It was great to get the gang back together tonight! 11 GoodGymers ran 2.5K to the Community Street at Quarry Place to continue with a variety of tasks.

We got a good workout in, moving several heavy planters down the street and into the van. We also continued to build the planter in the bin store, we lined and moved some other planters and then the remaining few of us finished off with some litter picking, filling 3 bags full of rubbish! Jason got to play with a drill again which we all know he enjoys and Fay was a trooper picking litter in a whole street by herself.

I had to laugh at Kat who thought the January challenge was for a whole year, so her target might be slightly unachievable in one month... you have 15 days left Kat, so you might need to run all day, every day to make that target!

What a productive evening! We then ran another 2.5K back to Heart. Thanks to Helen for leading another great run.

What a great night we had last night for the GoodGym Leeds Christmas party. We had a whooping 22 people come to celebrate Christmas & it was really wonderful to see such a lovely group of people come together.

Firstly, we met at Heart to do a quick clean of the nursery space & then everyone settled down in the nursery and I ran a sound bath for the group. I've never seen the GoodGym Leeds gang so quiet!!! Everyone relaxed to some gentle sound meditation & I really appreciated so many people coming to let me practice on them. We'll do another one in the new year :)

We then headed to the Heart bar for food, drinks & a Christmas quiz. We were also very lucky to have a group of musicians come along to entertain us all! Well done to Katie, Katie, Rachel & Kat's team who won the quiz with a fabulous 10/10 (I'll need to make it harder next year)!

It was also an opportunity to thank our wonderful task force, Helen, Jubz, Katie, Kat & Bryony (in her absence). We really appreciate everything you do for GoodGym Leeds, so thank you for everything you have done for the group this year.

Welcome to newcomer Finn & welcome back to Pik & Sudharsan who joined us for the second time. We hope to see you again soon.

Thanks all for a wonderful evening & Merry Christmas!

What great team work tonight! The group ran down to Quarry Place to meet Beth who's working on her street becoming the first Community Street project in Leeds. There's all sorts planned to get the whole street involved in horticulture and community activities.

We had 3 jobs:

Faye put flyers through the letterboxes on the street.

The outside team were building a work bench. This team had a production line going on to mark the wood, drill the holes, put screws in, hold it steady and screw it in! Good team work all & apparently Jason tossed his bits everywhere...I think that the least we know about that the better!

The inside team lined 3 planters which was actually harder than it sounds! We took 40 minutes figuring out the first one and then 12 minutes on the second & third! We got there in the end.

Thanks to Beth for allowing us in her home & welcome back to Lydia for her second session.

Sorry Jason, you need to shrink for the next team photo!

Great work all!

Festive jokes & crafts were enough to get us into the (very early) Christmas spirit tonight!! The group met at Heart & our resident run leader, Helen took the group on a 4.5K run. We then headed back to the cafe at Heart, got a drink & got to work for a CAMHS Christmas craft project. We were cutting up Christmas wrapping paper & writing Christmas jokes on the back, so that the children and young people in the CAMHS units can make them into paper chains. This was a lovely task & we managed to make a respectable 200 of the strips, which will all be heading to Bath where they will distribute them across the country.

Jason helpfully came up with the pun tonight, although we amended it slightly :) :)

Welcome to Emily on her first session with GoodGym Leeds. We hope to see you again soon.

Tonight we had a great evening, coming together at Heart & running down to Left Bank where we painted some event stands & the remaining picnic bench. We love visiting Left Bank as it has such a great vibe, with all sorts of activities going on from break dancing, to art, to GoodGyming! We always get the offer of free drinks at the end, which are gratefully received :) Newcomer Lloyd even decided to paint his Man City jacket!! I'm pretty sure that chief mischief maker (& Man united supporter) Jubz had something to do with encouraging this vandalism. In his words... 'when beautiful souls come together, art occurs...'. I think that sums up our night perfectly!

Congratulations to Katie Presley on her 75th mission tonight! Thanks for all you do for GoodGym Leeds.