A big welcome back to Monika who joined us for her second GG task in a row. We hope you become a regular member and continue to join us each week.

This week we joined Jess from Common Thread and Regather fame at Union Street along with other volunteers to help sort some clothes out for Ben's Centre; a charity that aims to provide a safe space and an open hand to those who suffer through substance misuse and its associated barriers.

You can find out more about Ben's center here.

We sorted through Common Thread donnations and put bags together of wanted items for Ben's center including warm layers and clothes that would dry well after getting wet.

9 bags in total were sorted, ready to go to Ben's center.

Until next time, happy running! :)

2 Goodgymmers joined other regular volunteers at Common Thread to help tidy everything away after the latest clothes swap. It involved lots of physical work, heaving boxes up and down stairs in the labyrinthine building. We also had the usual fun of searching through for weird and wonderful items, plus we were rewarded with delicious homemade food at the end!

It was fantastic to welcome a new runner to GG SHF!

A HUGE welcome to Monika please give Monika a follow and a cheer! Monika even ran all the way from Eccy road and back as well as doing the group run and this was her first run for some time! Excellent work Monika we hope to see you again next week!

On a drizzly, dark eve we headed out from The Showroom Cinema, alongside the river Don and over the Spiders bridge to meet with Gerry & William from the Walk, Wheel & Cycle Trust (ex Sustrans). We were welcomed and briefed on the areas that were in need of some attention and got straight to it!

The main job was litter picking over the Spiders bridge and alongside the river Don, all the way to the road. We did a thorough job and picked up plenty of rubbish and made the route look much more welcoming again to all users. Once we brought bags back to our bag drop location we all got involved in bagging up a big load of dried leaves which were acting as a net to collect rubbish on the route. We bagged these up with the help of David who had joined us on bike and popped all the bags at the collection point which Gerry reported on the Fix My Street app.

As a reward Gerry very generously offered us all some homemade ginger biscuits which were absolutely delicious!

Until next time, happy running! :)

One Goodgymmer joined friends of Parkwood springs for the monthly gardening session. We weeded - removing creeping butter cups, wood avens and couch grass - pruned gooseberry bushes and planted strawberries. The sun even made an appearance and we admired the buzzards flying overhead. Next session will be on 28/2. We’re already thinking what other plants we’d like to grow! If anyone has any spare rhubarb plants - this being Yorkshire after all!- or globe artichokes, please get in touch !

Well it wasn't as bad as last time..

We met at a very specific W3W location, with thanks to Dave for providing us all with the meeting spot and technical abilities to do so.

The original idea was to litter pick Kilton Hill which we did, but it wasn't as bad as usual so we got all the way to the top and were able to take a left downhill on Andover Street and do both sides all the way to the bottom!

Karen was collecting cans to take to be recycled and to earn some dosh to go back in to the Pitsmoor Pickers pot for other litter picking equipment for the future.

Thanks to all for coming out and Gavin we hope to see your partner out fit and well joining us in the future.

Until next time, happy running! :)

We welcomed a new runner on this task, a big welcome to Hels who seemed to enjoy her first session.

We met the wonderful Jess of Common Thread fame at Union street who lead us down to the basement to discuss the options for helping which were sorting clothes or shoes.

We opted for shoes and got the lift loaded up with banana boxes full of of shoes. The task was to sort through and quality control the shoes to make sure the pairs were present and that those selected are fit for sale. Any that were worse for wear got bagged up and headed next door to the charity shop for further sorting or sending on.

Jess did a great job providing instruction and giving some of the shoes a good sprucing up.

The next clothes exchange is this coming Sat and tickets are going fast!

Tickets are available via the link below:

https://fixr.co/event/january-clothes-swap-2026-tickets-56087971?lang=en-US