Tonight 17 eager goodgymers took to the evening to help out at our old friend of a Charity - the Y.M.C.A

It had been a few years (thanks pandemic) since we had been about to help, so the task was well overdue.

In a few groups we made our way, runners, walk/joggers and walkers heading a good 6km to the task location on Colchester Avenue. There was plenty to do upon our arrival, a mountain of donations just waiting for our help. Bags were ripped open as garments were checked and inspected to see if they passed the test.

If they looked good enough to keep they were sorted;

• Kids
• Womens
• Mens
• Non-Clothes (books etc.)

There were more bins to fill but by now I was busy with my new friend HENRY as we cleaned the floors, shouting countdowns to the sorting crew. We also had our bed builders - Martin and Marie, busy creating a lovely bed.

As the final shout out was made, the sorting was called to an end and it was time for a quick group photo.

We will be back again in a few weeks to help out with the sorting some more.

As part of the The Great Get Together 10 goodgymers met in the local park for a litter pick. 5 have just taken part in the social run so a nice walk was a lovely change of pace.

The Great Get Together is inspired by the late Jo Cox MP, who was killed on 16th June 2016. In her first speech in Parliament, Jo said: “We have more in common than that which divides us.”

Showing that we have #MoreInCommon we made our way through the park to make it a little better for everyone that uses it. We found a dolls head, tidied up the river bank, cleaned up one of the busiest parts that day.

We stopped for coffee and some snacks, and received a lot of thanks from random strangers this day. It was a great way to celebrate the message #MoreInCommon. With our final helping stranger taking our group photo and giving us the report title. By saying smile you rubbish heroes, i mean Rubbish Heroes, not rubbish......heroes.

8 litter bags filled and the message of goodgym shared with park goers. We even went to Bigmoose for some drinks after!

On a lovely sunny Saturday morning, six goodgym runners headed to the Hindu Community Centre in Grangetown to help out Food for Life Wales. Food For Life Wales is a project by Ty Krishna Cymru that was started over 20 years ago to feeding those in need in South Wales. During the pandemic they started helping by mainly delivering daily meal deliveries to those who were self-isolating. They have now expanded to help people with physical and/or mental health conditions and also those who may be struggling financially.

Once everyone arrived, we put on our masks, aprons and even hair nets so we could start helping getting over 500 meals ready! A massive amount of curry and rice had been cooked by other volunteers, which was waiting to get packed up. We formed a curry packing conveyer belt with; Flo and Lowri on rice, Alison and Imy on curry and Martin and Charlotte were lid sealers.

Despite the tray of rice being the size of small surf board and having over four huge buckets of curry, we flew through packing it all up. We then helped with the cleaning, mopping and hoovering before we all headed off. A few goodgymers also helped washing up all the big pans. They were impressed that instead of using standard wooden spoons, an actual oar was used to stir the curries!

It was a busy couple of hours and lovely to catch up with other goodgymers. It was also a key mission for Alison as it was her first ever Good Deed!! She had previously joined in with Goodgym Cardiff's virtual events from her home in North East England. It was great she could take part when down in Cardiff for the weekend.

Credit to Martin for the pun!