Friends of St Pauls

The PTA group for St Pauls c of e primary School in Holgate
Friends of St Paul's hold lots of events throughout the year to help fund curriculum activities and fun activities for the children who attend St Pauls primary School. The school also own an allotment which is in desperate need of some TLC.

82 GoodGymers have supported Friends of St Pauls with 4 tasks.


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Previous sessions
YorkGroup run
+29
Laura BarrettCraigMitch
Nikki

Like a Red Cape to a Bull

Monday 8th July 2019

Written by York runner

There was SO MUCH GOOD to report on this group run.. I know you all love a round number so check these ones out:

  • Pete ran 50 miles on Saturday, just because
  • Huw was awarded GG Yorkie of the Month for June because he did his 100th good deed AND ran 100 miles (in one go) and probably made 100 cakes too
  • Paul Kelly ran his 100th good deed and got to wear the awesome Centurion Cape as well as pretending to be superman
  • Legendary Leanne ran her 400th good deed and is officially the goodest person in the whole of the North

We welcomed along no less than 5 new runners and we split into two groups to tackle two tasks. It turns out there was a lot of animal-related activity at both tasks.

Leanne and Tim led a group to St Paul's allotment for a final massive weeding session. Poorly Paul turned up on his crutches and was in charge of photography. The team saw some frogs and found a truly enormous moth which attached itself to Mitch and has been (probably) identified as a Lady Moth.

The ladies do love Mitch

My team ran over to Hob Moor to extract more thistles from the cow field. On our way we saw two lovely puppies and once on the field, had several near misses - and one hit - with dog poo. Our goal was to fill two bags but since Aidan pulled up a thistle so large that it basically filled a whole bag, we finished on four bags.

The pun could be "Three Bags Full!" ..except, four

Paul Kelly in his cape led the run back across the Moor where some rogue dogs had frightened the cows so we slowed down to let the cows pass in front and avoid any trampling.

Use your cape! Be a matador!

Both teams completed a EMOTM workout (but we had a friendly dog who stopped Jeff from doing his star jumps) with several repeats of one minute on the clock to complete a series of exercises.

Then there was loads of cake, and everyone was super happy.

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YorkGroup run
+34
Helen Carr
EmilyChristine CockettCraig

It All Becomes Allot Clearer

Monday 3rd June 2019

Written by York runner

We kicked off Volunteer Week with a massive crew of 44 for an allotment transformation!

Joining us tonight were three brand new runners, so let's give some big Yorkie cheers to Becky, Nikki and Helen. We also celebrated Angela's Hull Half Marathon success and Ben's first 10k race at Mulgrave Castle (accompanied by Tim and myself).

GG Yorkie of the Month!

We also announced the May winner of GG Yorkie of the Month and the winner was.... Freya!! Freya has been coming regularly and completed her first mission in May as well as a community mission. She also boshed her 5k goal and ran her first ever 10 miles. All in all she had an epic month!

For the task we split into three groups, a walking team led by Ellie, the direct route running crew with me and Tim's extended run crew with a bonus hill rep of Windmill Rise. As we all know, Tim takes leading very seriously and tried to send Nick and Becky the wrong way because they dared to run ahead of him. Luckily they knew where the hill was anyway and his whole team made it safely to the allotment.

By the time they arrived, we'd already started a huge weeding party, clearing the very overgrown section at the end of the allotment as well as trying to clear the edges of the paths as quickly as possible ready for new bark to be spread.

Debs was organising the bark situation in the van. She'd carefully loaded the bags on yesterday's bark collection community mission and soon the bags of bark started to arrive on the trolley.

She's called Theresa the Tricky Trolley

Debs had become quite attached, apparently. Whilst the bark was shifted into wheelbarrows and wheeled around the raised beds, the quartet of Nick, Tristan, Michael and Craig were busy sorting out the compost bins and 'tidying' (read: re-laying) the paving slabs.

Down at the end of the allotment, three picnic benches had emerged from the undergrowth and we could now see a large area of actual ground. As the bags of bark were emptied, they were quickly refilled with green waste and suddenly the whole allotment looked amazing!

We sent Mitch, Debs and Charlotte off on a secret mission to return the trolley to its supermarket home and they made it back just in time to join our exciting cone-based fitness session.

It's not Cones of Joy, it's a lovely line of cones!

In teams of four, split into two pairs (less complex than it sounds) everyone took turns in completing shuttle runs through the allotment and a series of lower body strength exercises including squat variations, jumps, lunges, the wall sit and other absolute treats like the 'pretend ladder climb'.

I'm climbing slowly because I'm scared of heights - new Helen

With that, we all headed back to base and order was restored as Huw brought amazing homemade rhubarb scones which were very quickly scoffed.

There is LOADS coming up this week, so check out our full event listings and get involved.

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YorkCommunity mission
Lizzie KershawAnna HarrisonMitchChristine CockettEd WoollardDebs Sharpe

Every Little Helps

Sunday 2nd June 2019

Written by York runner

In a fantastic display of community project symbiosis, our task was to remove some piles of bark for an organisation who wanted rid of it and get it ready for another organisation who needed it. Perfect.

The only small challenge was that the piles of bark were located approximately 200 egg metres down the cycle path (550 actual metres) and were inaccessible for a vehicle.

Armed with two wheelbarrows, four tonne sacks, and 8 spades, we started the long 'barrow relays to the van which was parked at the nearest access point.

Shortly after the mission started, three young teenagers came past us, two on bikes and one with a marginally dysfunctional supermarket shopping trolley. About a minute after they passed, we realised we could really make use of the trolley and they were almost certainly not supposed to have it anyway so I started jogging after them - at which point, they legged it. Three teenagers, however, were no match for a GG Yorkie and I caught up to the terrified teen who was absolutely delighted that I only wanted to make use of the trolley and not tell her off or something.

The three teens then asked if they could help out and I suggested they go further up the path and ask the van-based GoodGymers to bring a bag down to line our new trolley with. They were very agreeable. As I ran the trolley back down to the bark piles I realised it had quite a diagonal trajectory and was impressed with the teen who had actually managed to push it this far from the supermarket. Debs even managed to fix the gammy wheel using a spade whilst Lizzie did safety supervision.

With a two wheelbarrows and a trolley, we were away and the bark loading and unloading strategy started to come together. Graham and Mitch were boshing the wheelbarrow loads up and down whilst people had to manage the trolley in pairs. Mitch doubted Ed and Debs's ability to extract a full bag of back from the trolley.

There's no way that's coming out!

They promptly disproved him, hoicking the bag effortlessly into the back of the van.

We finished with four full bags of bark in the back of van, and err.. the trolley, which will be returned to the supermarket very shortly!

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YorkGroup run
+35
Vicky Hearson
Lauren ForecastCraig

Allot more fun than expected with a drag race and speed staking

Monday 8th April 2019

Written by York runner

45 GG Yorkies completed two huge multi-part tasks!

It was another night for celebration as Vicky ran her 50th good deed and got to run in the Cape of Good Deeds - go Vicky (make sure you give her a big cheer)!

We also welcomed along Chris for his first ever GoodGym run, extra exciting because Chris is one of the founding members of GoodGym in Harrogate and is working hard to bring another GG to North Yorkshire.

Our warm-up (and subsequent fitness session) was a test of coordination and concentration as we introduced new game, Slappy Slappy Point Point. Leanne and I demonstrated rather badly but some people picked up the concept straight away. See the video below!

I led a team out to St Paul's C of E School's allotment in Holgate, where we were met by Charlotte and three of the teachers from the school too, they were already busy digging up weeds. Our jobs list was hefty:

  • Clear the whole bed on the right of the entrance
  • Clear the weeds from the wood pile
  • Sand and paint the yellow bench
  • Sand the three picnic benches
  • Completely weed and clear four large and four small raised beds
  • Empty out the two plastic compost bins and put compost in (newly cleared) raised beds

Not only that but in the process we added two new tasks to the list:

  • Relocate the waste from the compost piles into the emptied compost bins
  • Get the bug hotel open for business

Esther, Maddy and Laura seemed to unearth a nest of frogs and so carefully went about popping them back into the beck, which Carl and Paul had now cleared the way for by weeding an area along the fence line.

Caped-Vicky and Nick were busy getting all the lovely compost out of the bins to top up the newly-weeded raised beds whilst Debs was on a mission to restore the bug hotel to it's former glory.

The three picnic benches were sanded down in no time at all and looked much better for it, whilst the yellow bench to a little more elbow grease. Zoe has a sure-fire way to check it was sanded effectively prior to painting.

If I rub it and it doesn't hurt me, it's fine.

We had one last dash to take many filled bags to the van just outside the allotment before we attempted some Slappy Slappy Point Point fitness variations with squats instead of slaps and lunges instead of points. Success was limited. Mel and Katie absolutely nailed the original version and were going so fast nobody could stop them, whilst Zoe and Helen created their own interpretive dance version.

After the run back, Vicky announced she'd made Creme Egg cookies and they were the best ever.

Tim's team ran to the lovely Hull Road Park. They trotted in on our lovely hand-crafted path which we'd constructed over winter and were quickly set to task in 4 separate areas by Rachael and Kristina. The areas were spread out all over the park so Tim covered a lot of extra mileage in his run leading duties.

In the first team was by newbie Chris from the wannabe-future-Harrogate-GoodGym folk and parkrun-tourist-extraordinaire Tom, they got stuck in. Their job was clearing the remaining waste from a composting area and dragging it all the way over to where it could be picked up by a skip later this week.

"Love a good Drag" - Tim's louder than intended response to the task

The second team met their match with some surprisingly deep rooted plants that needed clearing so they can install a new bench. The plants lured Tom D into a false sense of security sending him tumbling as it snapped earlier than he expected.

The third team were there to pop the last remaining bits of self-binding path gravel down on our path. They might have laid it on a bit thick as it ran out just short of completion but some frantic scraping of sand just about got the job done!

The fourth and final team were tasked with speed-staking wooden stakes into the ground to protect some newly planted flowers from the lawnmowers. Their mission was to speed through it so they could run to the aid of the other teams. Craig and Max both for a boost of enthusiasm when Tim told them how much destruction was happening elsewhere.

After collecting up all the tools, there was just enough time for a quick fitness themed slappy slappy pointy pointy game/coordinated falling over if you watch Pete and Max's video (standby for link).

With so many tasks happening they overran slightly so were all super out of breath on arrival back at the Priory Street Centre after a fast run; husband and wife dream team John and Lauren Forecast even raced for a sprint finish. Unfortunately Lauren went the wrong way handing John the lead. But don't worry Lauren next time you'll have him!

Only a few of Vicky's amazing cookies were left so we incorporated a stretch and walk-out-plank challenge for those who wanted one (read: everyone).

We shortlisted these entries for the Slappy Slappy Point Point competition, vite for your favourite by commenting below!

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