Bromley

Group run

Robin around the christmas tree

7 GoodGymers made their way 2.0km to help their local community in Bromley.

  • Jane Rogers
  • Matt
  • Kat
  • Louise Chambers
  • Clare Griffiths
  • Bradley Smith
  • Darryl Chamberlain
 
Tuesday, 3rd of December 2019
 
Led by Louise Chambers

Seven Santa-stic runners headed to St Christopher's Hospice to provide some festive cheer for the patients and their families (and the staff, of which I am one).

A big Bromley welcome to Matt, who has visited 4 different areas for his 4 good deeds, with an aim to visit all boroughs. I hope you enjoyed your visit to Bromley Matt. Kat arrived in her festive finery, sporting snowflake leggings, a christmassy bobble hat and coloured lights around her rucksack.

Tonight's task was very close-by, so after a short warm-up in the park, we headed around the corner to the hospice, where Bradley was waiting to join us. I took the group into the Anniversary Centre, which is the hub of the hospice and is used by patients and their families as a cafe, waiting room and a space for arts and entertainment. Our task for the night was to decorate 2 christmas trees, one in the Anniversary Centre and one in the main reception.

Both trees had been securely wrapped in many strings of battery-powered lights before we had arrived, but we had been asked to remove these, to be replaced by mains-powered lights. This also meant moving both trees to a different location near a plug socket. Removing the battery lights was easier said than done, with FOUR sets around one tree, all inter-woven to make for a frustrating task. Matt, Kat and Jane did their best maypole dancing impressions, walking around the tree, passing lights under and over each others arms, trying to find the end of the seemingly never-ending strings of lights. Once they had finally been removed, they set to work untangling the new lights, weaving them around the newly-positioned tree. They had chosen a red and gold colour scheme for the tree, with robins artfully perching on branches amongst the baubles and beads. There were a LOT of robins in the decoration box, but they rightly went for the 'less is more' approach.

The second tree was being tackled by Bradley, Clare and Darryl, who went for a silver and white theme, which looked really stylish with their string of blue lights. Rather than the lights, it was the knotted silver beads that caused frustration, but they had soon unraveled them and adorned the tree. Pine cones on sticks caused much confusion and hilarity, before being returned to the box.

Whilst the 2 teams were hard at work, I climbed onto the reception desk to hang giant baubles from the ceiling, to add a festive touch to the reception desk. Whilst we were working, Colin the hospice cat made a brief appearance, unfortunately not hanging around long enough for a photo, and refusing our offer of a bit of mince pie.

Time had shot by and it was soon time to leave. The trees looked fantastic as we tidied the excess decorations away before heading out into the cold night for a short run back to our start point. Next week is another task for St Christopher's, helping in the newly opened, and rather swish, Crystal Palace charity shop. Sign up here for another feel-good Tuesday evening. Last but definitely not least, don't forget our Christmas bash this Thursday night, sign up here and come a-quizzing.

Report written by Louise Chambers


Discuss this report

Adele Prince
Adele Prince
Tuesday December 3rd, 2019 23:07

Wow, that sounds like a tangle-tastic task! Iā€™d like to meet Colin the cat one day :)

See you all on Thursday x

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Louise Chambers
Led by Louise Chambers

GoodGym Bromley runner

GoodGymers helping out
  • Back marker

    Make sure that no one is left behind

    • Jane Rogers

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