On Tuesday we ran 1km to assist the staff in the Crisis Charity shop. Unfortunately it wasn’t a visit to help them sort their donations or restack the clothing rails for the new season. Sadly they were closing down the Croydon Branch and they had movers coming on Wednesday to take the stuff to a storage facility, and they would then be disseminated to other Crisis Charity Shops.

We welcomed back a familiar face, Audrey had been a regular runner with us in the past however after starting her family time wasn’t as freely available as it was before, but with the little one not so little anymore she is begging to claw back some time and decided to come out with us. Welcome back Audrey.

When we arrived we were greeted by Jill and Ryan, who had been there all day packing and moving boxes. They were about to hit the wall but they were happy to see 12 smiling faces eager to put in some work and get them over the finish line. Jill/Ryan explained that they had some boxes, shelves mannequins and odd bits and pieces in the basement to be taken up to the ground floor. There were still books on the shelves that needed to be taken off and boxed up. To them it seemed like an endless task as there were only two of them trying to get it done all day. We divide the group into movers and packers and within an hour we had emptied the basement packed all the books into boxes and move everything closer to the door for t the movers arrival on Wednesday. Jill and Ryan was really excited about the 12 hours we were able to cram into an hour.

We said our goodbyes and as it was the last Tuesday of the month we headed off to Box Park for a few burgers and drinks.

We later received the following message

Just want to say Thank you again to you and the team for all your support on Tuesday evening. Ryan and I really appreciated all the help.

Next Tuesday we’ll be heading to Park Hill to plant our peace pole are you coming along?

7 GoodGym members met at Solutions on a sunny Tuesday evening. After a short warm-up, the team jogged to the local refugee centre. Ros joined the group on route and we received a warm welcome at the centre from Ivanka.

Ivanka explained the tasks for the evening and the team decided the role which they would play. The team sorted through new donations, checking the quality. Size stickers were stuck onto the clothing, the clothing was put onto coat hangers and then hung on the appropriate clothing rack. At the end of the evening, the team tidied the racks away into the cupboard before running back to solutions for cool down stretches.

Well done team!

On a bright and clear Autumn morning 4 good-gymers visited Duppas Hill Recreation Ground, for what has become a semi-regular Litter Pick.

Somewhat unexpectedly, litter seemed as scarce as the clouds in the sky at first glance. Pleasantly bemused, the volunteers scattered to the four corners of the park, certain that their 'treasure' was out there somewhere...

90 minutes later their dogged determination had paid off. 9 bin bags of rubbish collected and the park looking cleaner than this good-gymer has ever seen!