DOING GOOD

Following on from our Sunday Special group run in January where we first supported Age UK with their Monthly lunch club, we were back today to help again & in quite similar weather conditions... Anyone remember that soggy run back in Jan?!

Visiting Age UK is always a delight with the smiling volunteers & warm welcome, including a hot brew! & once again the centre was expecting a whopping 46 elderly people from the local community for Sunday lunch. The lunch not only provides a healthy, hot meal, but a social experience for those who may be most at risk of experiencing isolation.

The three of us from GoodGym set about moving the tables & chairs, and laying out cutlery & condiments for the feast - which smelt delicious - whilst volunteers from the YMCA joined in the cooking tasks.

The room was set up in no time & as always, it was time to grab a group photo & leave the Age UK helpers to finish off lunch preparations.

Every second Sunday of the month we'll be back here, supporting the lunch club & enjoying a nice cuppa :) Keep your eyes peeled on the community mission page.

Big Loves

Gwyn and Tracey joined David Denton and his friendly team of volunteers to take part in the 5th set of races in this season of the Derby Midweek Series along Raynesway in Derby.

Tracey ran the mile at 7pm, and then Gwyn joined her for the 5km at 7.20. The rain began just as we were packing up.

Such a fun and friendly event, you'd be very welcome if you want to join us next time!

Matt, Tracey and I got together to volunteer at Markeaton junior parkrun on a frosty day. It was good to welcome Matt, who was doing his first GoodGym group run. Thank you for joining us, Matt! It looked very quiet indeed as we walked to the start, then Tracey did some detective work and we walked on to Course B. This is all on grass and runnable when frozen. It was hard to put the funnel into the solidly frozen ground, but we got there, and then we joined in the warm up: very much welcome! Matt and I tail walked, thus keeping warm, while poor Tracey was standing still as a marshal. After the event, we ran together to Matt's car: he had to make a quick getaway. Tracey and I then ran intervals on the parkrun course.

Emmie, Tracey and I joined friends old and new at Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity. We'd come through the snow to the warm atmosphere at the centre. There was some good news: all were safe from deportation to Rwanda because the case had gone to appeal. We had a chat before settling down to the English lessons, which are always very rewarding. It was lovely to meet Emmie for the first time.

Just a small team of us at Elvaston today, but we achieved quite a lot, and were fortunate enough to see a goldcrest eating insects in a nearby tree for quite a few minutes, though we didn't hear his call. He was probably taught the good manners not to speak with his mouth full!!

We removed some rhododendron roots in the Harrington tomb, cleared ivy and more rhododendron from the corner of the churchyard, chopped low branches from a tree and then stacked all the cuttings into habitat piles.

Despite the cold, a very enjoyable session.

I volunteered at Conwy Nature Reserve junior parkrun. It was wet, cold and windy but a few hardy children still came, and even enjoyed it!