We played our cards right and were bowled over by how much the residents were lavender evening!

One of the main reasons people join GoodGym is simply to do good. Whether it's on our Group runs to help local community organisations or our Mission runs or Coach runs to reduce social isolation in older people. This evening was a little extra special, as we kind of conquered all of those on tonight's community mission as we held a games night with the residents at a Lavender Court sheltered housing, part of Together Housing.

After hearing about another GoodGym area having done a similar task, I had been trying to organise it in Barnsley. We have been back and forth to Lavender court many times in the last year to help the residents with their garden and they always love our help. When I brought up the idea of a games evening with them, they thought it was a fantastic idea!

The plan came to fruitition tonight! I listed it as a community mission so that we could spend as much time as possible with the residents and not sweat all over them! Let's give a special shout out to James who came all the way from Sheffield and ran the 3km from the station to meet us! And successfully found us!! We also welcomed a New member tonight, welcome Janine - lets give her a cheer here

On arrival there were about 15-20 residents ready to play some games in their communal lounge. The residents showed us to the games cupboard and we selected a few to run around different tables. After spotting some giant playing cards and a specially designed Play Your Cards Right board, we decided to kick off the evening with this, involving the whole room shouting higher or lower and cheering each other on. Brucey and her glamorous assistant James led the game, with the help of the residents who play it every Friday, which gave us lots of laughs and got everyone chatting.

After that we split up to play different games around the room, with 10 pin bowling at the back with Sharon & James, Scrabble corner with Mairead, Logo game with Janine and Clair, whilst I played the Yes/No game with everyone else. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, chatting to all the runners and to each other. One man told me that they don't normally do anything in the evenings and that this was much better than sitting alone watching TV.

No one normally plays scrabble with me, I've really enjoyed your company, you've made my day

When it was time to leave, the residents were all so thankful and happy to have spent the evening together, asking us when we were coming again! The lady that won the bowling was beside herself with joy and one of the men said she will be talking about it for days.

It was an experience that I think a lot of us were taken back a bit by, and upon reflection, very proud and humble of what happened this evening. What is lovely to hear is how much the members enjoyed themselves as well as the residents and how something so simple can make a huge difference to how everyone feels.

One of the best tasks to date!

Deffo the best task, love love loved it!

The morning after our visit, I received a lovely email from the home's manager, saying thank you for coming and to say:

Some residents have said they haven’t laughed so much in a long time!

What a lovely way to spend a Tuesday night! Watch this space, we'll be heading back for round 2 soon!

If you'd like to join us next week, we'll be heading to Barnsley Carer's garden to help Gordon their with a gardening task. Sign up here