Tuesday 27th November 2018
Report written by Benjamin Annear
It’s Tuesday I hear you say? Yes, that’s right! It’s Tuesday and that can only mean one thing… It’s GoodGym day.
A great turnout at GoodGym Cardiff tonight with a whopping 24 runners making an appearance – You are amazing! We started our run with a headcount and by shouting out our favourite fruit. There were plenty of kiwi, banana and mango lovers amongst us... and now the whole of queen street know! Does anyone know why the banana went to the doctors? It wasn’t peeling well – I know, I know, comedy gold – You’ll find me at Glee Club sometime in the future. Feeling warm, ripe (nice inserted reference to fruit) and ready, we had no more time to waste.
This evening we banana split ourselves into two groups to run to the task; Darren, who did his hair especially for this evening’s run was, of course, leading the sexy runners. Ben led the speedy runners. The sexy runners, flaunting their running legs, took a direct route to the task whilst the speedy runners, not flaunting their legs as much, stopped to do press-ups, star jumps and squat jumps – Martin said he was tired so this was the plan to wake him up! He claimed it didn't work but we didn't see another yawn out of him!
Welcome to the YMCA you amazing GoodGym lot
Tony invited us into the store and greeted us with a warm welcome. There was no messing around with Tony and he was quick to let us know what our task would be that evening. He said we had to put small cubes that corresponded with the size of the clothes onto the correct hangers…. “No problem” we all said and quickly everyone got stuck straight in... Weeeeeee.
Lowri caught sign of the card game ‘Stare’. She took the name of the game quite literally and was captivated by it, staring at the box for what must have been 10 minutes. Darren began riding on a child’s rocking horse… living the dream. Matt from Let’s Make Good Happen had his picture taken with a teenage mutant ninja turtle - New profile photo? Mike was back for his second run with GoodGym and he appeared to love this week’s task, really relishing in the opportunity to do good! Both Molly and Katy tried out the sofa, their verdict was that it was so comfortable that they struggled to get up from it... Unfortunately for the sofa has already been sold. There is also a photo of Owen with a new friend he met at the YMCA and Lewis with Peppa pig!
After 30 minutes of helping out Tony was pleased with everyone’s efforts. He said “you’ve done exactly what we wanted and it’s great all the clothes now have sizing cubes on their hangers”. Tony then invited us to stay an extra 5 minutes to have mince pies and a group photo before we headed back.... Oh go on then, if you insist ;) Aware that it isn’t long until Christmas and that it is unlikely we will be visiting the YMCA before then, we all said Nadolig Llawen to Tony when we left and thanked him for giving us an AWESOME reason to run.
The time has come to run back
We began the run back to town as one group and then split into smaller sub groups, regrouping at the Big Moose Café at the end of the run. Whilst doing our warm down exercises we reflected on evening's run which we all agreed was absolutely great fun! A successful #GivingTuesday run if I do say so myself!
Unsure about getting involved? Just come along :) Everyone is friendly and we make sure nobody gets left behind!!
Don’t forget folks…
So in summary, there is lots of stuff going on that you can get involved with!
The Cardiff YMCA Housing Association is a charitable Housing Association and a Registered Social Landlord. They are registered with the Welsh Government and we directly manage board and lodge hostels in the Roath area of Cardiff. They provide Accommodation for nearly 120 homeless people in Cardiff with the belief that everyone should have a safe place to stay. Their residents receive the support they need in order to achieve and sustain the transition into independent living. They provide opportunities through our Retail shops and recycling unit for our residents and volunteers alike. They raise money through fundraising and their retail stores.
See moreWed 28th Nov 2018 at 10:55am
A fun night as usual.
Cardiff
Experience a glimpse of goodgym, then come to volunteer at a later task