On a chilly winter evening 11 GoodGym volunteers ran to St John's, an independent living space in central Bath, to put up Christmas decorations for the residents ahead of their Winter Fete and Chritmas parties. It was a great way to get into the festive spirit and put a smile on people's faces. We did a great job and our hosts were really pleased with what we achieved!

Before the run I went through some upcoming events. We might have a Community Mission helping to clear the grounds of a school in Odd Down at the weekend, please be on the lookout on the listings and in my weekly email! Next week we have another great Christmas-themed task and our GoodGym Bath Christmas social afterwards. It would be great to see you there!

On with the task: It was only a short run along the river last night in contrast to all the longer and hilly runs we have been doing recently, and we were glad to be able to spend more time at the task doing good!

We have been to help St John's before and we were delighted to be back again to help a great asset in our community. We broke off into small teams to cover their shared spaces and entrance hall with Christmas cheer! Lots of the staff and volunteers are busy people who don't have a lot of time to put up decorations and lots of the residents aren't able to do decorate, so our help made a huge difference.

1 task, 4 Trees!

Allie and Rachel embraced the task of putting up the tall Christmas tree in the entrance hall. It was a tougher job than expected but they managed it in the end and it looked great! Whether it looked better than the effort last year was fiercely debated. Chris L and Phoebe assembled and decorated two Christmas trees in the resident's lounge. And Chris D and Richard worked together to put up person-sized Christmas tree in the cafe area and covered it in an obscene amount of chains and tinsel! Love it!

Tim, Emily, Nicola, Max and me spent most of the evening putting up tinsel, chains and hanging decorations all around the main cafe area. This is where the Christmas events are going to be hosted and it was really satisfying to make it feel happy and festive.

We will be back in January to take the decorations down for the residents. This is our first session back after the Christmas break and it will be a good way to get back into running again!

Thanks!

Thanks to the staff, volunteers and the Resident's Association at St John's for arranging for us to come along and help out. We had a great time!