Eight Goodgymers helped the Wigmore community begin their Christmas celebrations. They wrapped presents, hosted with food and drinks to tables helped with the washing up, clearing up and joined in with the fun and dancing.

Tonight's task was obviously very appealing as we had a great team at the Chaul End Community Centre, all set to do battle with 4 sacks of potatoes, 10 bags of carrots, 5 bags of parsnips, and a mountain of sprouts. With vegetable peelers and paring knives in hand, we set about peeling just about everything i sight, and with such a big team it didn't take us too long before everything was peeled, carrots were chopped, potatoes cut up for roasting and the parsnips and sprouts put ready for cooking. Tomorrow the veg will be cooked up for a Christmas meal for around 100 senior citizens. We really hope they enjoy their meal, they certainly won't be going hungry.

A GoodGym super team of 6 gave up their time to litter pick on this sunny sunday morning. Joining forces with the ‘Friends of Dallow Downs and Winsdon Hill’ community group, we worked together for an hour and a half to clear the area of as much rubbish as we could bag up. Unusual finds this morning included an abandoned fridge freezer full of murky swamp water, a huge flatscreen tv, parts of a bed and many of the usual. Beer cans, drinks bottles, plastic and remnants of food packaging. Clearing this litter away will make a huge difference to the local park users and wildlife. Great work, team!!!

It was a return to the foot of Winsdon Hill on Dallow Downs this morning. Where Brambles had been cut away there was tons of litter on the ground, plus dumped furniture that we dragged down for collection from the roadside. Alongside the Friends of Dallow Downs And Winsdon Hill, we filled bag after bag of litter until we ran out of bags! A huge pile was made by the time our hour was up, but there was plenty more there so we'll be back soon to do some more.

What an amazing amount of work our team of 5 put in today to make the International Older Person’s Day Party a huge success! From 10.00 the team were on hand to set up tables and chairs, lay the tables with cloths and start preparing the food. As the guests arrived we were then detailed to serve teas and coffees and make sure everyone felt welcome. Gill was asked to give a short talk about or social missions. Then it was on to serving the sandwiches and savouries, helping with the bar and serving the most important part - scones with lashing of clotted cream and lots of tasty cakes. While the entertainment took place we helped to keep people topped up and started on clearing plates. One or two of us may even had joined in the dancing. As the afternoon drew to a close we all pitched in to clear the plates and cups and clear up the tables and chairs. It was 5 hour shift but we all enjoyed being part of such a joyous occasion.

Well we were actually spreading a lot of sandwiches 🥪 ,which will hopefully help with the happiness tomorrow. 4 of us had volunteered to help in the preparations for tomorrow’s afternoon tea for senior members of the community. And once we got going we had quite a production line going. While Gill prepared the tuna onion and mayo filling, Lucie sliced the cucumbers Abdullah and Abdulrahman got just spreading butter onto the never ending supply of sliced bread. Then it was down to Lucie and Gill to start spreading the fillings into the sandwiches - egg mayo and cucumber for Lucie and the tuna for Gill. Then as they got half way through the mountain of bread it was on to coronation chicken, and egg and tomato. We must have made getting on for 400 sandwiches - which should be just enough for afternoon tea for the 100 or so guests tomorrow. And only Adulrahman could turn what could have been a boring task into a fun filled morning of competitive spreading!
We finished in record time and Vera and Ian the organisers were once again amazed and really appreciative of the help that GoodGym provided. Well done team - you really put in the time to spread a lot of GoodGym good cheer today.