GoodGym Samaritans

4 of us were up in North End bright and early on a not so bright (but extremely windy) morning.

This was Lucie's first experience of GoodGym, she's on an internship in Portsmouth from France and she is missing the hot weather! We worked alongside a group of volunteers from the Samaritans taking bags and boxes from storage upstairs and loading up the van ready for the donations to be delivered to the new shop. It was hard work, lots of lifting and stair climbing but we were all amazed by how much we managed to get into the van. We even managed to chase a couple of bags down the road after they were caught by the wind.

Lucie, Maxine and I then ran down to Southsea with Maura battling the wind on her bike and arriving just before us. We didn't quite manage to beat the van to the shop but luckily Tony was there to help unload and we were also joined by Rachel, they had both braved the gale force winds on the seafront and done parkrun first! Well done guys.

After we'd unloaded the van and filled the shop floor Anne kindly made us all a cup of tea which was accompanied by biscuits! Always a winner! She's also booked us in for a group run task on 18th September so pop it in your diary! Donation sorting - a favourite :)

We also got to meet a 3 month old puppy who was staying in one of the houses at the back of the shop... Very cute! Sadly she was only there for the weekend so won't be making an appearance every time we lend a hand here!