We were at Newcastle University Students Union for their volunteering week, unfortunately we didn't have any student volunteers but we still had a good time. We were helping with some admin tasks for North East Solidarity and Teaching (N.E.S.T) a student led project at Newcastle University Students Union, which the refugee and asylum-seeking community in the region through a variety of formats one of which is going into school and helping with English.

The weather outside was miserable and cold so it was nice to have an indoor task! I started off folding some leaflets, while Lucy stables out other leaflets and Scottgot stuck in with using the guillotine cutter to cut words which had been printed out to be used within schools. Once we had finished our tasks me and Lucy also joined in with cutting and putting the word cards in the laminator pouches which were then feed through the laminator.

While we worked we had some nice conversations about the difficulties of the English language, spelling, proof reading and how hard it is to remember the correct time to use affect or effect!

What a lovely, wholesome start to the week at GoodGym Newcastle! Meeting up at Strawberry Lane for the last time in 2024, a group of five of us headed off to support a project at Newcastle University, where we hadn’t done a task in a good few years!

Aimee was leading the welcome and the walk this evening for her fitness leader training and it was lovely to sit back and let her take the reins. We celebrated Jack’s tenth good deed and marvelled at his accident prone past few days. It felt busy in town for our walk to the task- a combination of Northern Lights traffic and Christmas shoppers making it a bustle through the crowds.

We were met by lovely Fran who had prepared two tasks for us in a warm haven in the students union - complete with a sweetie tray as a thank you! The tasks tonight both supported poorly children in hospital over Christmas- writing cards for the Post Pals initiative (Jack’s choice) and making Wiggly Bags for children in the RVI, these cute little bags holding medication lines for the children to keep the lines safe and look more child-friendly- this option taken by Aimee, Lucy, Scott and me.

I couldn’t believe how fast the time went tonight as we were so deep into the task- concentration definitely needed for these activities! Jack created three beautiful cards while we made four Wiggly Bags in the time we had. Very satisfying stuff.

A fast-paced fitness session (and if you believe that you believe anything) wrapped up the evening with a great little stretch routine led again expertly by Aimee. Truly a fab start to the week.

We have a bonus daytime community mission at the foodbank tomorrow, and some Urban Green goodness this Saturday before being back for our final group run of the year next week.

We were grateful to have the opportunity to join today’s part-time jobs and volunteering fair at Newcastle University and to spread the word about GoodGym. Lucy, Richard, Aimee and I spoke to lots of students who seemed interested in what GoodGym is and how we help other charities in our community. Some people from other organisations were also interested! Hopefully we have attracted some new members to help us continue to spread the GoodGym love far and wide!

This is like a maths problem: how can 11 goodgymers get 75 bags of compost up two flights of stairs in half an hour?

We were so happy to be back at Hotel Indigo for the first time in two years and six days as our original GoodGym Newcastle base. Comfy seats, a warm welcome and it was just like the old days. Half of the group met there while the others met at the task, meaning by the time the walking group arrived, the task was already in full swing.

Our task tonight was a real heavy lifting job, with a whopping 75 bags of compost weighing in at around 20kg each waiting to be lifted up two flights of steps. Newcastle University students union have their very own rooftop garden which is being transformed ready for spring. Task owner Jon had asked us to come and move the compost from the bottom of the steps to the mezzanine, before cutting into the bags and emptying them into large containers that will be prepared for planting.

Liz and Louise took care of cutting and emptying while everyone else got stuck into lifting and doing multiple stair repeats. I cant decide if quads or biceps will be the biggest pain tomorrow, you will have to let me know.

The lifting was done in no time with some proper team work and tenacity, and there was time for a quick breather, water and fruit waiting kindly provided by Jon.

We will be back to the uni garden in the spring and summer to help again and see some real growth from this task.

If litter picking is your thing, we are helping the incredible Bobby Robson Foundation to tidy up the memorial gardens on Thursday, then it's back to Kenton Park for another Urban Green task on Saturday.

The cold never bothered us anyway

(Thankfully, we were indoors tonight)

While the North East of England was hanging on to Ciara, we were layering up and heading back to Newcastle University students union where we were paying a visit to the brilliant team at NEST. Most importantly, it was finally time to celebrate Abi's 50th Good Deed and see her swishing about in the freshly ironed Cloak of Good Deeds. Abi's top Good Deed was the trip we made to Recyke Y Bike on the night of the amazing sunset.

We welcomed new runners Suzi and Michael along for their first Group Run and they did a brilliant job of getting stuck in. Nice work you two, you can come again!

If ever there was a night we needed a warm warm-up it was tonight, so we got moving with the numbers game, jogging between rounds of numbered exercises, ranging from standard lunges to not so standard flying around like aeroplanes with appropriate noises.

Onwards to Newcastle University, a short walk or run for us tonight through town , chatting along the way about what we had been up to at the weekend. Katy also managed to find a football which was donated to NEST on arrival to the task!

We were met by the brilliant NEST team who gave us some background and detail on tonight's task. They explained to us that refugees in our city have to live on less than £40 a week, so many of them never have spare cash for clothes and so they rely on donations from very kind people in the community. Our job tonight was to organise all of the clothing donations into labelled bags to make it easier for people accessing the service to find what they need.

This is a job we have been putting off for ages. It just takes us so long, and you have come in here and blitzed it. Thank you!

We were able to sort every bag of donations, far beating the expectations of the NEST team, and even labelled every bag thanks to Debbie and Charlotte being somewhat of a secretarial team.. although the photo actually looks like they are signing for a football team.

It was a laid back warm affair for Fitness Session tonight, as Louise suggested we stayed indoors for a bit of core and stretching, and everyone agreed it was a good move. I have to thank Louise for tonight's glorious pun too. Ideal for #NationalPunWeek.

Winning

To share some love this weekend, we have a special Community Mission this Friday where we are helping to sort some food donations for Fareshare. Come along if you can, it will be a great way to give some heart this Valentine's Day. There's another mid-weeker next Thursday February 20th, if you fancy. We will be Prepping and Pricing for the CNE nearly new sale. If you can't make it along, don't worry. We are back doing good things at Newcastle Eagles Community Arena so wrap up warm for that one!

Have a great week filled with good things,

Anji x

Oh great, it's my turn to feel silly running through the centre of town in angel wings!

You read it here first, I have finally gained my wings and achieved my 100th good deed with GoodGym Newcastle! Phew. #GGNCL has changed my life in so many ways and brought so many great people into my life, that it feels impossible to choose a favourite task amongst that 100, but at a push I'd say the massive one we did at Newcastle University or that first visit to Recyke Y Bike with the amazing sunset on the way back. They have all been so brilliant, and if you haven't done so in a while, spend some time this week looking back on the run reports and reflect on all the great things we do Thanks to everyone who has made GoodGym Newcastle what it is today, you've made it amazing.

It was another big turnout for our first visit of the year to Newcastle University students union. We love working together with Newcastle Uni as they give us such a great variety of tasks and work hard on integrating students with GoodGym Newcastle to provide them with great ways to get fit and do good things during their time at University. Tonight we were heading there to support NEST, a student-run volunteer project which offers amongst other things free English lessons to the refugee community in the region. Through the delivery of these lessons, refugees improve their written and verbal communication skills enabling them to gain necessary language qualifications required to gain employment in the UK. Boosting their confidence empowers them to integrate themselves into the local community, reducing the stigma and prejudice from existing residents.

We think what NEST do is nothing short of amazing.

We had a catch up on some great things that happened over the weekend including Tom's 50th good deed- yay! and heard about the last few community missions planned for January. Our partner- balance warm up game was as popular as ever with some weird and wonderful contributions from all! This was a great exercise in welcoming new runner Elliot along who happily got stuck in without questioning why we would start our evening with a Primary PE game in a car park.

It's a short jog to Newcastle Uni which was lucky as Paul casually ran another marathon yesterday and didn't have too long to grumble about his legs! Task owner Bridget along with another few volunteers from NEST met us there and ushered us into a toasty warm classroom for tonight's Good Things. There were two tasks waiting for us: sorting through and organising learner pack book bags, and creating number and letter display posters for the families who access NEST. Rachael took charge of the poster organisation while her crew showed off their artistic flair/failing while Debbie took charge of the laminator. Meanwhile out in the corridor the bag packers loved the chance to relax while they organised the book bags. This was a perfect example of the impact such a large group can have on completing tasks that would usually take charities much, much longer.

We used the courtyard area for the fitness session tonight which was a pulse-raising, competitive super fast game of chain tag in which Darren showed the best way to win is basically to spend half of the game hiding. This was definitely a fun way to get some interval training done and there were some red faces by the end of it!

I'm not sure where Tom is, but I think he's cheating

Thankfully the short jog back to base gave everyone the chance to make friends again.

Once again there are two chances to do good things this Saturday as we rumble on through the January challenge doing as many great things as we can. First up is your chance to help out at Newcastle parkrun where we are hoping for a big red tshirted takeover. If you want to get involved in this one, it's really important you follow the instructions in the listing and contact Newcastle parkrun to get yourself added to their volunteer roster. Even if the roster looks full, there will be the chance to double up at marshal points and wave the flag (literally!) for GoodGym Newcastle. If you're coming along to run, let's see you in your red and black tshirts: I will look for you to grab a big group photo near the start at 8:45am. Straight after that, I am leading our monthly visit to Nunsmoor Park where we will be helping out with jobs in the park right up to lunchtime. Stay as long as you like for that one!

There are more great things coming up to the end of the month and onwards, just keep checking the listings for more updates from the terrific task force.

See you next Monday for more running, walking, goodness, games and occasional fancy dress.

Anji x