This evening was our first group run for a while and it lovely running while still light ☀️.

Wayne , Anne, & Alys, along with Quinn met at the leisure centre and ran up the hill to the local foodbank at the lighthouse.

Rebecca, & Julie met us at the foodbank as they were coming straight from work. It was nice to see Allison again who runs the foodbank as it was our first visit back in a while.

We quickly distributed our roles for the evening. Wayne & Julie were on sweeping and hoovering duties while Anne & Rebecca followed behind with their mops. Alys with her cloths was on wipe down 😄 with Quinn supervising us all 🐶.

Rebecca who is currently training for the London Marathon has her final longish run this weekend before the big day 🏃🏼‍♂️ we all wish her well and will be following her on the day.

Anne continues with her training for the San Fransisco marathon, Anne has really been getting the miles in 🏃🏼‍♂️ keep going Anne.

In no time we had given the foodbank a deep clean the smelled and looked good. 😄

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the Leisure Centre.

Keep an eye out for more tasks which will be listed soon.

Last night we headed to the Foodbank to help pack up the bags for Chrismtas.

We had a great turn out with members and welcomed Victoria to her first GoodGym Group run experience. Well done to Rachel, James, Adam and Anne ran just over 4km to Knaphill Food bank in the Landsbury estate. The obviously had the run back.

It started off an eventful night with Anne and Lauren getting locked in the porridge cupboard and Sharon, Rosie and Rebecca being lost in the car park.

Once we were all ready we had 55 bags to load, we started by getting all the goods in crates. We were all assigned a good to pack and got in a line, with Kirsty starting the Conveyor belt it made it down the line to be taken into reception ready to be given out to those in need.

Last night was out last session of 2023 and my last offical Group run as area activator. I will be helping out in the background until a new activator can take over but due to personal reasons I will not be able to continue.

Remember to join in for the first session in January - more sessions will be appearing soon for you to sign up to.

Have a Wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Adam, Ben, James and I met for a 5 k run with Woking Run Company before meeting Wayne and Holly at the Woking Food Bank.

We were all impressed to hear that, despite fasting for Ramadan, Wayne ran from home to take part in this week’s Group Run. Needless to say that he rushed back home to eat after smelling the fresh bread, bananas and seeing all the food on display.

Contrary to a mention related to cleaning and men on last week’s report, the men did not hesitate to handle hoovers, broom, brush and pan as well as mops. The fridge was like new once Wayne, Adam and Ben dealt with it. Adam and Ben are now the kings of mopping while Holly and James are experts at hovering floors. I had the easy job of wiping all the working surfaces and tables in the café.

Allison was proud to show us the fantastic display of prom dresses, shoes, and accessories to be donated to young ladies who could not, otherwise, be able to attend their prom night. What fantastic schemes are organised in the Lighthouse.

Once the cleaning was over, we all ran back home or to the pub.

On Sunday we will meet at Woking Park to support junior parkrun and next Wednesday our group run is at the RSPCA where GoodGym will be launching their partnership with Raleigh.

See you there!

Remember Blazin' Squad? The 00s hip hop group with at least 10 members.

That's what GoodGym was like on Wednesday night as the whole crew descended on the food bank to undertake a community mission.

The popularity of the food bank mission is obviously due to the fact it is tangibly doing good in the Woking community by alleviating food poverty. It may also have something to do with the fact it is indoors and warm on a dark and cold January evening.

Nevertheless we all got stuck in to the various jobs in perfect hip hop harmony. Adam, Ben and New James did a fantastic job of cleaning the floor.

Wayne and Becky had the mucky task of cleaning out the fridge including a split bottle of milk.

Anne and Lauren cleaned the baking area followed by the toilets with the assistance of New James. Mia hoovered the entire ground floor. Holly took the role of lead singer and kept us all in check (including Jack and Indy).

Not quite sure what James did. Perhaps a backing dancer? To be fair, he emptied a bin.

In any event, the result was a top 10 hit!

Final Wednesday Task Of 2022.. 🎉

This evening myself, Holly, James, Alys, Katie, and Lauren met at one of Woking food banks storage facility to make up Xmas food bags ready for delivering for families in need this Xmas. 🎄

For me it was great being back with the group as I have been recovering from a back injury, it was great seeing everyone.

We had to prepare 86 family bags and 55 single person bags, we had a shopping list of what items needed to go into the bags. It was a slow start but once we figured out where the products were there was no stopping us.

Myself Holly and Katie where on the family bags while Lauren and Alys where on the singles. Once we got into a rhythm there was no stopping us.

James arrived a little late but once he was shown the ropes he was like a machine he did go rogue for a few minutes but was put back on the right path by Holly…. 😂

The bags consisted of many everyday essentials for example Pasta, Cereal, Tea, Beans, Biscuits, and many more...

I switched my roles to the person who had to tie up the bags and make a pretty bow… and then make space for where the bags had to be put.

While busy working away Allison made us all Tea and hot chocolate which warmed us all up on this cold night.

By the end there was hardly any floor space available all you could see where red bags everywhere.

We were told that the Salvation Army would be delivering the food bags to families in need in the area in the coming days.

We do still have one more volunteering task this Sunday at the Junior Park Run, if you are available please sign up as I know plenty o roles are still available.

Hope you all have a fantastic Xmas and will see you all in the New Year….. 🎉

7 GoodGymers braved the rain to take part in the worthy mission that is cleaning Woking food bank.

To be fair, Becky and James walked there from close by and Holly and Katie (with Indie) arrived by car. But Adam, Ben and Sevan were not fair weather and ran to meet us at the food bank.

It was great to welcome Ben for one of his early missions and Sevan who has many missions under his belt. Adam and Katie made a dream team combo of sweeping and mopping the floor.

Sevan made himself popular with the volunteers by cleaning their tea station. Becky got involved in emptying and cleaning the fridge until it all got a bit grubby and then handed over to James and Ben.

Holly is planning a GoodGym get together and spoke to Alison about the Lighthouse Christmas appeal. More information can be found here: http://www.lighthousewoking.org/gift.html A job well done.