"There ain't no party like a Goodgym Party"

Happy Birthday to us! This March, Goodgym Liverpool turns 7, and we were determined to mark it in style.

We were fortunate to be able to use the fabulous Events Space at DoES Liverpool, which was the perfect setting. We had a brilliant turnout with many members making the effort to come along, and it was so lovely to have some purely social time - a rare treat, without those pesky tasks getting in the way!

It was wonderful to see how absolutely everyone contributed to make the event a success, we really took the can-do energy we bring to tasks and saw it come to fruition at our own event. From the bunting and party hats, to an absolutely fabulous buffet which included home-made: fried chicken, chocolate roulade, goats cheese & caramelised onion tarts, a variety of salads, salt & pepper sausage rolls, oat & raisin cookies, & chocolate brownies! Plus a huge selection of sides, snacks, and sweet treats - not to mention a fabulously decorated and personalised Goodgym birthday cake.

Alas, this celebration also marked the final - and 1001st - task of original Goodgym member Pauline. Pauline was there at the very first session 7 years ago and has been a committed and dedicated core member ever since, taking up Coach sessions as well as tasks and missions. It was very emotional to know this was her last session, but we sent her off in style with flowers, champagne, chocolates, a beautiful memory book with photos and memories of her sessions over the years, and a one-off bespoke personalised blue Goodgym t-shirt, in the colours of her beloved Everton FC. Pauline, it's been an absolute priviledge having you as a member, you've supported GG Liverpool and its members endlessly, and your enthusiasm, calm can-do attitude and easy way socially has been a blessing to literally hundreds of people in the community. It's a real loss to lose you but we wish you nothing but the best as your start a new chapter of your life with wonderful husband Miles. The door is always open to come visit us in the future.

It would have been remiss not to celebrate last-man standing Sophie, our dear and dedicated run leader who is now the only remaining member from that very first Liverpool session 7 years ago. The ever-thoughtful Sallyann presented Sophie with a small gift as a token of our appreciation for all the work Sophie does for us.

Sally Ann also had the wonderful idea of us writing down what Goodgym means to us, and taking a photo of the collection of comments for posterity. Check out the photos to see what we came up with - it was quite emotional seeing the impact GG has on the lives of it's members. It's certainly a two-way street - our wonderful members put so much in to helping their community, and in turn the GG community gives so much back. It was lovely for task owner Vicky from Litter Clear Volunteer join us too, Vicky works tirelessly making the local community a lovely place to be, and it was a treat to see her socially and share this special evening with her.

The "thank you" list for last night is long, but in this case it's worth stating, as everyone put in effort to make the event the huge success it absolutely was. We had the best time and it really re-iterated what makes GG special.

With special thanks to:

• Siân, Lucien, Clara for the homemade food and helping with set up & post-party clean up

• Miriam for the amazing birthday cake and all the hard work on Pauline's beautiful memory book gift

• Sophie, Emma, Eleanor, Jo & Liam for the contributions to party-ware and the buffet (including a very generous bottle of champagne!)

• Steph for the homemade brownies

• Pauline for the lovely cakes

• Dan for the festive bunting and homemade roulade

• Asavari for bravely joining us at a social for only her second session - so lovely to see you again!

• Ema for making a huge effort to join us despite ill-health, and for the fun party hats, banners, and decorations

• Sallyann for her tireless hard-work, effort and thoughtfulness which massively contributed to making the event really special

• Bekah for finding that gem of a venue, and the famous salt and pepper sausage rolls

• And shout out to Heetu who sadly couldn't join us in person but was very much there in spirit and contributed her time and effort so generously to Pauline's leaving gift - Heetu you're an absolute genius

It was a really beautiful night showing just how special Goodgym and it's members are. Thank you all for your phenomenal effort both with our party and throughout the year. We all left on a real high, grateful to have so much to celebrate.

"Team of Good-Jims tidy & clear the cathedral grounds of our adopted namesake patron saint, St James"

It was a great turnout with "Good-Jimmers" hitting the double digits on Saturday, when we returned to the beautiful St James' Gardens for the first time this year.

Our own GG member Vikky is part of the Friends of St James' Gardens, who we were here to help, so we gathered with the group to receive our instructions. There was plenty to be getting on with and the group split into 3 to get to work: some on bulb planting, some on litter picking, and some on clearing the entrance tunnel to keep it clear and clean for those entering the gardens.

There was a blissful spring warmth in the air and it was a treat to discard big coats and jackets and get to work in lighter clothing. We saw plenty of people heading to the gardens with water bottles to fill up at the famous Chalybeate Spring, said to have magical healing properties, and it was lovely to see the gardens so popular with families, tourists and locals taking a stroll and even enjoying picnics in the shadow of the magnificent Anglican Cathedral.

The team planted an array of bulbs, cleared up the rubbish, and did a fantastic job of stripping and hacking the overgrowth in the tunnel, leaving it super safe and clear. The Friends of St James' Gardens sent GG a huge thank you for making a massive difference, and we're already looking forward to returning next month for one of our weekly Group Runs.

Welcome new Goodgym member Asavari, who dived right in in true GG style - it was lovely to meet you and we hope to see you at another task soon!

A lovely Spring Saturday morning well spent - well done team!

Santa said he loves coming to Lodge Lane because he loves getting a shawarma from the Lodge Lane Bakery. He was chatting to Pat from the Greenhouse project when we arrived, delivering a few extra presents and seeing the toys that had been donated.

The Greenhouse Project enables children, young people and their communities to access support. They offer indoor and outdoor activities and every Christmas every child gets a gift. It’s really special and the most amazing, wholesome, festive good gym community mission in the calendar.

Good Gymers help to wrap all the presents. Pat said that this year they were short on gifts and Santa had no more in his sack as they were still in production at the North Pole so Good Gymers came to the rescue, we arrived with games, crafts and toys and then there were more than enough gifts for every child.

We bought snacks to enjoy and played Christmas songs as we wrapped away. Heetu was the quality control ensuring we didn’t waste any paper. Ema, our area coordinator was ill so couldn’t make it but she sent all the Good Gymers gifts to say thank you for the year which was a lovely surprise. Santa also gave us some mince pies that had been baked by Mrs Claus.

The wrapping production line meant that we were finished well before the end of the session. We said goodbye to Pat and Santa feeling as festive as can be!

Before tonights task we had our fabulous Heetu complete her practical session to become a fitness leader. Heetu has been so supportive of everyones running journey and we all knew she would do a fabulous session and of course she did. It wasn't without ts challenges - she had a planned route and session but had to show her dynamic risk assessment skills when it started to snow just moments before we started - never fear Heetu had already checked the weather forecast and with ease she changed her plan and led us on a route that would be more befitting for the weather. We ended the run and Heetu led us in our cool down session showing us some new stretches and demonstrating them all so we could be sure to do them correctly. This was all smoothly executed in a space beside our task venue where there were a queue of people waiting for a performance - I think we may have been the warm up act as we cooled down! Well done Heetu on a great session.

Tonights task was a very different task which we entered into with the usual Goodgym enthusiasm. One of the team had seen a request for people to make packs of paperchains which would be given to young people who are in wards over the Christmas period. The project explained that whilst general wards often recieved an influx of gifts and decorations at Christmas this was not always the case on CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) wards. Enter the task - we all bought along festive and sparkling paper, pens, rulers and scissors to the Arts Bar on Hope Street who kindly provided the space of their lovely library alcove. We had to cut the paper into a uniform sized strip and then on the back of each one a joke needed ti be written from the lst of jokes supplied by the paperchain project. It quickly transpired that Miriam had THE most beautiful writing. As we sat and measured and cut and wrote and put 350 handwritten paperchains into piles we chatted and drank hot chocolate lattes and cups of tea whilst the snow was falling outside. It was a special evening for us and we really hope that the young people who put the paperchains together and decorated the ward gained some festive cheer