools we needed.

Eddie asked us to cut down any branches from the trees that were below head height on the 'D' Lawn ,along with picking up any litter we found.

Everyone set about the task in good spirit and within an hour we had filled up 2 wheelie bins with branches and twigs.

As the rain started to get heavier we said our goodbyes and headed off into the night.

Credit goes to Andy for tonights report title,thanks Andy !!

Regards Ian

Oh what a night. A night to celebrate, to sing, to read, to do good and to run. We started the evening with handshakes and hugs for members new, old and returning.

First to take the stage was Ella, reading out the Goodgym Experience beautifully. We certainly do feel like this is our town and the night would demonstrate how much we have done to help.

Goodgym always has perfect timing, or did Hannah plan her 50th good deed on this evening of celebrations? Either way what a superstar.

More congratulations to Ian on a smashing Dedham 10k and a little self love to me and bravo to Ella for our jaunt to Surrey for Reigate half marathon.

We set off with the sunlight fading to Firstsite with two missions, one to tidy the lawn and secondly to tour as many of the places we help with a photo at each one with our flag. At Firstsite we met our friend Eddie who gave out tools and instructions. The team trimmed, chopped, tidied and swept with the help of Toby and Harriet. A lovely job.

At the end we sang ourselves happy birthday and went on our photo-shoot tour of town. In chronological order we stopped for a photo at Castle Park gates, where we volunteer at parkrun and litter pick for Keep Britain Tidy. Next to Level Best Art Cafe where we clean the kitchen and restaurant, before we jogged down the High Street to pose by Colchester in Bloom flowers and the Townhall. Onwards (and via Ian's place of employment) we strode to Jumbo and although we have not helped the big water tower we have done leaflet drops and hill training in its shadow! Next it was to Beacon House, who help the homeless, where we painted a room and then down to Middlebrough and the River Colne where we plant and litter pick! PHEW!

After all that fun we ran back to base and heard two stories from the Goodgym book 'Fit Together'. Emily, who is a coach runner, read Florence's story and Susie read Andrew Robson's tale. Inspiring and relatable.

What a whirlwind and we ended by mentioning #GGSuperSaturday...more fun and perhaps a raised glass to toast 10 years of Ivo's Goodgym magic.