On a perfect day for gardening, not too hot, not too sunny, 4 Good Gym members, Heetu, Tony, Ruth, and Mat went back to help Gerry at The De La Salle kitchen garden. This was one of our first tasks out of lockdown last year. What a difference a year makes. They have transformed a barren area of land into a wonderful kitchen garden with polly-tunnels, raised beds, and fruit trees, so it's lovely to have been able to help them on their horticultural journey.

The aim is to use all the fruit and veg. produced in the kitchen which is part of what is going to be a hotel for trainees in the hospitality industry.

Our task on Saturday was to dig out an area which is going to used to plant more fruit trees. With Gerry, our host digging in we got most of what was a tough area dug over, de-stoned and de-weeded. Another very satisfying task and as the work never ends we'll be back again for sure.

This weekend saw another GoodGym visit to the De La Salle School gardening project. The project is aiming to provide training in horticulture and hospitality to pupils and other local young people who might otherwise struggle to gain qualifications, so improving their skills and employment prospects. There's a lot to be done to establish a kitchen garden from scratch, and our two teams of six set to work to shift a huge amount of topsoil for four large vegetable beds, to dig large planting holes (in very stony ground), to plant twelve assorted fruit trees (no Rowan trees though!) in them which will form the framework for the main garden area, and to do some all-important watering of the newly planted trees and bushes. The early team also did a huge amount of litter=picking of the area behind the polytunnels. Welcome to Emily who made this her first GoodGym good deed - we hope to see you again soon! It was also great to see Amy again who has also recruited yet another uni mate Tafwauli into joining GoodGym!

I really should be used to it by now, but I'm always amazed at how much half-a-dozen people can achieve in just an hour or so by working together - such is the power of GoodGym!

It feels as if we were never away. Whilst we may not have not been able to meet up in groups, Good Gym has certainly been active during lockdown with all sorts of individual Missions taking place. But what better way to start celebrate the gradual easing of lockdown than with a double header of a Community Mission at La Salle Academy, with the amazing Gerry Proctor. Good Gym is back with a bang. As we are limited to groups of 6 meeting outside, we organised for two groups of 6 to help Gerry out, staggered during the day. But it was so lovely to meet up with people again and there are none finer than a bunch of Good Gymers to spend your time with.

La Salle aims to provide the next generation of hospitality professionals in the Liverpool City Region and beyond and they have partnered with one of the best hospitality educational institutions in our area - Hugh Baird College in Sefton. The students, who attend the academy will be given an unparalleled training so that they can enter on a career pathway that will include the greatest restaurants and hotels in the country. Aspiring to the highest quality of service will be what distinguish us from other providers.

The project is a massive one, not least because they have to kit out an entire building so that it is a functioning hotel but also because they have a kitchen garden, in which they are going to plant fruit and vegetables for use in the hotel academy kitchen. But time is running out and with 20 enormous raised beds to fill with soil, it's Good Gym to the rescue. We had 11 amazing Good Gymer's attending and so a massive thanks go out to Claire, Ruth, Tony, Sam, Ema, Matthew, Rowan, Chris, Roz, Sallyann, Jo and Ema again. In fact a special shout out goes to Ema our new area activator for Liverpool, not only for turning up for her first Community Mission but doing both sessions. Ema

It never ceases to amaze me how the power of Good Gym can act as such a positive force in the community. When 6 people work for an hour and a half and then it gets repeated, a massive amount of work is done and so it was that we managed to get 7 of the raised beds filled. We have been described as being like a budget version of "DIY SOS".

Gerry was really grateful for the help. He is pretty much doing all this on his own and is a volunteer himself. The urgency is that seeds are going to need to be planted in the next few weeks. The plan is to go back again next week and do it all over again and hopefully we can finish off the job and Gerry can get sowing.

And of course no Community Mission would be complete without a pun and because there were two groups, you get two for the price of one.

We are always looking for volunteers to come and help. You don't have to be a runner, we welcome anyone who wants to help out in the community and you don't need to commit to a set minimum amount of time. Don't hesitate to contact us if you want to do good in your community as we have 58 groups across England and Wales.