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4 GoodGymmers made their way (with one very impressive run from Celine) to Lavender Court Together Housing to help set up some furniture for the residents.

The plan was originally to help spruce up the outdoor vegetable patch, but Danny from Together Housing told us they had just gotten some lovely outdoor furniture, and so we set to work setting up some of the tables and stools.

Rachel had also brought an amazing vegan red velvet sponge cake, and we all enjoyed a cup of tea and some cake and admired our handywork for the day!

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Tonight we were back at Lavender court for the second installment of our social games evening there. After the success of the first one, see report here the residents asked if we would come back again!

Raring to go and looking forward to meeting some more of the residents, six stealthy Goodgymers converged at Lavender Court. Not a running task tonight, but as James comes on the train from Sheffield he still had the 3km from the station to run - good effort James, let's give him a cheer - he even brought along a souvenir on his shoes from the last night's GG task in Sheffield where they were spreading manure! Poo-wee thanks James! Jason had brought along his son Arthur along to meet everyone tonight, he was very chatty to some of the residents and enjoyed his night playing bowling with his foot and sing the Bare Necessities!

We helped set up games around the room and kicked off with a whole room game of Play Your Cards Right. It seemed the card-shuffler hadn't done a very good job as there was a lot of "nothing for a pair!" Once everyone had had a go, we split up and everyone picked a game they wanted to play - with one for scrabble, four or five for bowling and everyone else playing the Yes/No game!

The scrabble table was by far the quietest - all players deep in thought, making up words - some of which were invented! James took the crown with Clair close behind, whilst sadly the resident Margaret taking last place! I told them they were supposed to let her win, but they said they had already allowed a few fake words so they had tried their best! haha!

Sharon, Mairead, Jason and Arthur manned the mini bowling alley which got lots of laughs and a bit of healthy competition. One player had only just moved into the sheltered housing and didn't know anyone so was shy to start off with, but Sharon said by the end of the evening he seems to have come out of his shell and said he'd enjoyed the night! Success!

I looked after the Yes/No table who were going round asking each other asking questions on the cards and whooping with laughter!

All in all it was another fun evening that we could see the residents enjoyed and us GoodGymers enjoyed spending our time out from the usual physical tasks doing! Thanks all for coming and see you next week at the carers garden for some gardening! Sharon is leading this one, so please sign up if you can make it here.

Special mention: Well done to Jason for completing his 15th good deed with GoodGym last night! Let's give him a cheer here!.

One of the main reasons people join GoodGym is simply to do good. Whether it's on our Group runs to help local community organisations or our Mission runs or Coach runs to reduce social isolation in older people. This evening was a little extra special, as we kind of conquered all of those on tonight's community mission as we held a games night with the residents at a Lavender Court sheltered housing, part of Together Housing.

After hearing about another GoodGym area having done a similar task, I had been trying to organise it in Barnsley. We have been back and forth to Lavender court many times in the last year to help the residents with their garden and they always love our help. When I brought up the idea of a games evening with them, they thought it was a fantastic idea!

The plan came to fruitition tonight! I listed it as a community mission so that we could spend as much time as possible with the residents and not sweat all over them! Let's give a special shout out to James who came all the way from Sheffield and ran the 3km from the station to meet us! And successfully found us!! We also welcomed a New member tonight, welcome Janine - lets give her a cheer here

On arrival there were about 15-20 residents ready to play some games in their communal lounge. The residents showed us to the games cupboard and we selected a few to run around different tables. After spotting some giant playing cards and a specially designed Play Your Cards Right board, we decided to kick off the evening with this, involving the whole room shouting higher or lower and cheering each other on. Brucey and her glamorous assistant James led the game, with the help of the residents who play it every Friday, which gave us lots of laughs and got everyone chatting.

After that we split up to play different games around the room, with 10 pin bowling at the back with Sharon & James, Scrabble corner with Mairead, Logo game with Janine and Clair, whilst I played the Yes/No game with everyone else. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, chatting to all the runners and to each other. One man told me that they don't normally do anything in the evenings and that this was much better than sitting alone watching TV.

No one normally plays scrabble with me, I've really enjoyed your company, you've made my day

When it was time to leave, the residents were all so thankful and happy to have spent the evening together, asking us when we were coming again! The lady that won the bowling was beside herself with joy and one of the men said she will be talking about it for days.

It was an experience that I think a lot of us were taken back a bit by, and upon reflection, very proud and humble of what happened this evening. What is lovely to hear is how much the members enjoyed themselves as well as the residents and how something so simple can make a huge difference to how everyone feels.

One of the best tasks to date!

Deffo the best task, love love loved it!

The morning after our visit, I received a lovely email from the home's manager, saying thank you for coming and to say:

Some residents have said they haven’t laughed so much in a long time!

What a lovely way to spend a Tuesday night! Watch this space, we'll be heading back for round 2 soon!

If you'd like to join us next week, we'll be heading to Barnsley Carer's garden to help Gordon their with a gardening task. Sign up here

Tonight's community mission was outdoors, helping a local housing association with a veg patch - there was a nip in the air! As with all community missions, there is no requirement to run there. Nevertheless, 3 keen (to stay warm) runners ran the 6.5km there and back to clock up some more Kms for the January challenge!

Stuart from Lavender court was there to meet us as always, with a huge smile on his face! He is always so grateful of all our help :-) We discussed how it was this time last year, with coach Egg and lots of January challengers from Sheffield, that we cleared a stubborn area of bushes ready to be a vegetable patch for the residents. Since then they'd harvested lots of cabbage, carrots, onions, kale etc that has been used to cook meals for the residents, AMAZING!

Tonight's task was a quickie! Due to the success of the vegetable patch, Stuart wanted to give it a go for another season, and therefore needed use to help dig over the patch. The group got stuck in straight away, pulling up any unwanted weeds and turning over the soil from deep down. In no time at all, the group had finished! All weeds and leaves bagged, quick photo showing their pitch forks and we were ready to head back. We said our goodbyes and headed back off the hill to Barnsley.

Tonight's challenge came more from the run (or cold) than the task, but it felt satisfying to help with something we know will help feed the older residents! Great job team Barnsley!

Only 7 deeds and 8kms left of our January Challenge! Easyyyy!

On what turned out to be a fabulous evening with a beautiful orangey-red sky, a seven strong team of GoodGym runners assembled at Shaw Lane to socialise, run and volunteer in Barnsley!

We were joined by the lovely Emily from Durham who regularly attends GG York and Newcastle. She is undertaking research into GoodGym for her PHD and wanted to come along to GG Barnsley to join in the fun and see what GG is like in a smaller area! Our other regulars included Sharon, Mairead, James, Anna and Rachael!

We headed off with the sun setting behind us on what is the longest and most challenging run we do in Barnsley. For those who know Barnsley, you'll know it's impossible to run anywhere without a hill or two thrown in, and last night was no exception. The run there was 3.5km with two uphill and two downhill sections, we stayed in a tight group with Mairead bringing up the rear,.

When we got there we were met by Daniel, one of the residents Stuart and a huge bush! The challenge, should we choose to accept it, was to remove the huge bush, branches, leaves, roots and all! Armed with spades, forks, rakes and loppers, the team spread out around the bush and began pulling it apart. There was the added challenge of the bushes roots being covered by a thick layer of shale and slate, but James showed it who was boss by casually dragging up huge root beds! Rachael took the lead on the lopping, removing the bushy part of the bush to reveal the roots below for the others to remove. Anna and Emily worked together to tug some of the stubborn roots out, at one point nearly going flying when a root came up easier than they had expected! Sharon and Mairead focussed on the opposite side of the bush, bashing the roots with spades and tugging them out. It was a real team effort!! There were many bush inuendos to be had and although it was a physically tough task, it was a lot of fun with lots of laughing - exactly what GoodGym is all about!

With 10 minutes left the group worked super fast to ensure every last bit of the bush was removed, and aside for a few root beds, the space looks unrecognisable from when we had arrived! The space was to be kept clear, as Daniel explained the bush attracted lots of rubbish and bush-diving children (odd local sport perhaps!). Stuart and Daniel were extremely grateful for all of our hard work, we said our goodbyes and headed off back to base.

On the way back, the uphill was longer than the downhill, with a spooky wooded area thrown in. With everyone a bit weary from the run there and upper-back workout of the bush removing, we took it steady and stuck together all the way back. It was amazing to see everyone putting in so much effort to get back and helping to encourage each other up the big hill. Seriously good effort from everyone last night, you did yourselves proud! Well done GG Barnsley!

It's a shorter run next week (yay!) Hope to see you all there, sign up here

TONIGHT GoodGym Barnsley (aka Grace) were joined by the tremendous trio from Sheffield!

Thanks to Smiley Steve, Calm Chris and Just-in-time James for coming!

Tonight's mission was at Lavender Court Sheltered housing, where we have been before to help with the residents garden. As it's a further run than usual, we set off in good time from Shaw Lane for the 3.5km hilly run there, hoping to bump into James on the way! There was a step challenge half way there, which Chris took in his stride, bounding up them no problems! It was at this point Steve started to regret the pint of soda he'd downed before leaving, which wasn't helping him get up those stairs!

On arrival we were met by Danny and resident Gordon, who have worked together to design the garden! It was the first time we had been there in daylight, so it was great to see all of the previous work GoodGym Barnsley had done over last winter! A huge area where we had removed bushes had been turned into a vegetable garden, used by the onsite kitchen staff!

We got to work on huge scrubbery! On first inspection we thought it might not have been possible with the tools we'd been provided with, however James got to work straight away, slamming his spade into the roots and proved it could be done! In no time at all we demolished a large chunk of the bush, with Chris getting to the root of the problem and Steve slaying down the branches! I helped clearing the rubbish and leaves from around the roots and James moved on to snapping the big branches!

Whilst thinking of puns for the run report, James suggested we were the 'Knights of Ni!'

We want a Shrubbery!

Which led to numerous Boomerang videos of us horsing around! (See Instagram @Goodgym_Barnsley)!

With a job well done and some fantastic project managing from resident Gordon from the comfort of his mobility scooter, the Barnsley Bushwhackers headed off to battle the hills back to Barnsley.

Thanks to the serious effort and hill determination from everyone tonight, it wasn't an easy run or task but you absolutely smashed it!!