"There ain't no party like a Goodgym Party"

Happy Birthday to us! This March, Goodgym Liverpool turns 7, and we were determined to mark it in style.

We were fortunate to be able to use the fabulous Events Space at DoES Liverpool, which was the perfect setting. We had a brilliant turnout with many members making the effort to come along, and it was so lovely to have some purely social time - a rare treat, without those pesky tasks getting in the way!

It was wonderful to see how absolutely everyone contributed to make the event a success, we really took the can-do energy we bring to tasks and saw it come to fruition at our own event. From the bunting and party hats, to an absolutely fabulous buffet which included home-made: fried chicken, chocolate roulade, goats cheese & caramelised onion tarts, a variety of salads, salt & pepper sausage rolls, oat & raisin cookies, & chocolate brownies! Plus a huge selection of sides, snacks, and sweet treats - not to mention a fabulously decorated and personalised Goodgym birthday cake.

Alas, this celebration also marked the final - and 1001st - task of original Goodgym member Pauline. Pauline was there at the very first session 7 years ago and has been a committed and dedicated core member ever since, taking up Coach sessions as well as tasks and missions. It was very emotional to know this was her last session, but we sent her off in style with flowers, champagne, chocolates, a beautiful memory book with photos and memories of her sessions over the years, and a one-off bespoke personalised blue Goodgym t-shirt, in the colours of her beloved Everton FC. Pauline, it's been an absolute priviledge having you as a member, you've supported GG Liverpool and its members endlessly, and your enthusiasm, calm can-do attitude and easy way socially has been a blessing to literally hundreds of people in the community. It's a real loss to lose you but we wish you nothing but the best as your start a new chapter of your life with wonderful husband Miles. The door is always open to come visit us in the future.

It would have been remiss not to celebrate last-man standing Sophie, our dear and dedicated run leader who is now the only remaining member from that very first Liverpool session 7 years ago. The ever-thoughtful Sallyann presented Sophie with a small gift as a token of our appreciation for all the work Sophie does for us.

Sally Ann also had the wonderful idea of us writing down what Goodgym means to us, and taking a photo of the collection of comments for posterity. Check out the photos to see what we came up with - it was quite emotional seeing the impact GG has on the lives of it's members. It's certainly a two-way street - our wonderful members put so much in to helping their community, and in turn the GG community gives so much back. It was lovely for task owner Vicky from Litter Clear Volunteer join us too, Vicky works tirelessly making the local community a lovely place to be, and it was a treat to see her socially and share this special evening with her.

The "thank you" list for last night is long, but in this case it's worth stating, as everyone put in effort to make the event the huge success it absolutely was. We had the best time and it really re-iterated what makes GG special.

With special thanks to:

• Siân, Lucien, Clara for the homemade food and helping with set up & post-party clean up

• Miriam for the amazing birthday cake and all the hard work on Pauline's beautiful memory book gift

• Sophie, Emma, Eleanor, Jo & Liam for the contributions to party-ware and the buffet (including a very generous bottle of champagne!)

• Steph for the homemade brownies

• Pauline for the lovely cakes

• Dan for the festive bunting and homemade roulade

• Asavari for bravely joining us at a social for only her second session - so lovely to see you again!

• Ema for making a huge effort to join us despite ill-health, and for the fun party hats, banners, and decorations

• Sallyann for her tireless hard-work, effort and thoughtfulness which massively contributed to making the event really special

• Bekah for finding that gem of a venue, and the famous salt and pepper sausage rolls

• And shout out to Heetu who sadly couldn't join us in person but was very much there in spirit and contributed her time and effort so generously to Pauline's leaving gift - Heetu you're an absolute genius

It was a really beautiful night showing just how special Goodgym and it's members are. Thank you all for your phenomenal effort both with our party and throughout the year. We all left on a real high, grateful to have so much to celebrate.

It was our third GoodGym Parkrun session of the year, and the promise of mysterious prizes had us all flocking to collect today's star for our Parkrun loyalty cards, a proud innovation of Sallyann's. Sophie, Siân and Ellie ran while Liam and Lucien cheered them on and took pictures, and Sallyann hopped on to a registration station to fill a vacancy, taking up the important job of recording everyone's times. It was a glorious sunny morning in the park, so much so that Siân nipped home for suncream on the way from Prince's Park to our brunch spot, which promptly chased the sun behind clouds for the rest of the day. On our way to the cafe we stopped to admire and marvel at three birds of prey circling high above. We weren't sure of the species but think they might have been buzzards. Today's cafe was The Wheelbarrow in Greenbank Park, where we enjoyed a tasty breakfast and, as ever, brilliant company and conversation. A lovely start to the weekend!

The weather is warming slightly and the days are starting to get longer. With the winter sliding slowly away and Spring knocking gently at the door we were pleased to be at Mulgrave Community Garden. Lucien had organised the session with Khan the inspiration behind this gem of a garden. There were two large bags of bulbs to be planted that will bring colour to the garden later in the year.

Sophie concentrated on a neglected corner beavering away under the light of torches which Bekah managed to capture well on camera whilst multi tasking as both gardener and photographer. It was Dan's first time at the garden and he has left a legacy of both a cleaner area by litter picking before planting a whole load of bulbs. Meanhile Siân who usually has to be coaxed away from a litter pick) surprised us all by walking past the litter picks and getting stuck right into the garden creating spaces and getting those bulbs planted up. Lucien cleared litter not only from the garden and surrounding areas but also from the various planters along the street which, without some TLC, can become filled with litter.

Whilst all this was going on I seemed to spend a lot of time chatting I did pick up some litter that the others had left me. Thankfully Eleanor had been planting bulbs all eveing and keeping an eye out as to where the bulbs had been planted so could direct me and the final bulbs for the night into the patches we hadn't yet gone to. This mind map will be so important as next Monday we are returning to plant the larger bulbs.... hope to see you there.

This week we were on Timpron street with Vicky from Litter Clear Volunteer with an array of tasks to do!

After what sounded like very hectic day for Vicky she arrived with various tools to help us clear the local area. Some of us set to work litter picking whilst some weeded and planted in the beautiful raised beds and another group of us began to clear the tarmac of weeds.

It was clear that there were some flower beds hidden beneath the weeds and moss and we were soon using whatever tools necessary to scrape back and reveal some beautiful Diamond shaped flower beds!!

Excellent work team we not only tidied the place up but were able to reveal some real beauty in this unassuming street corner. We will be back to help Litter Clear Volunteer tidy up another patch of Liverpool soon!