Don’t get in a sweat(er) or we might get shirty.

Not wind, nor rain, nor blazing sun can keep a GoodGymer from a mission run...and so, on a wet, windy, sunny Saturday afternoon, Chris, Tim, Paul, Kira and Pauline travelled across the city to meet up at St Leonard’s Community Centre in Bootle.

Jan Campbell, from Sefton CVS, met and briefed the volunteers: dozens and dozens of bags holding hundreds of donated items were waiting to be weighed, emptied and sorted. Labels lined the walls behind two rows of tables, which were soon groaning under stacks of trousers, shirts, skirts, shoes and coats...in fact, there was a whole tonne of clothing.

Working with the local community and food bank organisations, Sefton Council had identified a need among vulnerable families; those in need of help with food, also need help to provide their children with good quality school uniforms. The council held collections throughout the borough and the response was amazing. Clean, good quality, and many new items of school uniform were donated.

Everyone worked tirelessly for three hours, with a short tea and biscuit break half way through. By the end of the afternoon, the contents of every bag had been sorted by item, colour and some by size. Phase 1 was complete. Then came the re-bagging the sorted clothing...all in all, a mammoth task.

Phase 2 takes place on Friday, in Southport, where the uniforms will be sorted by size and school.

Jan was overwhelmed with how much had been achieved and is keen to work with GoodGym again, in the future.