Maybe we should *skip* the puns this week

21 Goodgymers helped their local community in Cardiff
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Cardiff

Tuesday 2nd October 2018

Report written by Benjamin Annear

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21 GoodGym runners ran to St Edwards Church to clear the basement of debris so that the Forget-me-Not charity can store their gardening tools there

Runners arrived swiftly into the Big Moose Cafe for the evening's run. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw Chloe from Big Moose bring over some delicious looking cake; it was definitely hard to resist the cake until after the run... "please just a crumb..."... The temptation was strong but everyone managed to resist!

This week we had 4 new runners!!A huge welcome to Chay, Charlotte, Matt (from We Make Good Happen) and Mathew! We love having new people come along to GoodGym; Mathew was Welsh Dave's friend, and because Welsh Dave brought along a friend, he earned himself 1 red lace! Cheers all around!... He said it was like Christmas come early. Sue has now reached 50 good deeds too... hooray! She was awarded with a badge which she plans to wear at work and on nights out! What a hero!

After a quick warm up jog, jumping about, touching the ground and shaking all about we did the hokey cokey and got on our way!

Time to run to the task!

Ben led the runners who wanted a beastly workout. He led the runners up Pen-Y-Lan hill and back down an adjacent road and then headed towards the church. Welsh Dave, carrying a bag full of portable floodlights and gloves, backmarked the speedy group. Well done to Chay who joined the speedy runners despite it being his first run with GoodGym!

Ellen led the 'sexy runners'; The sexy runners are the runners who wanted to run at a more graceful pace, paying more attention to their form and technique, they headed straight to the task.

Welcome GoodGym to St Edwards Church, the venue where Forget-me-Not meets

Every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm to 4pm the Forget-me-Not charity and support group meet at St Edward's church. The charity provides a friendly and welcoming environment, suitable for people with memory problems and their carers also people recovering from a stroke or people who feel isolated and vulnerable. They offer various activities: puzzles, games, books and music, arts and crafts, “a stroll down memory lane” and singalongs. They even provide attendees with a cup of tea/coffee and piece of cake. There is no charge to attend, but a nominal donation of £1 requested for the refreshments.

Kathie told us about how they have recently received funding from Age Cymru to help improve on what they currently offer. They used some of the funding to hire a skip and this is where us GoodGym volunteer runners come in, our task was to take everything up from the basement and put it into the skip so that the basement can be used to store gardening equipment for their future gardening projects.

Kathie also mentioned to us about the church ghost!.. OoOoOoOo, It was definitely beginning to feel like halloween month! Can you spot the ghost in the photos?

After hearing about this fantastic charity we couldn't wait to get stuck in and help out. Immediately we formed a chain with some runners in the basement, some on the steps and some by the skip. A whole manner of objects were lifted from the basement including a lawn mower, old tables, metal frames, wooden triangles, parts from an old fireplace and more! Matt got stuck straight into the task, lifting items from the basement with Rosie and passing them to runners on the steps. Chay was then putting them into the skip with help from Keira and other GoodGymmers. Emma even found Thors hammer!! 🛠. Aimee and Ellen did a spot of litter picking, filling 1 bag of litter and covering over half a mile in distance - Well done ladies!!

After a speedy 25 minutes of helping out the task was complete!

Thank you so much GoodGym for your help

Kathie and her partner thanked us all for our hard efforts and we thanked them for giving us a #ReasonToRun. Mikey then led the run back and Aimee and Emma both backmarked. We ran back with our heads held high, not just because we were proud of ourselves for helping out, but because it enables a good flow of oxygen to enter the lungs for efficient running!

Well done to Andrew who has again come up trumps and came up with this week's pun for the run - Well done Andrew... very innovative!!! You've won the virtual award for a second week running. Keep it safe, you've earned it :) Don't forget to hand it back next week.

Don't forget folks!


Session Leader
This task supported
Forget-me-not Cafe and gardening club
Cafe open for 2 hours a week [but grounds always open] for people living with dementia and their cares, people recovering from stroke, those who are at risk of becoming isolated or lonely

We provide a safe, friendly space for people to meet, have musical entertainment, play table tennis, play draughts, chat, colour, do some art and now wish to extend to provide gardening as therapy. To the latter end we need to clear out a cellar of various bits of rubbish and make it into a storeroom for pots, gardening equipment etc.

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Attendees
Michael
Emma Wilkins
Benjamin Annear
Ellen
Su Fernandez
Lowri Davies
Aimee Giles
Adam
Rosie
David McCullough
Keira
Nic
Owen Mather
Andrew Skelton
Marion
David Ainslie
Chay Kinvac
Charlotte Ross
Sophie Hughes
Mathew
Matt Callanan
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