SeeAbility

41 GoodGymers have supported SeeAbility with 13 tasks.


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Kingston upon ThamesGroup run
+3
JulieClaire DunneRouf ZargarPetra StockelmayerovaAlexandraTom Peacock

Un-decking the halls

Tuesday 2nd January

Written by Tom Peacock

Wizzard wished it could be Christmas every day but unfortunately for frontman Roy Wood, it hasn’t happened just yet.

What went up had to come down at SeeAbility’s assisted living centre in Surbiton. Unfortunately, gale force winds left a few intended GG members stranded at Waterloo but after a punchy-length run for a January pipe-opener, we had a team good to go.

Dave and Tom were relieved the storm had calmed down so they could get up the ladder and remove the Christmas lights from the outside of the building. Meanwhile, Rachel, Jade, Julie, Petra, Claire, Ally and GG legend Martel got to work taking down decorations and cleaning the windows.

SeeAbility is a rewarding place to visit. Its young residents are dealing with difficulties but both they, and the charming staff, were delighted to see us.

We brought some colour to the bright room at the back by making several displays with stickers of birds and butterflies on the windows, restoring some cheer without Christmas.

Welcome to Ally on her first GoodGym task! Lovely to meet you and hope to see you again soon.

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Kingston upon ThamesGroup run
+4
Claire DunneEmmaEmma CroweRob Haworth
Kate Haworth

Yule love our tree-mendous decorating!

Tuesday 5th December 2023

Written by Kate Haworth

As ‘tis the season of traditions, we relished the opportunity to uphold one of ours with one of the Kingston Goodgym group’s favourite festive group run task! Tuesday evening’s good deed done was in support of our local SeeAbility residential home for adults with disabilities. The task was a fabulously festive one as we were called upon to spruce things up, ‘dec their halls’, (and dining room) and string outdoor lights to add some Christmas cheer to the home.

Three eager volunteers braved the elements outside to take on the hanging of the Christmas lights along the eaves of the home. Some reached new heights while others held the ladder. No need for Sabir to hold on for deer life as he was supported by both Dave and Rob providing safety and moral support at the bottom of the ladder. There were Christmas tunes being played as Rob took on the role of Rudolf to light the way with his large torch to guide them.

Meanwhile the rest of the team had snow easy task of displaying the large window decals - a beautiful winter scene with reindeer, baubles and snowflakes. They got their nails into it which were needed to remove the birds and butterflies to replace them by peeling and sticking the snowflakes and winter wonderland elements.

The tree was then assembled and decorated just in time for the team to reunite in the lounge to admire our handy work and celebrate with a bit of dancing to ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’.

It was so lovely to return to support this fabulous home with Goodgym Kingston members young, old and new! Juniper was a very popular Goodgym baby on this task and her supervision of the activities was very helpful too!

We celebrated our task by heading to the Albion for a Christmas celebration with a not so savage gift exchange of secret Santa! It is now beginning to look a lot more like Christmas for the residents of the SeeAbility home and it’s feeling more and more Christmassy for Goodgym Kingston with every Christmas task we do! We hope to see you joining us on the next one!

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Kingston upon ThamesGroup run
Rachel WhiteDave WhiteClaire Dunne
Rob HaworthJorge

Oh oh oh! Time for the decorations to go

Tuesday 3rd January 2023

Written by Rachel White

The start of the New Year means that all things festive have to be packed up and put away so it was time for us to revisit Seeability to remove the decorations that we had put up a few weeks before. The residents had a lovely time admiring the lights and it was sad to put them away but it had to be done.

Claire, Jade and I were put to task in the kitchen removing all the window decals. Sadly, I had just clipped my nails so it wasn't as easy as it should be but that didn't stop us determined deers. Jorge, Dave and Rob were tasked to take down the lights and they set out the front with the ladder. It rained pretty consistently but that didn't stop their enthusiasm for the task.

It didn't take long and within 40 minutes we were pretty much finished. The last job was to remove the Oh, oh, oh's from the glass door (or should that be the Ho, ho, ho's?!)

See you soon, Seeability! We'll be back to help when the nights get lighter.

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Kingston upon ThamesGroup run
+6
Petra StockelmayerovaRob HaworthRushabhJorgeSevan

Having a tree-mendous Christmas!

Tuesday 6th December 2022

Written by Rachel White

Our Group Run this week took us to Seeability, a residential home supporting people with learning disabilities and autism, to put up their Christmas decorations. We always have a lovely time here and this year was no different. We had a great time - it was tree-mendous! Rob encouraged us all to don our Christmas attire, and no wonder... he had the best costume - a Christmas tree with matching hat. It survived the 3 km run there and was a handy layer for Rob as he was outside with Jorge and Dave putting up the lights round the windows.

Jo, Claire, Jassy and Petra tackled the large window decals - a beautiful winter scene with reindeer, baubles and snowflakes. The creative talent was on point and the stickers were arranged with precision. The hardest part was working out the several sections of the reindeer and figuring out whether his head was section F or N... Fortunately our brightest minds were on the case.

Samantha and Jane, and later Rob, built the tree in the lounge where the residents were watching Wednesday on the telly and giving us moral support. Rachel spent a good few minutes unravelling two sets of window lights before working with Martel to fix them up with copious amounts of sellotape.

Upstairs Sevan and Sabir were tasked with making a desk and all was going well but Sevan ran out of time and went on his way. Samantha, Dave and Jorge stepped up to help Sabir and crack on with the desks in the short amount of time we had left to complete the task. The drawers were all made and the main section of the desk so that saved the Seeabilty staff many man hours. Well done team! Job at Ikea, surely?!

Great fun and a task that really benefitted the residents, staff and visitors of Seeability. So Christmassy that Santa will surely find his way there with all the lights to guide him.

We celebrated our task by heading to the Albion for a Christmas celebration. Kate joined us for a Christmas pint and a plate of nachos. Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
Claire DunneDave WhitePetra StockelmayerovaRachel White

Down with decorations, in with new bulbs

Thursday 6th January 2022

Written by Rachel White

A team of hardy GoodGymers went back to the residential house on Ditton Road on a cold and drizzly evening to help take down the outdoor Christmas lights and decorations for the Seeability residents. Marie-Noelle and Claire climbed ladders in the dark to tackle the lights (with trusty headtorches) and did a sterling job of removing them from the front and back of the house. Hundreds of window stickers needed to be peeled off from the inside of the kitchen windows (we can only blame ourselves for being so good at sticking them on in the first place) and the fake snow wiped off from the bottom of the windows. Petra tackled the tree and we put it in the garage for next year.

Final task was to plant tulips and daffodils that were kindly donated from Welcare. Welcare won hundreds of bulbs from the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association in association with Taylors Bulbs of Holbeach but had so many that they've decided to share them with other community gardens in the area. One good deed deserves another! We planted them along the fence at the back and front of the house - hopefully we will see them in their full glory in Spring.

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Kingston upon ThamesCommunity mission
+6
Jassy DrakulicRob HaworthPetra StockelmayerovaLaura Waller
Matt Thorley

Many hands make the lights work...

Tuesday 23rd November 2021

Written by Petra Stockelmayerova

A strong team of 12 gathered at SeeAbility learning disability home in Ditton Road to bring some Christmas cheer to its 5 residents. This wasn't GoodyGym's first rodeo with number of members having been part of this mission in previous years. Martel was ready with tones of indoor and outdoor decorations and a task lists. The boys took on the hanging of the outside lights at the front and back of the house, balancing on ladders (being kindly held safe by Laura), to wrap the roof in icicle lights. The rest of us divided up sticking on window decorations (after windows have been thoroughly washed) with Santas, reindeer, Xmas trees all topped with good old- fashioned snow in the can.

Of course you can't have Christmas without a tree which came in zillion color coded pieces but we were not to be defeated and at the end were rewarded by a festive looking red, white & silver tree in the corner of beautifully decorated conservatory for all to enjoy.

Making sure that we do make the most of our time together as such a good size group, we popped into the local pub to get fed, watered but most importantly warmed up, it was a cold one.

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