On a chilly Sunday morning three GoodGymers made their way to the Town Moor to help with the junior parkrun, all as marshals. Well done to Lucy on gaining her first parkrun volunteer credit and to Aimee for showing as much enthusiasm in requisitioning the selfie frame at the end for a group photo as she did supporting the 67 junior parkrunners!

We completed our monthly Community Mission this morning to provide volunteers for Junior parkrun on the Town Moor.

This has definitely become a great event to be involved in as it has such a fun and friendly atmosphere, as Families are able to run together. Our help is always massively appreciated by the organisers.

There were 13 of us in total which is an amazing turnout (Myself, Michael, Louise, Aimee B, Nick, Abi, Dan, Rachel, Andrew, Katy, Emma, Amy I and James) Shout out to Abi and Nick, as it was their first Community Mission and a welcome back to James on his 2nd good deed)

We all met outside the cafe in Exhibition Park and walked across to the Volunteers briefing. We could not believe how good the weather was (Sunny and warm!) Previously we seemed to be jinxed by the Weather with it either being freezing cold, foggy or windy.

The volunteers briefing is always well organised, everybody was given a lanyard (with instructions on) and a whistle and the all the positions were clearly explained. The most important bit of the briefing was to have our best high five and cheers ready!

A variety of roles were completed including marshaling, funnel manager, finish tokens and tail walker.

Afterwards we all enjoyed breakfast and a good catch up in the cafe afterwards (Amy and James ordered what looked like the best ice creams!)

We will definitely be back to help again in June!

This was our 3rd successful Community Mission, helping at Junior parkrun on the Town Moor, Newcastle.

They always let us know that they really appreciate our help to fill their volunteer roster (which can be quite empty at times) although the friendly Volunteer co-ordinator (We were impressed that she always remembers our names!) joked that can we try and bring some better weather with us! (So far we've had gales, thick fog, cold and more strong winds)

Andrew and Amy were there first at Exhibition Park, shortly followed by myself (Charlotte) running along behind. Andrew had signed up to marshal, Amy was tail runner and I was to be barcode scanning at the finish. It really was blowing gales and absolutely freezing but thankfully we managed to shelter before we walked over to our different positions (all well explained before the start).

There were just over 90 young runners , running with their grown ups which is absolutely amazing considering the weather conditions. There is a free and friendly competition at the start between the volunteers, that if you guess correctly, or are the nearest to, the number of finishers, you win a free coffee at the end (I think we definitely all underestimated!)

We all really enjoyed ourselves as it is such a well organised and fun event. Afterwards we went to warm up and chat over well deserved hot drinks

In our conversation, we discovered that Andrew is actually a qualified Table Tennis Umpire (that will definitely come in useful for the Social tomorrow night!), Amy's Dad was awarded a medal for napkin folding and I thought I would add that I have a Coaching qualification in Dodgeball. Inspired by the napkin folding, Andrew and Amy had great delight in attempting to fold their own napkins.

We will be back to help Junior parkrun on 19th May (it should be warmer by then!) I really hope that we can get a large group together and fill their roster. I will aim to book a table nearby for anyone interested afterwards to enjoy catching up over Brunch

We had such a brilliant morning helping out again at Junior parkrun on the Town Moor (Newcastle)

Charlotte and Amy were there first to meet just outside the Cafe in Exhibition Park. They were shortly followed by Louise and Andrew, Katy, Ross, Rachel and Dan.

Big kudos to Amy for completing her first Community Mission! (I’m sure it will be first of many!)

We all had a short walk together to the volunteer briefing which is excellent at Junior parkrun and so well organised. We all had a variety of roles, including scanning parkrun barcodes at the finish line, tail walker and marshalling.

We all picked up our high viz, and at Junior parkrun you also get a lanyard which has emergency contact details on, a little map and explaination of each role, and a whistle in case help is required.

We got a big thank you from the Run Director at the beginning. They were very grateful for the help of GoodGym Newcastle to fill the roles/Volunteer Roster.

Each position is so well explained, and they had organised the marshal points so that they were close enough together as it was so foggy!

Everyone had great fun in giving their support, encouragement, cheering and lots of high fives.

I think everyone’s favourite was picking a musical instrument to shake and make lots of noise! (this is just a fun option to choose if you like) to help with cheering on, for example with a Tambourine (Great fun!)

We will definitely be back at Junior parkrun, so come along and join us in March!

(Thanks Carol-Anne for the pun!!)

We had an absolutely brilliant time helping out at Junior parkrun in the Town Moor on Sunday morning.

Junior parkrun is great as it takes place on a Sunday, and it is 2km in length which encourages children and their parents to enjoy running togther.

There were a variety of volunteer roles to choose from. Dan was one of the Barcode Scanners at the finish, Louise was handing out finish tokens, Carol Anne and Rachel were marshals (and definitely the loudest with their cheering musical instruments!) and Charlotte was tail walker (standard and definitely a favourite position on any run)

The volunteer co-ordinator was really welcoming, friendly and helpful, explaining all our roles, what we needed to do and showing us where we needed to be.

It was a great success, really enjoyable, and we will be back again soon!