What a brilliant turnout on a very wet wet wet night on the eleventy ninth day of January. A big welcome to newcomers Florence and Nok on a very impressive first session in the elements!

We warmed up with a game of copy cats while we let the walking group led by Lucy and Elliott head off ahead of us. Off we went for my first run-lead in a very long long time... three years and eleven months to be exact! Our session this evening was at the fabulous Recyke Y Bike where we are proud to have helped for over five and a half years now. This fabulous local charity does so much to support movement in local communities with workshops, donations of bikes to kids and much more. Every session here is something different and fab new volunteer coordinator Jen had a list of jobs for us including - drumroll please - the use of the power washer. A very good micro bribe for being out in the rain. Damu and Aimee jumped at the chance to do this despite the rain.

The rest of the group were on polystyrene ball duty, with the workshop full of them we were tasked with sweeping and hoovering them out from every possible corner of the enormous workshop. Aimee also managed to unclog a blocked drain despite this mot being on the to do list.

While most of the group felt they’d had a very good upper body workout we finished off with a game of pairs before heading back (still raining!) to base to call it a night.

It’s been a an enormous January for us and there’s one more chance to log a good deed this January with a leaflet drop for Guide Dogs this Wednesday in Longbenton so come along to that if you can.

Two Goodgymers braved the wet and dreary weather on this Monday evening to help out at Recyke y' bike. Task owner Vanessa was there with the offer of tea and coffee and biscuits.

First we swept the floor to warm up. A standard Recyke y' bike task as the floors get pretty dusty. Then we cut out and hole punched tags for use by the children at Byker primary school for a bike refurbishment program. Louise cut her yellow paper in to neat strips, I had the sparkly Christmas paper with gold birds on and was much more haphazard. We only had one hole punch so came up with an idea to work together and put both pieces of paper in at once one in each end. We quickly completed the task.

If you want to get involved we have two community missions with urban Green coming up at the weekend - this one in Kenton Park on Saturday and this one in Hodgkin Park on Sunday!

On the Mondayest of Tuesdays a small group of four met for a group session to one of the brilliant charities we’ve helped the most at GoodGym Newcastle: Recyke Y Bike. It’s a small run to get there and Louise led the trio of runners while I took the walking option.

It was great to catch up on Beth’s wedding stories and photos- congratulations Beth, you looked gorgeous! On arrival at Recyke Y Bike we were given two tasks to do (quietly) while a bike maintenance class was going on. The first one was very satisfying, writing labels to attach to bikes that are being donated in the community. This was a job we did quickly as a four but would have taken ages for just one person to complete- definitely one of our strengths at GoodGym! The second job was to sweep out the workshop space, again a hugely satisfying “little” thing that makes a big difference.

On the way to the fitness session after the task we were met by a member of the public asking about what we do, so we did an extra good deed by sharing a bit about GoodGym. I’m pleased to say she’s already signed up! Louise led the fitness session tonight, inspired by National Lemon Juice Day (yes really!) we had a fruit inspired pairs (should that be pears?) game in which I attempted to bend every rule and still managed to lose. After the fitness session a big moment for me as I ran back with the group for the first time in three and a half years. Without context that makes me sound lazy, but if you know the context you know why that’s quite a big deal. And a lovely run it was!

We’ve got a midweek community mission tomorrow helping to transform an allotment. A great chance to get your hands dirty and do good. Get involved if you can.

Shock, horror, another wet day in Newcastle! Rain can’t stop play and thankfully we were heading off to an indoor task this evening anyway. Up through Walker and into Byker the running group went led by Paul who was leading for the first time in a few months. I walked then we met Louise at the task.

We have been helping Recyke Y Bike since the very early days of GGNCL and every time is different, but tonight will be one of the memorable ones. We’d been drafted (pun intended, obvs) to help to organise donations of games and books that will be used in the Bike, Book Swap that’s taking place over the summer in and around Byker. This will give local families access to a brilliant toy, book and game exchange that comes to their doorstep for free. Louise did a double good deed tonight as she came to the session AND brought a big donation of games- many of which Elliot and Maddy wistfully looked at and wanted to play!

When the sorting was done, we completed a variety of other jobs that are small tasks that make a big difference including sweeping the workshop floors, moving bikes and helping to fold the big gazebo cover! The task owner Vanessa was really grateful that we’d done so many things to help. We are back at the end of August with a bike cleaning task which will be loads of fun.

Please please get involved this Wednesday with our leaflet drop for FoodCycle. Numbers are low and Lucy could really do with some extra hands on this one! NB: This will now start at the earlier time of 5pm.

We are back next Monday for a session with a twist- meet us for a walk and a drink for the summer social.

Check out those photos! Summer is here!

On another lovely GoodGym evening, we gathered at our base and caught up with some GG OGs- Maddy and Elliot, who we havent seen at a GoodGym group run since pre-pandemic days! It was so lovely to catch up and show off our new base. We had a quick warm up and a review of our plan which Louise had handily written on a post-it note, ever the most efficient member of the group (me? I was winging it). Louise was leading the runners while I was walking with Michael as we headed off on part two of our big leaflet drop for Recyke Y Bike.

Tonight we were spreading the word about the Bike Book Swap event in the Byker area, and we had a list of streets we wanted to tackle. Byker can be a bit of a maze but we managed to stay on task and for the perhaps first time at a leafleting task ever, we didn’t lose Michael!

Streets quickly ticked off and mission accomplished, we met back up at Harbottle Park for a fitness session, briefly joined by a very friendly dog called Barney who was very interested in what we were doing. He put the good boy in GoodGym. A progression run got hearts and legs pumping and most importantly gave us some brilliant photos for this report! We agreed on return that tonight had lifted what had felt like the most Mondayest of Mondays- the power of GoodGym.

Richard is leading a session next Monday at Stepney Bank Stables, hope you can join in with more good stuff.

Can we start with a huge round of applause for Emma on her first ever GoodGym good deed? We loved meeting you Emma and hope to see you again soon!

On a lovely evening we met to help our friends at Recyke Y Bike to spread the word about a bike book swap event they have got coming up across Newcastle in over the summer. Recyke has been with us from the start of GGNCL and we love to help with whatever we can.

After a quick catch up on good deeds past and still to come, I had an English Lit/history lesson from Louise as I learned firstly who Bolingbroke was and why there is a street named after them in Heaton. This was the first strange moment of the night.

In an all-time first, Charlotte navigated us perfectly (I am even worse than she ever is so she won't mind this) a quick way to Heaton to get started. Louise and Aimee ran ahead while Charlotte, Emma and I walked to the start point. We made quick work of distributing 249 leaflets and it was soon time to meet at our meeting point.

Little did we know Aimee and Louise were taking part in their second good deed of the night as they checked up on an injured bird and contacted the RSPCA for help. Safe it was taken care of, they made their way back to us (Aimee still on live chat with the RSPCA!) ready for the fitness session.

The fitness session tonight included as much laughter as it did physical activity as we played a paired game which passers-by said looked like fight club (!) as well as sets of side steps and star jumps.

Upon returning to the stables, not content with two good deeds, Louise and Aimee then helped a resident locked out of the flats next door to get in touch with the housing association to get him back in.

A GoodGymer's goodness is never done! Well done everyone on a brilliant night.