At our regular visit to Care4Calais this afternoon, Richard came to his first GoodGym task. He was looking to try different volunteering opportunities, which is one of the benefits of GoodGym, variety! Welcome Richard and we look forward to seeing you at future sessions 🎉👏.

There was lots of donation sorting to do today, which Richard powered through with Kash and Sevan. Initially, the trio were sorting and sizing women's clothes until the balance in the bags swung more towards men's donations. Kash then joined Tamzin in preparing custom packs for recipients while Richard and Sevan stayed to work through the men's clothes.

The men's donations pile was extra large, both in the number of items to sort and the sizing of the clothes it contained. As Richard and Sevan sorted, the towers of XL clothes grew so large that they toppled over and had to be found a new home.

The incoming donations contained some surprises, including many fashionable but impractical handbags, some Metropolitan Police shirts and trousers, dress shirts and a suitcase full of... well... suits. None of those was particularly helpful for Care4Calais' clients so they'll be donated to charity. There was also a mystery as to who could have owned a stash of colourful cords that were discovered and how to find an adventurous new owner for them 🤔.

To wrap up the session, Richard and Sevan used their freshly organised clothes to prepare some standard men's packs. The whole team then moved as much of the new stock as they could into the storage room, leaving Tamzin to find space for the glut of new, larger clothing.

If you want to discover surprising donations and help provide clothing to refugees in need, we'll be back working with Care4Calais on the 22nd of November. Sign up here.