It is beginning to look like Christmas and so this week 13 GoodGym runners helped the community as part of a fun festive-themed task. We ran to London Road and made goodie-bags for both humans and canines. The bags will be given as Christmas gifts to homeless and vulnerable people that are based in and around Bath. We then headed to The Hunstman for a Christmas social to celebrate a fantastic year with GoodGym Bath.

Welcome, Chloe!

Last night we met inside the leisure centre because of the rain. We welcomed a new runner, Chloe, to the group. Thanks for coming along last night and we hope you will join us again! I shared the news that there are no Group Runs on 24th and 31st December and reminded people about our final task OF THE DECADE next Tuesday. I hope we see you there! The rain had stopped (nearly!) by the time we were due to leave and after a warm up we were on our way!

We ran to The Gateway House on Snow Hill. We were helping The Together Project, a charity based in Bath that is run by one of our GoodGym runners. The project runs regular clinics for homeless and vulnerable people in Bath and provides free veterinary care for their pets. They cover everything from vaccinations to flea-removal. They are a fantastic organisation who we are glad to support. Our task was to create some goodie-bags for humans and for dogs to help them over the Christmas period.

The volunteers had laid out a table with mountains of food, toys and equipment and we got stuck in! We created bags for men, women and dogs ... taking care not to mix them up! The food and toys we had at our disposal had all been donated by local charities, so there was a real mixture. Some of the most interesting items included pet-prosecco and fancy 'chicken and pumpkin rice' dinners for pets.

In total we made over 30 bags which will be handed out during the next few weeks at the clinics. What an achievement!

Thanks!

Thanks so much to Nicola for hosting us and arranging all of the treats and equipment for us. Thanks to the Genesis Trust for letting us use their space for the task. Thanks to Steph for backmarking for us and thanks to Rachel for the awesome Christmas pun!

This week we delivered flyers for The Together Project to advertise their charity cèilidh. We delivered a whopping 550 flyers around Widcombe and Holloway. There were 16 of us in total and we ran 4.5km.

This was the first time this year we met outside the Leisure Centre because of the light evening and the mild weather. What a treat! I gave a short introduction to the task and Nicola, who founded and runs The Together Project, gave an overview of the work the charity does and more information about the cèilidh.

Charity cèilidh

A cèilidh, Nicola explained, is a form of Gaelic dancing where an instructor in the front leads the dance by announcing instructions. It is a really fun way to get people of all ages together and it is a great form of exercise.

The Together Project

The Together Project provides free veterinary care to cats and dogs owned by homeless and vulnerable people in Bath. The volunteers run a free clinic every two weeks at Julian House. This is a fantastic community resource that has massive benefits both for the pets and their owners. All proceeds of the cèilidh will go towards keeping the project running in Bath by providing vaccinations and medications for the animals.

Join the cèilidh!

The event is being held at St Mark's Community Centre in Widcombe on Saturday 9th March at 7pm. See more info here.

Cut us some slack!

The first part of our task was using scissors to cut up the flyers and get them into piles so we could hold them while we ran. There was some fantastic team work with some holding big blocks of paper and others cutting the flyers to A5 size.

Come fly-er with me, let's flyer-let's flyer awayyyyyyy!

We split into two groups for this flyering task. I lead a group of runners part of the way up Ralph Allen Drive. We flyered along the side roads and then went down Church Street to connect with Widcombe Hill. After delivering flyers along the hill and some of the shops on Widcombe Parade we then flyered along The Tyning - where we enjoyed some spectacular views across the city - and then finished our route with some houses on Great Pultney Road.

Catrin and the wild goose chase of '19!

Catrin got to the Leisure Centre a few minutes after we left and she valiantly chased us around the hills of Widcome to try and catch us up. After an evening of wild goose chasing, she managed to find us and we made sure that she had the honour of delivering our final flyer! Well done for your perseverance Catrin!

Fly(er)ing up those hills!

Emily lead another group of runners around the lower parts of Holloway and Bear Flat. The group snaked their way around the hilly roads at the heart of Widcombe to deliver flyers to the houses around there.

Thanks!

Thanks so much to Nicola for thinking of us and arranging for the flyers to be printed. We really enjoyed it and look forward to working with The Together Project again! Thanks enormously to Emily for volunteering to lead a group and thanks to Joe for the pun this week!

Upcoming runs

• On Thursday we are heading to St Jame's Wine Vaults for our monthly pub quiz. Sign up here!
• Running the Bath Half? We have an 18km training run this Sunday.
• Next week we are gardening at Action on Hearing Loss. Sign up here!

Social Media

Please like/follow us on social media and share/retweet our content! We are on Facebook and Twitter.

Organisations have already reached out to us using these platforms which means we can orgnaise more varied tasks for you to enjoy!

We created some Christmas stockings and filled them with donated canine essentials like food and toys. These will be distributed to members of the homeless population at a free veterinary clinic run by The Together Project based in Bath. Some of us then headed to The Boater for some food and a Christmas drink to celebrate all we have achieved this year at GoodGym.

Some boot-iful stockings

After meeting at the Leisure Centre and a quick warm-up we headed to the Girlguiding headquarters on Walcott Street. They kindly offered to let us use their space as our workshop for this task. The task was organised through one of our longstanding GoodGym members, Nicola, who started and now runs The Together Project with other volunteer vets.

We helped Nicola carry supplies from the car and then she introduced the task to us and told us more about the project. The team run a free clinic for dogs every other Tuesday afternoon. They are based at Julian House on Manvers Street. The dogs that the project work with often live on the street and sadly don't get many treats or toys. Our hard work will bring some joy and happiness to these dogs and, in turn, their owners over Christmas.

Running stitches

The first part of the process was cutting the stockings from some thick red material. We then used our dexterity to sew up the stockings (remembering to stitch the inside and not the outside!) making sure that the gaps between the stitches wern't too large. One team had already sorted the variety of donated food and toys into small piles, so it was easy to turn our stockings outside-in and fill them with goodies.

Mary, Queen of Stocks

Some of the group then added some custom decorations to their stocking. There were lots of great and colourful designs on display. One particularly awesome one was the Christmas pudding made by Mary. Amazing!

Christmas social!

We the headed to The Boater for a Christmas meal. It was a fun way to end the evening and reflect back on all we have achieved this year. It was also great to see the array of Christmas jumpers and festive accessories on display!

Thanks! Thank you so much to Nicola for organising and facilitating this task for us! Thanks to Chris for volunteering to backmark (and with such enthusiasm!) and thanks to Emily for the pun this week!

Next Week

We are running to Odd Down to write some Christmas cards for a community Christmas meal. This is the last Group Run of 2018! Sign up here!

Socials

We are heading to The Brew House to watch one of our GoodGym team and her band play some Christmas tunes. More info here.

Sign up here for the first Boater pub quiz of 2019!

Social Media

Please like/follow us on social media and share/retweet our content! We are on Facebook and Twitter.

Organisations are already getting in contact with us through these platforms and this means we are securing more varied tasks for you to enjoy!