Due to the clocks springing forward at the weekend we enjoyed one of our first evening sessions of the year where head torches weren't required! A chatty hour of clearing ivy, brambles and other weeds from around the gravestones while the sun set behind us. Thanks to everyone (including Amanda from the Church) for coming along!

Four GoodGymers met at Braywick Heath Nursery to help them prepare for a bumper Summer. This meant "plugging" saplings into pots filled with compost.

In a bright back-room, with the radio belting out easy tunes, we plugged away! It was therapeutic, almost. We worked non-stop for 2 hours and must've filled close to 100-200 pots.

Ben, the Nursery manager who worked tirelessly to top up compost, move the filled pots, bring new plugs etc, joked that we had worn him out, we were that efficient! We'll take that as a compliment and look forward to wearing him out again in the future 😂

Goodgym continues to support Braywick Plant Nurseries in planting up thousands of plug plants, ready for growing on ready for sale. Today it was 4 different colours of Lobelia followed by some Petunias. We kept the staff busy topping up the compost and taking the plants away so we could fill up the trays again. It was so satisfying seeing the fruits of our labours all laid out in the greenhouse. A great team effort

What a night! A fantastic 20 Goodgymmers turned out to support Alexander Devine and their Easter Fundraising campaign and to celebrate 5 years of Goodgym Windsor & Maidenhead!

The evening was split into two parts…….our task and our party!

Part 1: Chick-stuffing! Hannah and Nicole from Alexander Devine provided us with stacks of chocolate eggs and knitted chicks! We had to stuff the chicks with the eggs and then add little tags so people knew who the chicks were supporting. There was a wide variety of chicks with added hats, bows and even bells! Each group found their own way of getting through the stacks of chicks and there was a whole variety of ideas to ensure the labels stayed round the chicks necks securely.

We managed to stuff and label ~550 chicks, smashing last years numbers! These chicks will be distributed to local schools, shops and businesses where they will be sold and the money will go to the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service. This is a crucial resource for families with children who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. They provide support during the hardest times and ensure parents and siblings can make precious memories.

Part 2: Party time! Once we had got our fill of chick-stuffing it was time to celebrate 5 years of Goodgym in Windsor & Maidenhead! Everyone was given a coloured medal indicating their team and they gathered together the items beginning with G they had brought with them, and had to come up with a team name and a story about their mascot. We had Green-hatted, disco loving Gizmo, a couple of galivanting Gary’s, Goodie who enjoyed Grapefruits and golf ball collecting and Georgetta the gardening goddess!

It was then on to the games! Each one tenuously themed around our Goodgym tasks! First up was our love of the community allotment represented by potatoes in tights thrust at small posts, a game of skill and accuracy! Next we celebrated the Goodgymmers themselves, with ‘Pin’ the medal on the Goodgymmer, this involved blindfolds and mini mascots and a lot of loud encouragement! Of course we could not leave out our most dependable task; litter picking! As if by magic a heap of litter swept into the room and needed clearing, involving mini high-vis and litter pickers! Our final game was a well contested round of musical chairs….and we know about sturdy chairs as we have mended many at the community centre.

A party is not complete without cake, and we are lucky to have some great bakers in our group! Whilst we tucked in Amy encouraged us to think about our goals for the next Goodgym year….maybe a milestone to reach, a distance to run or trying our hand at social visits. An opportunity for us to step outside our comfort zone knowing our fellow Goodgymmers are backing us all the way!
We also took the opportunity to celebrate our combined and some individual achievements from the last 5 years and Amy gave us some incredible stats for the last 5 years: - 7267 Good Deeds completed by 438 Goodgymmers! - 1674 group sessions and 184 social visits! - Travelled 56,744kms! - Cheered each other 34,795 times!

We should all be really proud of ourselves, whether we were there on task 1 or tonight was the first, the difference we have made, and will continue to make in our community is incredible. 😊

Well Done Team! Here’s to the next 5 years!

Didem, Laura and Sheila welcomed Kate to her first session at Braywick Plant Nursery. We had lots of odd jobs to do. Firstly we moved some grasses from the outside area at the front to the sales area at the back and replaced them with pots of herbs that they are wanting to sell off We then moved on to transplanting some of the viola six-packs to ensure that each had their full complement of 6 plants. While Didem and Kate continued this job, Laura and Sheila got distracted by sorting the pre-printed plant labels so they can be used again. Re-using the labels can potentially save the nursery hundreds of pounds, as well as save on plastic waste,so is worth doing even though it's quite a time-consuming job!