Three runners from GoodGym met on a sunny afternoon in early August to offer a helping hand to a local charity in Windsor and Maidenhead.

Thames Valley Hospice is a charity that raises funds in a variety of ways, including sponsoring, organising local events, gardening appeals and their online and offline stores. This allows them to offer end of life support to individuals within many of their hospices, located across the county. This specific store, situated in the heart of Windsor, is split across two. One side is their traditional Thames Valley store, recycling previously loved items to new homes. The other side, a specialist vintage store, showcases pre-loved garments, antiques and collectors’ items at bargain prices that would make David Dickinson proud of the real deals.

This was GoodGym’s second good deed organised in Windsor. Claire, Ana and Allora met within the store to offer support for the workers on shop floor and to help out where possible. Greeted by shop manager Trudie and her assistant Julie, the GoodGym team were shown the ropes before they were set free to get stuck in.

Pun and Dusted

Claire was taken under Julie’s wing to begin cleaning and dusting the shop floor within the Vintage side of the specialist store. Claire worked carefully to remove the antiques off each of the shelves, clean the shelves and replace them.

Full Steam Ahead

Ana and Allora were situated within the stock room. Their task was to prepare stock to be taken out onto shop floor. They worked hard to separate piles of donations for the regular items for the Thames Hospice store and the vintage items, each hung onto different coloured hangers. This was depending on whether the item was in season, matching this month’s specific summery colour palette or straight from the 80s. They were shown how to manage the industrial steamer and labelling gun. Items had to be hung, cubed, tagged and steamed, ready for Trudie to check and send out.

Halfway through Ana and Allora swapped with Claire. Allora and Ana had a go at cleaning shop floor while Claire offered assistance with working through the piles of donations that had been delivered to the store that morning. An hour and a half of work was completed, and the group were happy with the support they had offered, not a dusty shelf in sight.

If organising is something you enjoy doing or if you fancy learning how to use an industrial steamer, tag gun, or get a sneak peek at the bargains Thames Hospice stores have to offer before their items are released onto shop floor, Trudie is keen for GoodGym to offer regular support for the two stores, so check out the community missions in Windsor and Maidenhead and sign up to get involved!

**Thanks to Allora for writing her first run report - great work! **

(that bit was added by Amy)