With the nights drawing in a whopping 29 GG Yorkies turned out to volunteer in their local community! We started off by welcoming newcomer Erin who was attending her first ever GoodGym session. We also gave a huge round of applause to one of our run leaders, Laura who tonight was completing her 500th(!) Good Deed. What an amazing achievement. Give them both a big cheer!

Tonight we were heading to Abbeyfield Care Home for the first ever time. Vicky set off a steady pace group whilst Ed led out the rest of the gang with Cara backmarking. We arrived at the task at the same time, but alas there was no one there to greet us. After a few laps of the grounds by Ed and Vicky we eventually encountered a member of staff who despite knowing we were coming, didn't seem quite prepared for us. Nevertheless we shared the one broom between us and after a fair bit of a delay got to work picking up weeds and leaves by hand, filling up a load of black sacks as we go.

The darker night had caught a few of us by surprise so the lack of head torches meant that we weren't always entirely sure if we were picking up the right things. But we did as much as we could in the brief amount of time we had and certainly managed to pull out a few weeds and sweep up a lot of leaves in the process.

Before too long it was time for the evening's fitness so we headed around to Little Hob Moor where Ed laid out a ring of cones for a game of tag with a twist. This time you would only be allowed to move using animal-inspired movements, including the taggers, so to start with we hopped around like Kangaroos whilst being chased by Nick, Vicky and Charlotte. After a few minutes of hopping we moved onto our finest crab impressions, with Charlotte once again proving she is the queen of niche exercises! The taggers then 'tagged out' to make way for Max, David and Laura who started as reluctant bear crawlers, before finally hopping around on one leg à la Flamingos. Every time someone was caught by a tagger they would step out of the circle and complete an exercise before being allowed back in, although as time progressed more people seemed happy to complete the exercise then spend anny more time hopping around on one leg!

We then headed back to the Priory Street Centre for some stretches and a wrap of what's happening in the coming weeks. We're still on the lookout for hands at the Yorkshire Marathon water station, so get yourselves signed up if you can!

Apologies for the slow start to tonight's session. We more than made up for it with the enthusiasm during the task and fitness!

Despite the slightly lower numbers for tonight's group run we had lots to celebrate. First we welcomed Emily to her first Goodgym session, despite her only arriving in York a week ago. We celebrated Abigail and Claire both achieving 200 good deeds. We celebrated Rebecca being crowned August's Goodgymer of the month, having completed lots of Goodgym tasks in her first few months since joining, including some Goodgym tourism. We also congratulated Emma on completing the Vale of York half marathon and Liv and Mia on completing the Great North Run. (We also thought there may also have been a few other York Goodgymers doing a race at the weekend and having a few drinks along the way.) Finally we celebrated World Ampersand Day by going round and naming our favourite food and drink pairings worthy of the & symbol. After all the congratulations we headed to the task at Holgate Community Garden. We did two main jobs, cutting a circle of grass and weeds away around the trees and tidying the beds nearest the road. Abigail, Leanne and Jenna joined in once they had finished staging a teddy birth for Abigail. As her due date is in three days we were hoping that we didn't have a real birth to contend with. Claire and Laura Bennett went down to the Holgate Allotments and brought back two barrows of bark chip for putting on top of the soil circles around the trees. Imran and Jenna did a great job clearing all the brambles on the beds. We managed to complete both tasks before doing some training related fitness, including squats while we were stopped for leaves on the line, lunges for shovelling coal, creating tunnel arches for the other team's train to go through and then finishing with all aboard the train for a photo and some delicious chocolate and courgette cake from Claire before running back to base.

Another bumper turnout for a mammoth task! Tonight we headed to West Offices all of 450 metres away! After naming and numbering off and discussing past injuries Ed took a slightly longer route whilst Vicky led a short run group and Abigail led some walkers.

When we arrived Ian met us armed with maps and a long list of jobs. There was deadheading to do, planters to weed and large areas to clear. Ian said he had lots of bags for us to fill but in true gg style these didn't last long so we had to make a big heap against the wall!

By 7.30 we'd make huge progress so stopped for a game of musical cones. There was some fierce competition but Lyndsay finally took the crown!

Thanks team for another productive evening!

After the long bank holiday weekend a very impressive 25 GG Yorkies turned up to help out at Hempland Haven, a community events space in Heworth Allotments. There were no celebrations this week although many of the group had been away camping for the now annual GG Yorkie's August Weekend Away (if you've not been before, you should definitely come to the next one) and a few others had spent the day doing some serious training for their upcoming attempt at the Marathan du Medoc, which features a fair bit of wine across the 26.2 route in the vineyards of Bordeaux. Tonight we also welcomed newcomer Jenny who was doing her first ever GoodGym task. Giver her a big cheer 📣

The task was just over 3km away each way, so Vicky led a cycling group out whilst Tristan led the running group with Ed bringing up the rear. The cycling group arrived first and were joined by Nicola and James who were meeting us at the task. Taskowner Gayle got them set up with tools to get the weeds out of the cracks between the patio stones, whilst the running group were still struggling to find the right allotment space, before realising they'd stopped their run a touch too early and needed to head a little bit further into the allotments to join the others!

The team made great progress clearing as many weeds out from the cracks as possible before spreading sand onto the ground and sweeping it into the gaps. Gayle and her small assistant were on hand to provide a few bottles of water to the more thirsty GGers (mostly those that had been wine training earlier in the day), and before too long the sand was being filled into every crack the team could find. There was a mad dash to sweep it all away in order to finish with enough time for the group photo and a fab nautical themed fitness session from Tristan, which showed that a lot of us could do with swotting up on our ports and starboards, as well as our left and right!

It was then back to the Priory Street centre for a bit of a fruit and veg giveaway thanks to various gluts and some delicious cake from Jenna!