On a mild Monday, March night, an intrepid team tackled a task that neatly showcased (or suitcased 😉) the dynamic "Living Life on the Edge" (Hill) spirit of Goodgym volunteering...

A group of seven volunteers assembled at the junction of Earle Road and Tunnel Road, where there is a small and beautiful corner park. It is the home of the Edge Hill suitcases, an art installation consisting of pieces of luggage cast in steel on a Victorian hand trolley, created in 2013.

Local resident and Litter Clear-Volunteer (LCV) leader, Vicky, briefed our group on the sprucing-up jobs that needed our attention and efforts.

Emmaand Clara attended to the flower bed corner: identifying and removing weeds to allow the buddleia (butterfly bush) and other plants to grow unheeded. Dan, Sallyann and Liam led the clearing of one of the two circular flowerbeds. Faced with a few stubborn dandelions, Sallyann deftly demonstrated the necessary technique to apply the "twister" (also known as a claw), passing on one of Vicky's many hortiucltural tips and tricks that guided our endeavours. The final pairing of Dike and Bekah set to sharpening up the path edges, with notable speed and strength.

Whilst busy weeding, clearing and neatening, two passer-by cyclists stopped to find out how they might get involved, a family walking through thanked us, and a locally-based driving instructor came over and offered everybody a bottle of water, as a gesture of support and appreciation.

Particular praise to Dike who set those borders straight, before heading off to work and Emma who joined the task following on from a workout at the gym (the actual gym!).

By the end of the session, the park was looking like it had just come out of the barbers - all tidy and slick. However, further styling still needed in other areas of the park, which Vicky will strive onwards keeping shipshape. Vicky is part of LCV, which is a campaign aimed at turning untidy greens into welcoming community spaces.

Finishing up, our group stowed away all the tools and looked ahead to the Goodgym Liverpool 7th birthday party (on Thursday 26th!). Vicky revealed how each of the suitcases in the sculpture contains artwork produced by pupils at local primary schools and residents of a sheltered accommodation, for future generations of residents to enjoy when they will will be opened again one day! The inspiration for the sculpture came from Edge Hill’s rich railway heritage: the first passenger railway station in the world (dating from 1830!)

With the Goodgym gardening gusto this evening, the park space now smartly sets off this proud tribute to Edge Hill’s pioneering transport history and more recent creative communities 😀

This week we were on Timpron street with Vicky from Litter Clear Volunteer with an array of tasks to do!

After what sounded like very hectic day for Vicky she arrived with various tools to help us clear the local area. Some of us set to work litter picking whilst some weeded and planted in the beautiful raised beds and another group of us began to clear the tarmac of weeds.

It was clear that there were some flower beds hidden beneath the weeds and moss and we were soon using whatever tools necessary to scrape back and reveal some beautiful Diamond shaped flower beds!!

Excellent work team we not only tidied the place up but were able to reveal some real beauty in this unassuming street corner. We will be back to help Litter Clear Volunteer tidy up another patch of Liverpool soon!

For tonight's task, a group of Goodgymmers teamed up with friends from Litter Clear Volunteer and It'sYour World.Liverpool, led by the fabulous Vicky, to work our combined magic on the L8 Cliff Green park.

This is a small community green nestled amongst houses that could be a real local asset, but has sadly been neglected for far too long and had become an overgrown dumping ground covered in litter and dog dirt when Vicky decided to rescue it. She told us that on LCV's first litterpick of the area they collected a huge 25 bags, and they had clearly done a good job as our volunteers on litterpicking duty today had to look hard to find litter in the park, so much so that Sallyann and Ellie went off on an adventure collecting litter from the surrounding streets. We were just starting to get worried not having seen them for a while when they turned the corner carrying bulging bags of litter as a souvenir of their travels around Smithdown.

Vicky is good at keeping everyone busy and there was plenty for everyone to get involved in apart from litterpicking; the main task of the day was to clear the grass that had overgrown the path, so everyone got stuck in to digging, shoveling and scraping up clods of grass and earth, or collecting them up and tidying the path edges.

Together we managed to clear the entire path on both sides, and we were all amazed at how much wider the path really was compared to how it had seemed when we arrived. It's always good to be able to see the difference we've made at the end of a session and even in the dark that was really clear and a great reward for our hard work.

Vicky told us that the local residents are now beginning to plan how they are going to use the green when it is in better condition and that they would like to set up a bouncy castle there in school holidays for the children to play on. It will be great to see this green space being reclaimed by the community and hopefully becoming a safe and fun play space.

Well done to Katy and Gerard for their first GoodGym session!

Watch this space for the next installment!

Our first task of the 2024 on a crisply cold evening with the fabulous Vicky from Litter-Clear Volunteer supporting her Bloomin' Bays project!

12 Goodgymers came together on Tunner Road, with Liam and Heetu running from Lark Lane for some extra miles, picking up Aditya and Jo at the Suitcases on Hope Street to then run onto the task meeting point, the Suitcases on the corner of Tunnel Road / Earle Road, joined by 8 others (including Sallyann who had said she was too tired after doing the Round Sheffield Run on sunday but her FOMO got the best of her and out she came!)

After a little confusion with names (sorry Jo!) we welcomed Jo visiting from GoodGym Exeter (and look forward to some further ad hoc visists!), and welcomed back Matthew after 18 months of not being at a Monday evening session, lovely to have you back Mat!

Setting lights in tree branches and picking our tools, we quickly got going on clearing the first bay of weeds and debris. Some scraping, sweeping and lopping of branches later and the first bay was ready for a few daffodil bulbs to be planted around the tree. We made sure Aditya planted some of these so when they bloom in the spring we can all have a little smile and remember our good friend who is about to go back home to India and will be very much missed!

With 20 minutes to spare we jumped onto the second bay and with some speedy work got that cleaned up too! We'll be back at the Edge Hill Suitcases on Monday 29th to plant some bulbs around the Luggage Trolley and surrounding land

With the light Summer evenings rapidly disappearing and last week’s sunny spell a distant memory, we dusted off our torches and hi vis jackets for this week’s group run. We had high hopes of squeezing one last natural light task in, but better to be safe than sorry!

The evening began with a quick admire of Pauline’s gorgeous new e-bike ‘Rosy’, before we hot footed it off towards Earle Road for the evening’s task. This week we were working with the amazing Vicky from ‘Litter Clear Volunteer’ to help tidy up a littered and moss covered residential patch, with a view to doing some planting at a later date to transform it into a community garden.

Determined to make the most of the light, we quickly grabbed one of the wide variety of tools on offer and got to work. After much scraping, sweeping, weed pulling, trolley loading and litter picking the area looked so much tidier! It was lovely to hear comments from locals as they walked past about how appreciative they were. There was just enough time to take the final group photo, before we had to admit defeat on the natural light front and call it a day. Congratulations to Liam and Lucien for hitting task milestones this week - 10 and 15 respectively!

What a privilege to be invited to help out at Crown Park this week.

Litter Clear Volunteers and friends have been working tirelessly to provide some loving care to this well used little gem of a park. The park although small compared to some of the big more publicised parks is hive of activity. A green thoroughfare for cyclists and walkers, a place people exercise, come together to picnic or just enjoy this oasis which also has the most gorgeous cascade of wild flowers.

Tonight there were 22 people from 4 different groups: Litter Clear Volunteers, Asylum Link Merseyside. Its Your World and Goodgym.

Painting benches and walls, brushing paths, litter picking, bringing back the grass edges to the paths and scraping and brushing up the brick work to a paved area - all coordinated by the inspirational Vicky from Litter Clear Volunteers.

Liverpool being a village disguised as a city it turns out that two volunteers from one group knew two Goodgymers - neither parties knowing the other would be there.

Congratulations to Elliefor her fifth task with Goodgym Liverpool.

Thank you Vicky for giving Goodgym the opportunity to be part of the team this evening. Bringing sparkle to the park, working together and a healthy bit of chatting and laughter too.