7 of us met at Rowntree Park to help the Make Space for Girls project to finish off the area ready for this evening's launch event. This is aiming to reduce the drop off of park use in girls as they reach their teenage years. They had fundraised for a bench, basket swing and balance log which we tested in the interest of quality control! They had saved some log stumps from a fallen tree which we collected from various locations and helped secure in place with wooden stakes that were bashed into place either side with mallets and screwed into the logs. We then retired for a well deserved lunch in the cafe.

A small but talented group of Goodgymmers broke off from their second day of eating chocolate for an Easter Monday trip to Rowntree Park.

With three tasks to complete, we split into groups. The first task involved securing the logs in the sitting circle with stakes, screws and tools. Martin was definitely in his element with Radu, Barbara and Michael ably assisting. Speeding though the task, they were also able to join in the second task, barrowing woodchip to be placed around some of the saplings in the park.

With Neil shoveling (and eventually Martin and Michael as well), Leanne, Barbara and Radu were able to shuttle the woodchip to Jenna and Nick. They took charge of ensuring it was laid correctly. The woodchip is intended to reduce the weeds that would otherwise grow up around them and reduce their growth.

The final task was to dig out the nettles that were already starting to grow around the circle. Paul, Claire and Jamie attacked the area on the left whilst Lucy, Abigail and Hannah dealt with the nettles on the right. The ground was soft but the nettle roots were deep as usual so some of them put up a lot of fight before accepting they were coming out. Hannah managed to pull out some incredibly long roots so hopefully the nettles will remain gone for a good while.

With lots achieved in a short space of time, we put the tools away and played an exercise themed game of cards before heading back for some well earned brownies courtesy of Barbara.

Rowntree Park has recently reopened after flooding and everyone is hard at work to tidy up the damage. A big pile of bark chippings had been left blocking a main path through the park - a worrying prospect with the Easter holidays fast approaching! Luckily a hit squad of Friday lunchtime Goodgymers was available to shift the chippings to the storytelling circle and clear the path for park users. As a bonus, we also collected some cut logs, a few to add to the circle and others to provide habitat for woodland creatures. A lovely sunny task followed by a nice café break - a perfect end to the week.

💫30 fantastic GoodGymmers came out on a cool but clear starry night for our final group run of January. Having beaten both our good deeds and distance targets for the January Challenge, we were keen to see if we could get to 500 good deeds, and we’re getting SO close, it’s pretty nail-biting stuff 😬

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Grace and Benjamin for their first GoodGym session. We hope you enjoyed it and would love to see you back if you did 😁

☕️ Our walking group set off for Rowntree Park while we warmed up, lunging/running round the circle while saying our GoodGym highlight of January. Lots of love for all the food and socialising that’s accompanied many of the tasks, and also brilliant to hear from people who have joined (or rejoined!) during January 🙌

➗We split into two groups with Mitch leading half the gang to Back Park. Here’s what he had to say about what they got up to…

🍂 We arrived at Back Park and were tasked with clearing the grounds of all the leaves. With a wide assortment of tools (including the leaf scraper which was amazing!) We quickly filled 10 bags 💪

🗯️ Quote of the night from this gang - "I come with a lot of baggage".

🏃‍♀️🚶🚲The rest of us ran/walked/cycled to Rowntree Park where we were met by Jenny and a list of tasks. We split into different teams, doing various tasks all over the park.

🌳 We had tree-moving teams, shifting a very heavy tree in a pot to a different part of the park (and only discovering afterwards that we weren’t using the trolley to its full helpfulness). The other part of Team Tree were digging up a tree. This was quite the manual labour, requiring much muscle and exertion but also skill to work out where the roots were that still needed cutting.

🌊 Meanwhile, we had a couple of groups on path-clearing, making sure the paths were clear and not slippery, following the recent floods. After some discussion of where the debris should go, sensible homes were found for it and it was distributed. There was also some discussion about if/where/how ducks and swans sleep, after seeing a fair few still bobbing along on the water, even at this time 🦢

🌲 The final Rowntree group started off clearing the top path (by the cafe) of debris then moved onto some topiary, cutting back bushes and considering potential shapes to mould them into. They looked great and there was still a hint of an elephant to one of them at the end (if only there was a GoodGym topiary badge…) 🐘

📸 After failing to drag Team Tree from their task, we posed for a (not-quite-complete) group photo. We heard a cheer while heading back to fetch them and were able to see their felled (by digging) tree, alongside some rosy faces and cheery smiles ☺️

🌟 It was time to make our way back to base where we did some celebratory fitness, featuring sprints and star-shaped exercises.

🍻 And then it was time to stretch and part ways, some to the pub and some off home.

👏 Thank you for some brilliant work tonight everyone, we’re SO close to 500 good deeds now so if anyone’s free to join the final task tomorrow evening to help us get there, we’d love to see you 🙏

*Credit to Cara for the pun 🤣

A terrific trio of GG Yorkies met at Carr Junior School to help Christine move some wood chips.

After gathering a couple of wheelbarrows and tools we started on the 2 large bags of wood chips, using the "rake it off the top" method for the taller bag which worked pretty well. As we got further down it was much harder but did give us a good upper body workout.

The wood chips were put around the bases of a variety of fruit trees in the nearby orchard to suppress any weeds. After an hour of hard work we'd covered most of the trees and given Christine a real helping hand in keeping the orchard healthy.

🙌 32 incredible GoodGymmers met for our group run this evening. We were absolutely thrilled to welcome Jenny, Anna, Sherilyn and Michael for their first task with us this. It was great to meet you and we hope you had fun.

🏆 We celebrated the impressive achievements of everyone who ran Round Sheffield Run yesterday, especially considering the mud!

🎁 We named and numbered off by discussing our best/weirdest Christmas presents. Devices for keeping warm were rated highly whilst other people got food (a box of crisps, anyone) or very practical items (a windscreen wiper, brilliant!)

🐝 Barbara led the walking crew and Ed led a longer route to Rowntree Park while the rest of us ran the direct route. We were greeted by Christine with a list of tasks and we quickly set about dividing into groups. The nettle-picking task was left to the end (sorry, Ed et al long runners, especially as it turned out that the special “nettle-proof” gloves didn’t actually block the stings…)

📍 We had a wide variety of tasks on offer that meant that groups were spread all over the park.

🐸 One crew were moving waste from the upper cafe garden area, creating space for any flood-prone things to be moved to for safety, given the anticipated flooding in the near future. Vicky and Dom were tasked with dismembering a wicker man that they named Alan Wicker (Christine called him Tommy, which caused great confusion/some concern when she was looking for the remains of Tommy as we were leaving the park...) Abi also found a frog that they named Alan 2. And a big toad crawled out of the compost in one of the wheelbarrows, which was named Terry (or possibly Terrence, or maybe even Tony, there was some disagreement). Abi may have been heard remarking to the toad "Haven't you got big muscles?" Halfway through the task, this team were confronted by the mystery of the missing Claire (and possibly Dom). Read on to see how this mystery was solved…

🐈 Another dream team were sent to extract a log from the Story Circle and replace it with 4 smaller, upright logs (named Loretta, Sharon, Gary and Stumpy, the latter coincidentally(?) the same name as the Govers’ lovely cat. Sadly, the tools required to remove said log were not available but that’s never stopped GoodGymmers yet and there ensued an incredible effort from each of these four heroes. There was digging, shovelling, sawing and tugging aplenty until the original log was out of the ground. The named logs then needed securing in, courtesy of Christine’s electric drill and some valiant efforts with a screwdriver by Michael.

🌳 Yet another epic team were on bark chip distribution. Despite being assured that there “wasn’t much”, it turned out that there actually was quite a lot. So this team set to work spreading as much of it as they possibly could in the time available. Christine was very impressed with the wheelbarrow-running on display, which enabled maximum distribution efficiency (apart from when Mitch lost the rest of his team temporarily, but we won’t mention that).

😁 Here’s what Barbara had to say about the green waste crew:

🍂 “Myself, Jenna, Anna, Jackie, Louise and Maddy had to move a pile of green waste from the Friends Garden to the top of the long borders. The pile was a mixture of spiky brambles, old leaves, small trees and shrubs, which got progressively muckier and slimier as we got further down the pile. Some bits were carried and others wheelbarrowed to the new location. We moved about a third of the pile in the time (with 2 good wheelbarrows and 1 with a puncture which had to be dragged backwards) and made sure to pick up and sweep up any bits we’d dropped on the way. No problem. Oh and we were joined by Claire and Dom towards the end. Dom was limited by the fact he had no gloves but Claire was useful!*”

*Here endeth the mystery of the missing Claire (and Dom) 🕵️‍♂️

🦎 Last but not least, we had the “Nettle Ninjas” and “Soil Sovereigns”. These guys were in the wildlife area that we’re rapidly helping to develop. They also faced an additional initial (and literal) hurdle of getting their wheelbarrows over the wall. That was no match for this team though, and they were soon shifting soil (to our ever-developing reptile habitat) and nabbing nettles with aplomb. Well done guys, the local wildlife will thank you, even if you did get cold and stung in uncovered places by roaming nettles (and didn’t even get to spot any frogs), sorry...

📸 And with all that productivity, it was time to gather our tools and head back to base (after a group photo, obviously).

💪 Back at Priory Street, we did a standing abs workout. There was confusion and jollity in equal measure but our core strength will be eternally grateful.

👏 Thank you everyone, it was brilliant to have such a great big crowd of us tonight. Hopefully see you all soon, click here to find out when you can join us again!