It was a bumper night of GoodGym tonight in Bristol with 50 runners and 8 people joining us for the first time: welcome Patricia, Ailish, Joe, Kate, Jonny, Thomas, Lucy and Cavid!

Skipping prison

We quickly split into our two groups for the evening. Alice W was taking a group to The Island, an arts and events charity, on a 2km round trip. When they arrived, they were set to work with filling the skip that they had hired specially for GoodGym's arrival with all sorts of no-longer usable chairs and tables. The team worked in super-fast time and soon the skip was filled. Tom then gave them a tour of the space to give them a bit more of an idea of the work they do. This included a trip to the underground cells and an arts space which was so 'arty' that it inspired the group to do a Mannequin Challenge in it... Spot the blinkers.

Meanwhile the rest of the group headed on a 7km run to help LitterArti in Easton. They paint pillars in an underpass which has a skatepark in it. This is used regularly by local people and children, but the council do not keep it litter-free. Therefore, it is down to volunteers to do this. The group of 33 armed themselves with litter-pickers, bin bags, recycling bags and gloves and got to work. They spread over the area and, with the help of a couple of the skate-park users, teamed together to gather 24 bags of rubbish and recycling, as well as several sofas, a mattress and more. There was an incredible difference in the 20 minutes the team worked, so much so that the skaters gave them a round of applause when we headed off for our run home.

On our return we had a game of Runner, Runner, the GoodGym version of British Bulldogs to get rid of any leftover energy, then got excited for this weekend's South West Summer Party hearing the line-up from Matt. It's not to be missed!

More than 40 GoodGymers, two locations to go to, two charities to leaflet for, plus one charity that need help with three tasks - sounds like a seemless night of GoodGym action, doesn't it?

Mina detour

One group seamlessly took on the task of leafleting for two charities around Mina Park. One was Real Economy who we have helped previously and who are keen to further spread the word about their brilliant social enterprise around Bristol. Secondly, we continued on our mass leafleting for Penny Brohn for Stomp, their sponsored walk in October. The group did a brilliant job of an extended, alternative route run, zipping all the leaflets out, having time to do a squats and lunges session and getting through most of a pint before the rest of us got back. Thank you very much Alice for your brilliant run-leading and Alex for your back-marking with sore legs!

Easton promise

Meanwhile, the rest of us trotted off to Easton to help Annali from Litterarti with clearing up an underpass in the local area. Annali explained to us that the skate park there is a really important part of the community, where lots of local young people can come and hang out. The area is not looked after by the council, so it is up to the local community to keep it in shape to discourage it from being a place of anti-social behaviour. Annali split us into groups - teams of litter pickers and recyclers went through the whole area clearing it up, collecting bags in and putting up new bags to discourage future litter. Another group brushed up the whole area to make it as safe as possible for children who play there. A third group took on the pillars: Litterarti get Street Artists in to paint these pillars, so in preparation for the next set of artists, we painted over previous graffiti and tags which had been left on the pillars.

All too soon, it was time to pack up the paint and get back on the road to central Bristol. With the knowledge that Alice's group were already safely nursing pints, there was, unfortunately, no more time for squat-stops on the way home, much to everyone's disappointment.

Are you Fi-real?

Fi achieved her 200th Good Deed on her mission on Saturday! To congratulate her on this amazing achievement, tonight Fi received her 200 Good Deeds t-shirt. Matt has once again done a brilliant job of making Fi's mermaid-likeness and goat-memories live on forever through her t-shirt (and we even got a photo of her mermaid-ing painting tonight to match). Massive well done, Fi!