Eight goodgymers made their way to the Riverside family hub to remove weeds and small shrubs from the area. There was lots of tugging, cutting back and scooping of leaves. The time flew by as many hands made light work! A fun evening with lots of chatting and catching up of news. Rachel generously shared her birthday Celebration sweets to celebrate a job well done! Also well done to Jen who completed 115 skips as part of her 100 a day challenge for charity!

7 Goodgymmers were very chip-er at todays task of spreading wood chip in the forest area at St Marys pre school

Tony was a magnificent sight standing atop of a pile of wood chip with his fish and chips in hand- it provided much nourishment for the task at hand

An hour in and you wooden believe the difference we made in the area. The weeds and dirt were covered over with a fresh batch of wood chip, making for a mu(l)ch more usable space for the school

The end of the task loomed and we said goodbye to our task owner Michelle and made our way homes

The weather didn't play ball, so we had to change our plans from painting preserve on the fence to removing ivy from it. There's nothing that fazes GoodGym spirit though. So 11 of us went at the remaining ivy (we've removed a whole lot in the past) with gusto. Some also took out time to rake away the leaves and branches near the fence.

Special shout out to newcomer Paris for her first session with GG. Welcome!

Sophie, Jess, Amy and Sol met at All Saints church and set off on the 1km journey to Desborough Park. Sophie and Amy walked whilst Jess and Sol ran back and forth between lamposts and us, with high fives and Dad jokes to motivate them! Well done both on extending your distance by nearly double!

When we arrived at the park we met Viv and Helen (our task owner from Wild Maidenhead) who set us to work on digging up grass and weeds from a large wildflower bed ready for them to plant new items and create a bee habitat. Many hands made light work and there was a noticeable difference as shown in our before and after photos courtesy of Jess.

We were careful not to step in any dog muck and avoid tics, though the weather turned about 15 minutes before we finished so we set off back to the meeting location on the 1km (very wet and rainy) walk. Great effort everyone and hope you've all dried off now!

🦸‍♀️ Six litter-picking superheroes assembled at the community centre, ready to take on the challenge of tidying up the streets and parks of Maidenhead.

Armed with picks and hoops, we set off towards the station—a gentle stroll to warm up our eyes for the litter lurking ahead. From the station, we swooped into the High Street, scooping up mountains of cigarette butts and rogue takeaway cups.

Tony and Mike veered off down a side-street, while Sheila, Sarah, Jess, and Viv took the more direct route. Everyone found a few treasures, but the general consensus? The town centre was looking far tidier than on previous missions.

We were met with cheerful “Thank you!”s from passers-by, and even roped in a spontaneous participant for a race to a paper cup. He won—and his prize? The honour of binning it himself!

With the town centre sparkling, we ventured into Kidwells Park. Here, the litter was more plentiful, and our bags filled up fast. After an hour of heroic effort, we regrouped at the community centre to compare hauls and swap stories.

A job well done—and a wonderfully chatty, cheerful task to boot!

6 GoodGymers helped out at the Kite Festival run by the wonderful Norden Farm. This is a lovely, free event, and the people of Maidenhead turned up in their droves. Viv helped with the set-up of the event, putting up gazebos and signage to help with the smooth-running of the day. Lisa was stationed at the entrance, encouraging people to make donations to help with costs and fund future events. Rachel and Sheila armed themselves with litter-pickers, although generally not much litter was dropped. It was perfect weather for kite-flying and it was lovely to see so many kites airborne and whoops of delight from the children. It was such a happy atmosphere. Georgeta and Jen joined us for the take-down but not before we had enjoyed some of the music and joined in with the bird rave (you had to be there!) . Jen took down all the signs from around site whilst we did a final litterpick, and then were sent out to remove the big advertising banners from the roadside with some rather inadequate scissors! A fun event that was great to be part of, and Jen can recommend the gelato!