GoodGym WON, Store Cupboard NIL

9 GoodGymers joined forces with staff from the Chelsea FC Foundation to help clear, sort and tidy their store cupboard ready for the new academic year

In a GoodGym H&F first we had a bonus lunchtime task and run to help out the Chelsea FC Foundation. The Chelsea Foundation brings together the Football in the Having congregated outside the Museum and Tours entrance of Stamford Bridge a wonderful 8 GoodGymers from both South and North of the river met myself and Gareth, the London Community Manager for the Chelsea Foundation, eager and ready to tackle their store cupboard which was in desperate need of a sort out and tidy before the new academic year. Steve also tried his luck at blagging some free Champions League tickets for this season...if only they were part of it this season hey Steve!

Sent Off on Task

Onside inside Gareth explained our main tasks for today and the team quickly went about tackling them head on:

• Sort all the new coaching kit that was in cardboard boxes into separate itemised bags - Steve, Jason, Johnny and Will took this on and quickly had all the shorts, tops and leggings separated, bagged and labelled up, the spelling of 'leggings' was the only thing that threatened to slow these guys down!
• Sort all the children's kit into separate large camping bags - Danny and Sarah teamed up and began folding and packing the heaps of kit that was handed out to them with perfect accuracy.
• Tidy-up a large cage of training bibs, goal posts, balls and other equipment/items - David and Arba got stuck into the mound of training bibs and other eqiupment and were quickly removing numerous bags and re-organising everything that had found its way into this cage.

Dream Team Community and the Education department along with the club’s other charitable and community activities. Much like GoodGym, the Chelsea Foundation believes that the power of sport (football in their case, running/cycling in ours) can be harnessed to support communities and individuals.

Amongst Johnny's and Sarah's (not holding a bin bag in another GG H&F first!) classic poses of kit held up in front you, Danny's action poses, and some fun Christmas hat wearing by myself that made me look even more elf-like (hopefully it shall make a Christmas Calendar....) and uncovered Jason's secret past as a Christmas hat wearing advisor - top tip: stuff a hat with other hats if it has a heavy bobble and won't stay up! - a store cupboard transformation had begun to take place.

Despite space being very tight with both GoodGymers and the Chelsea Foundation staff working compactly in the small store cupboard, and with numerous shimmies and stair dances to pass each other on the stairs made while relocating the boxes, clothing and equipment, in just over 30 minutes a marked difference had been made, especially in the caged storage space upstairs.

Keeping up the team work, David and Arba removed the last of the cupboard boxes down the stairs to complete all the tasks Gareth had set us do. Before we parted ways the 'dream team' has a lovely group shot outside the Community Hub before we all said our thankyous and goodbyes. A certain score for the attacking GoodGym team who proved no match against the stubborn unorganised defence of the store cupboard!

Bridging the Lap

As some of the team said their goodbyes and headed back either to work or on their runs/cycles home, a couple of the group stayed to complete some quick sprint work around the stadium. Some quick research beforehand had led me to discover that a lap of Stamford Bridge stadium is a short Strava segment, obviously the perfect ending to any group run! Will absolutely motored round the 600m lap in 2:04, leaving it all on the pitch (well roads surrounding the pitch and stadium) and with this took the course record. Well done, Will!

Thank you all for your hard and efficient work, and for giving up your lunchtimes to lend a hand. Hope you all had fun, and hopefully see some of the GG tourists at another run in the near future!

The Chelsea FC Foundation were also kind enough to donate a large bag of old kit to add to Danny's clothing donations for the Running Charity who use the power of running to improve the lives of those aged 16-25 years old that are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Thank you very much guys!