Paul ran round the park to assess the litter situation, minimal, but Safety Simon was called... and we got to work on the small patch of litter found. The run found another task though, a tree that had fallen and needed chopping. Simon of course had a couple of pairs of new pruners in his boot. Legend. Bonus task done.

It was great to be back at STEAM again this week, welcoming lots of younger people & walk-ins to get their vaccines. As always, our time & effort was hugely appreciated by the staff & patients alike, and was rewarded with tea and biscuits!

Volunteering at the vaccine clinic is a great way to understand what goes on behind the scenes, and meet some fantastic people involved in ensuring an operation of this scale runs smoothly. Some are regular volunteers, having seen all age groups through the clinic since January, and others are more ad hoc - but everyone is welcome & appreciated.

We have a regular Community Mission running at STEAM so do sign up if you can make it in future weeks!

It's Tuesday night, it's GoodGym Swindon Group run night!

On the hottest day since July, Autumn came early for us this year with a leaf-gathering task at the Central Community Centre in the Railway Village.

We've recently been supporting the Railway Village get ready for Heritage Open Days) with a dusting task in the Bristol Street Tunnel. The whole area is looking spic and span ready for the whole heap of things taking place at the weekend.

Four of us gathered at Sainsburys Bridgemead on a sunny evening, and set off the 2.3km towards the Railway Village. Running along via Penzance drive, under the railway bridge and along Church Place and Bristol St, we arrived at the Central Community Centre.

There, we met the both delightful Karen and Helen who shared some of the plans for the weekend (plus some lovely plum cake!), then we were joined by Gaby, and we got to leaf clearing behind the Central Community Centre!

In no time, we had cleared an unbe-leaf-able amount of leaves and helped sweep up as well! There was plenty of opportunities for chatting with this task too. Emma took the pics, and the caretaker joined us again to take the all important group pic in front of the Mechanics' Institute itself.

We said our goodbyes to Karen, Helen and Gaby, and we started running back. We even added an extra fitness element by running around a busy Faringdon Park, full of people enjoying the late summer sun.

Before we knew it, we racked up a 5.5km run in total and were back at Sainsbury's in the sun, and stopped to natter a while before going our separate ways. Well done everyone, and big congratulations to Alethia (A-leaf-ia?!) for smashing her first run back in 6 months!

Good Dees galore with GoodGym Swindon: Next week, we're Gardening at Chippenham Close Community Centre

Regular Community Missions are going on to support the Steam Vaccine Centre!

Or get involved with some of our life-changing work with older people, either via Missions or by pairing with a coach

Isn't it good to be back doing Group Runs? It's great to be back together and blowing away the cobwebs - in more ways than one!

This week we ran about 4km from Tesco Extra to Bristol Street Tunnel and back, to help spruce it up in preparation for Heritage Open Days on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th September.

Some exciting things are happening in Swindon's much loved Railway Village. A five-year plan to revitalise the area has been created with Historic England who have declared it a Heritage Action Zone. They have provided funding and support to:

• Enhance key Historic buildings and spaces (Health Hydro, Carriage Works, the Cricketers, GWR Park and the Mechanics Institution)
• Improve public spaces and footpaths which form the setting for the historic buildings
• Raise awareness of Swindon's Railway Heritage and promote the area as a place of interest

The Heritage Action Zone outcomes are being boosted by Town Deal Funding from Central Government which will:

• Refurbish the Health Hydro to create a major leisure and cultural attraction to draw in visitors to Swindon Town Centre
• Deliver the next phase of the Carriage Works for use by business and educational organisations
• Enhance Station Road and the Bristol Street and Sheppard Street tunnels to improve connectivity and encourage more pedestrian and cycle movements within the town centre

In readiness for Heritage Open Days, we were called in to help give the Bristol St tunnel a spring clean to ensure it is looking its best for potential visitors, and anyone making the key journey from the outlet area towards the town centre.

Meeting at Tesco, we then kept things inclusive, all walking to meet Karen at Bristol St Tunnel. Karen is extremely passionate advocate for the project there, and also cooks the best brownies! Cake based bribery is the best way to get us to a task!

After a fascinating chat about what's upcoming in the Railway Village, we got a-cleaning:

• Gina made the SWINDON WORKS letters sparkle!
• Adam and Richard swept up!
• Sam was on cobweb commission!
• While Charles, who met us at the tunnel, got busy with the dust pan and brush.
• Meanwhile, Mike took photos, and did a little dusting with the most colourful duster possible!

The tunnel's caretaker also helped us out!

We even made some friends with some creepy crawlies - check out the photos for an epic worm while Adam was doing some additional de-weeding.

We were soon done and dusted, and everything was looking shipshape and Bristol (st) fashion!

We helped Karen with the cleaning kit back to her car, and off we went - either running home, or walking back to Tesco!

Want more GoodGym gorgeousness? Next week, we're Weeding and Planting in the Remembrance Garden at the Prospect Hospice

Regular Community Missions are going on to support the Steam Vaccine Centre!

Or get involved with some of our life-changing work with older people, either via Missions or by pairing with a coach

It was great to be back helping out at STEAM 🚂 again, but what a different experience this time around compared to when I last volunteered back in early June. It was a little more frantic today, with younger people in the queue and many attending the 'Pfizer walk-in clinic' wanting their Vaccine Passports before going on their summer holidays. My job was not only to welcome people through the doors and offer out some industrial strength hand sanitiser 😷 but also to check that those wanting their second vaccine had waited at least eight weeks between jabs. This was not always the case so unfortunately it meant some people being turned away temporarily. It's a very busy and interesting job being 'on the door'; for a brief moment I felt like a security guard without the required height!

I had a great morning which went by very quickly, probably because it was very busy with a lot to do! I enjoyed chatting to the other volunteers, some of who are very experienced and volunteer at STEAM every week; others, like myself volunteering every so often. Almost anyone can volunteer at the Vaccination Clinic and I would highly recommend it, even if you only do so once. It gives you a great insight as to what goes on behind the scenes and is very rewarding so keep an eye on the GoodGym Swindon website - we have a regular Community Mission at STEAM so do sign up if you can make it one week. Hope to see you there very soon 💉.

Both the sun and GoodGymmers were out in force this week volunteering at the Covid-19 vaccination centre in Swindon's STEAM museum. It was great to see the STEAM museum back open to the public, with lots of people combining getting their vaccine with a trip to the museum or a bit of shopping in the outlet village! This week we had to cope with high temperatures and no shade, but as always we got on with the task at hand, armed with plenty of water, suncream & hats. Luckily the centre is equipped with air-conditioning, so those of us volunteering inside had a much easier time. It doesn't feel long since these run reports mentioned frozen fingers & toes... you have to love the changeable British weather!

A huge thank you to all our regulars who give their time week after week to keep the roll-out of the vaccines running smoothly, helping us take a hugely important step back towards normality again.