4 Goodgymers were tasked to, if possible, get rid of the graffiti scrawled on the stable yard walls. Sarah asked us to concentrate on the upper bricks as the lower ones were going to be repainted. You'll see from the photos that we got stuck in straightaway and soon we were all covered in anti graffiti gunk and debris. Strangely satisfying. An hour & a quarter of serious upper body workout and we had pretty much succeeded - check out the before & after photos.

Another fresh morning awaited a group of GoodGymers old and new- big welcome Gareth!- to a super Saturday morning task with Ouseburn Trust.

Gareth joined us on his bike, while Aimee and Lucy were parkrun fresh! I'd dashed over from volunteering at South Shields parkrun making it feel like a good start to the day.

We had a very short walk down to the Ouseburn Trust meeting point where leader Dave was ready and waiting. We had a brilliant task today- chopping and lopping a long headgerow in order to make the path safe and the users visible. A simple enough job, a massive impact and a real arm-burner, especially for Aimee who was already aching after some Center Parcs rapids action!

It was great to spend the morning together, and to really make a difference.

Urban Green community missions are definitely one of favourite ways to spend a Saturday morning.

It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as first timers. Cllr Bell also joined us this morning and shared that our good deeds are making the park a safer place for the local community.

There was one final overgrown hedge to tackle and Ranger Mike was quick to get us sawing it down to head height. With teams on both sides of the hedge we soon had those trees and branches cut down to size.

The sun may have stopped shining by coffee break but it did not dampen our spirits. There was still plenty to do.

We split into smaller teams to replace the safety flooring under a swing, litter pick and clear the under growth.

Time definitely flies when you are having fun and before we knew it, our session was over. Well almost, we couldn’t leave without one final good deed…. Check out the photographs to see what that was!