It feels like a long time since we did a task at The Place in Sherwood…and it was. January 2025 to be precise! So, almost a whole year later, we returned last night for our latest Wednesday task.

On our last visits, we were helping paint the downstairs rooms as part of the renovation project to turn them into useable art spaces (more about this below). This time, attention was turned to one of the upstairs rooms. Our host, Rachel, runs Mind Alive, offering mindfulness, wellbeing and life support for young people and adults. She has plans to use the room at The Place for her forthcoming relaxing retreats and needed a hand with painting the walls to make it a more inviting and relaxing environment.

Winter 2025 seems to be the season of painting for GoodGym Nottingham, so we were straight in with the rollers and brushes to start covering the walls which had recently been plastered. Tom and Diana had just practiced their best Chuckle Brothers routine by transporting an incredibly long ladder up the staircase; however it was decided we needed more height so Matt kindly popped home to gather another ladder and his trusty extendable roller.

Despite a few issues with coverage, after an hour of painting the walls were already looking refreshed and more white. They will be needing at least another coat though, so we hope to return soon to continue where we left off.

Whilst Diana did a fine job tackling cleaning the paint equipment, the rest of us managed to get a sneaky peak at the rooms that we helped paint a year ago. It was incredible to see the transformation from what were two bare brick disused rooms, to two fantastic art spaces which are being used by local artists and groups. This felt exactly what GoodGym is all about!

A huge thank you to Rachel for hosting us last night and for furnishing us with tea, coffee, mince pies, cakes, bread and bananas! If anyone fancies joining one of Rachel’s wellbeing sessions, the poster can be found in the images and more information on her Facebook page.

Also, a big well done to Florence who just completed her 10th GoodGym task!! And welcome back to Diana who we have not seen for a while.

We enjoyed another great turnout last night at Walter Halls School, welcoming back Diana and Theodor for their second tasks, and Rowan for her first! Also major kudos to Tom and Peter for running up from Market Square.

We were on a tight deadline as the school's site manager had to lock up by 7:30, so we got stuck straight in. The free shop's stock of donated clothing was getting a little out of hand, so we were tasked with sorting it by size and bagging up anything stained or unsuitable ready to send for recycling.

The storage room was pretty small and two other volunteers and the deputy head were sorting more stuff in there, so we filled some boxes and bags and took over the adjoining room. Some of our favourite finds were the world's biggest pair of shorts, a toy cat, some doll's clothes (which contrasted pretty well with the shorts tbh), and a t-shirt with a print of another place we've helped, Green's Windmill!

Finally, we went to toss the discarded donations into the clothes donation bin on the school site, which was harder than it sounds in the dark! Despite a few pieces being determined to escape and jump back down on us, we got most of it in before we reached the brim and took the remainder back in so it didn't get soaked in the inevitable rain.

Thanks to everyone for attending!