Welcome to Georgina, Pavel, and Sam! Great to meet you for the first time!

Big welcome and thank you to Ivo too, GoodGym founder, who made his way by train to come and check out what we're up to. Thank you for coming along and for the hints and tips for future sessions.

Tonight we had a couple of missions:

• Collect donations of clothes to donate to local homeless charities
• Pick up discarded waste and litter following the high winds over the weekend

Thanks to Peter and Eoin (collection from work), Pavel, and Rhi who brought bags of items along to pass on to Sophie (via Eoin) and the Friday outreach team to pass on to those who need warm clothing donations over the winter months.

For the litter pick, we made our way towards Ardwick, picking up litter as we went. The largest collection of litter was around one of the green spaces overseen by Ardwick Climate Action known as Greek Street, likely items discarded by passing drivers on the main Mancunian Way.

We found a lot of takeaway items, plastic bottles, vapes, bags, and cans plus a purse (handed into a police station as it contained ID). In the end, we collected 6 full bin bags and cleared a green space that hopefully can be used by locals and those passing through. The location information was passed onto Keep MCR Tidy to arrange for collection as soon as possible.

On the way back, a few of use had a light jog back to St Peter's Square covering Vimto Park and Piccadilly Gardens in the process.

After the flooding, snow, and ice, parkrun was back on the table in Greater Manchester. Juno and Ben were marshaling at South Manchester event #679. A whopping 647 runners took part, which is their 5th highest EVER and the most since the COVID pandemic. 28 volunteers made sure the event went ahead, with some last-minute double funnel action required at the finish line due to the large numbers!

Hope the other GoodGymers had a good parkrun morning

After the New Year flooding, Didsbury Sports Ground was badly damaged after the River Mersey burst its banks. Following the snow and ice, the Environmental Agency were finally able to pump the water out to enable to clear up to start over the past week. Fletcher Moss parkrun planned a last-minute clear up of the storage container also used by personal trainers, cricket team, plus other community group users of DSG facilities.

Despite the heavy mud and water damaged interior, we managed to clear out the storage container, discard any items damaged beyond repair in the skip, and pressure washer items to remove mud, sludge, and sewage leaving things looking at little better than previously. It was much muckier than expected so hope Gameel was able to get clothes cleaned and warm!

After 2.5 hours, we managed to successfully clean, semi-dry, and return undamaged items to the container in the hope that it will remain tidy and used by groups in the near future.

Holidays are coming...

With Manchester city centre busy with Christmas shoppers and party revellers, 4 GoodGymers donned Santa and elf hats, plus an interesting bobble baseball cap, to go for a social run before the Christmas holidays.

Juno ably led the way taking us down Oxford Road towards the University buildings, which were quiet with students having left. We circled back to Canal Street with a rather frightening blow up Santa, and then back towards Deansgate with street Christmas lights shining the way.

We finished the ~5 km route via Manchester cathedral before a well earned drink at Victoria Tap.

Was great to get out for a group run before the holidays!

First Goodgym Manchester group run task!

Once Northmoor Community Association managed to get hold of some paint last week, we were good to go! With it being half term locally, the volunteer hub was closed giving us the best opportunity to get a first coat of paint onto the walls, and despite only being listed last minute, we had eight fantastic Goodgymers come out on a Monday night.

After several of us arrived after the 3.5 km run from central Manchester to Longsight, we knocked on the window of the Hub to the surprised face of Cathy (I think she only expected a few people...) who showed us the walls, the paint, the paintbrushes, and the all important tea/coffee & biscuit supplies to fuel us for the task.

Seamlessly, we split into two groups of four to cover the major walls, protecting as much of the floor and furniture as possible with sheets and flattened cardboard boxes. With Issy on roller duty and Peter on his hands and knees to paint around the radiators, we managed to cover all of the walls needed with minimal paint splash on the floor and ceiling.

With decent numbers and a perfect painter:paintbrush ratio (1:1), we managed to patch up other parts of the room, with Hannah painting some shelving, Jordan filling in some parts near the kitchen hatch, and Megan and Jack putting in a shift on the additional wall by the front door. The height of Jack and Eoin came in very handy to reach the high up spots!

After washing out the paint containers, washing the brushes and rollers, and wiping up any rogue splashes of paint, we left after a job well done with a group photo and a few more paint stains added to Goodgym t-shirts.

Thank you for all coming out and particularly welcome to the first timers Jordan, Megan, Issy, and Jack! Hope to see many of you soon for Goodgym Manchester tasks!