Saturday 20th July 2019
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Find out about GoodGym TaskForce
Report written by Andrew Robson
This has to have been the wettest and most magnificent community mission we've had so far!
Apologies for the lack of GoodGym shirts in the pictures! We had to quickly ditch our GoodGym shirts in favour of Pride shirts and high vis.
Debbie and I were first to arrive and quickly joined in with any jobs that needed doing before the parade started. We set up tables, we put away tables, we took leaflets to the information point, we took leaflets back where we got them from because the information point was removed. It was a real workout!
Evan and Tom arrived soon after and caught the tail end of table carrying. Tom completed the double today of his first parkrun (although no barcode!) and his first community mission! It was also Evan's 49th good deed - we are going to be seeing another black shirt very soon!
Dan arrived soon after, he didn't have a GoodGym shirt to ditch as he was dressed up in a shirt. He quickly tore this off his body and donned a Pride shirt with the rest of the team!
With the setup tasks out the way, we headed down to the start of the parade. Then the heavens opened! This must have been one of the wettest parades in history. With limited instructions on what we should be doing, we just got in the parade and made sure everything was running smooth. We all got a bit split up being pulled off to perform various tasks to keep everything moving. Our main job was protecting the military band, making sure they had enough space to keep playing.
At one point Tom managed to stop the entire parade to make sure the band had enough space to continue. That's the power of high vis. It was a surreal and magnificent experience and I'm glad we had the opportunity to do this! Huge thanks to Aimee for organising.
Once the parade was over and we were back at the town moor, we had to collect our things. A huge queue had gathered by this point but the power of high vis proved itself again as we entered through the VIP section like the very important people we are.
Many loves.
They are our LGBT+ charity, working to support, engage and assist the North East gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer community. Through their yearly programme of events and outreach work, we champion the pride cause across the North East region and beyond.
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