It was a night of firsts last night....the first run of 2020, the first time GoodGym Huddersfield has helped with an charity Christmas tree collection and also the first time we had run a little further than expected to somewhere outside Kirklees to do a job.

Admittedly it wasn’t too far over the boundary into Calderdale, just across the M62 in a field at Bradley Woods Scout Camp. It was here that the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice had deposited all the redundant Christmas trees their willing volunteers had collected over the past couple of days. And this wasn’t just a few either, the field was full of about 200 trees all dumped in a higgildy piggildy fashion. GoodGym’s mission should we choose to accept it (which of course we did) was to create some order in the chaos and drag the trees to the top of the field and stack them neatly ready for chipping.

Seven of us had made the slightly further than expected 5K run from the Stadium up to the Scout Camp, helped on the climb up Bradford Road by a significant tail wind. Mild and wild were definitely the conditions of the night, and with the temperature reaching an unseasonal 12C we were certainly not cold. The task's semi rural location gave us a lovely view of the clouds blowing across the moon and stars in the January sky.

But there wasn’t time to be admiring the moon, stars or anything else, as there was a job to be done. 200 trees to shift and only about 45 minutes to do so. We were soon on with the task dragging trees across the field and stacking them into an ever growing wall of conifers. Our resident tree expert Ben Godfrey explained that Christmas trees were actually conifers as they produce cones...so there you go, GoodGym is not simply a good workout it’s educational too!

The task also gave us chance for a chat and to catch up with one another following the Christmas break. But we had to talk as we laboured, it was going to be a tall order if we were to complete the job before we had to head for home at 8pm. However slowly and steadily our neat stack, 3 to 4 trees high grew until it became a veritable barrier of trees spanning almost the entire width of the field.

The Charity Christmas Tree Collection is an annual fundraiser for Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice. After Christmas local people book online and pay donation to have their unwanted trees taken away, volunteers drive around in vans collecting them, GoodGym neatly sort them and finally Bradley Scout Camp chip them and use the chippings to surface their paths. Recycling, raising money for a good cause and giving GoodGym a job to do....perfect....everyone is a winner!

Anyway after 45 minutes of dragging, lifting and stacking the trees we were done. All 200 trees were neatly stacked and 7 GoodGymmers had had a great workout. It was a shame the field was so dark as the resultant wall of conifers looked quite impressive, it would have been good to see the results (and get some photographs) of our labours in daylight. Well pleased with our efforts the GoodGym crew headed home via a 5K route through Bradley Woods. A total of 10K makes this our longest run to date, well done folks!

Thanks to all last night’s GoodGymmers, Kati Law, Ben Godfrey, Wendy Redmile, Zena Whalley, David Bilton and Richard Byrne. Thanks also to Louise Addison from Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice for arranging the job, what a great start to the GoodGym year!