We ran to The Nest Project in Bath. We sorted and organised a whole mountain of baby clothes and then ran them up the stairs to put them in storage. This was a really fun task and we were thrilled to rack up a massive 8km of running! Good work everyone!

Welcome Michaela!

After meeting inside the Leisure Centre we formed a large circle outside in the forecourt. We welcomed a new runner, Michaela to the group. She is a keen runner and we were glad to have her enthusiasm to help us on this task! We hope you come back and join us again Michaela! I introduced the task to the group, ran through the risk assessment and then we headed on our way.

Be hoNEST, we were amazing!

The Nest Project is based in Brassmill Enterprise Centre in Lower Weston, near the Locksbrook Inn. Unfortunately it isn't light enough yet to run along the river so we took a route through the town centre, along Upper Bristol Road and then down onto Locksbrook Road. We made it there in good time, ready for our task!

The FunNEST task we have done in ages!

We met our host Pip. She is one of the volunteers who helps coordinate the project and gave us an overview of what the team there do. They receive donations of children's clothes and equipment for ages 0-5years. Anyone from the community can come and ask for clothes, completely free of charge. This is a fantastic charity and a great community asset that we love going back to help.

A new experience for us - we are branching out!

Our task for the evening was to sort a small mountain of donated clothes into different sections, based on gender and age. There were about 10 different categories in the end and we made sure to stay organised with signs on the floor and by placing boy's clothes in front of the plastic tubs and girl's clothes inside the tubs.

We run for dress relief!

Some of the best finds were a pair of purple 'monster-faced' trousers (which Chris wore so well!), a cute Pooh t-shirt modelled by Emily, a very fetching purple sleeveless jacket (attempted to be) worn by Tim and a very colourful dress!

We then ran up the stairs to their storage area to fill their containers with the organised clothes. There are lots of boxes of clothes up there and our hard work will make it even easier for local people to access clothes and equipment for their young ones.

This was a really fun task and we enjoyed looking at how small and cute some of the toddler clothes were! And lots of them are incredibly high quality, so if you know anyone that is looking for children's clothes or equipment (like buggies) then head along to The Nest Project!

Thanks!

Thanks to Chris for very kindly volunteering to backmark for us again this week. And thanks to Emily for the pun!

Upcoming runs

• This Saturday we are running 16km along the canal path. Note: This isn't a traditional GoodGym task but is a training run at a particular pace. Sign up here.
• On Sunday we are going to be gardening with some National Trust volunteers on the Bath Skyline Walk. This will be awesome, so sign up here!
• Next week we are flyering for a charity cèilidh run by The Together Project. An fantastic charity - make sure to sign up here!

Not letting the hills put us off, 15 of us ran up Bloomfield Drive to do a 'deep clean' of a community space at St Phillips and St James's Church. We managed to achieve a massive amount and, despite the rain, we ran a huge 7.2km!

Welcome Emily, Emma and Kathryn!

At our usual meeting spot at the Leisure Centre we welcomed three new runners: Emily, Emma and Kathryn. They had heard about GoodGym through a friend and were keen to come and try our fantastic combination of keeping fit while doing good in the community. It was great to have you join us and we hope you will return!

Bloom(field)-in' heck, that was hilly!

After a thorough warm-up we made our way along the river path, up Holloway and then all the way up Bloomfield Drive. This is one of our longer routes and is definitely the hilliest one we do and so I am really happy with how everyone kept on going and didn't give up on this one!

We met out host Andy at the church and he brought us round to 'Manna House' which is one of the rooms owned and run by the Church. This room is frequently rented out to community groups and gets a lot of wear and tear! Andy explained that although his team regularly clean the room after use, it rarely gets a thorough 'deep clean'. It sounded like exactly the kind of task that we GoodGym runners are awesome at doing!

We were done in a Flash!

We broke into small teams for this task. Andy had kindly set out some cleaning equipment like gloves, Flash cleaning fluid and bowls of warm water.

Some of us were down on our hands and knees scrubbing the floors with brushes and Flash to give it a really good clean. There was lots of dirt ingrained into the floor that doesn't come off with a standard wipe over, so we really had to work hard!

Other teams took everything (and I mean everything!) out of the cupboards and drawers and gave all the shelves and inner surfaces a thorough clean. Some were wiping, others were drying and another group was re-filling. Good teamwork everyone!

We all came back together at the end to make sure we left everything clean and tidy once again. We got so much done and Andy really appreciated the hard work we did for him and his team. We shall return soon!

Thanks!

Thanks to Ollie and Emma H for backmarking for us. And thanks to Andy for this week's cleaning-related pun!

Next runs

• This Sunday: Training run along the canal, lead by Emma H.
• Next week: Flyering around Bear Flat for charity places in RideLondon

On a chilly January evening, 16 GoodGym volunteers ran to Ascension Church in Oldfield Park where we cleared and rearranged cupboards. The equipment stored in the cupboards all belongs to 51st Bath Scouts and our hard work will make it easier for them to provide more fun and enriching activities for young people.

Welcome Katie and Rozzi!

We welcomed Katie and Rozzi to their first Group Run with GoodGym Bath. They have both been along to help out with Community Missions and this was the first time they have helped us on a Tuesday. We are always welcoming new runners, so if you know someone who is interested then bring them along!

Eager Beavers!

When we made it to the church, our host, Ashley, gave us an overview of what 51st Bath Scouts do. Their group has around 50 young people of a variety of ages. The young people are assigned to sections, according to their age. There is a Beaver Colony (6-8 years), a Cub Pack (8-10yrs) and a Scout Troop (10-14yrs).

Each section uses the hall on a different night of the week. Ashley and the other volunteers lead activities, games and adventures to give the young people key skills to help them throughout their lives ... and also let them have lots of fun!

Cleaning the Cub-boards

One half of our team reorganised an equipment cupboard that stores all of the Group's supplies to support the activities that they run. It hadn't been sorted or decluttered for several years and needed a team of energetic GoodGymmers to help out! We formed a human chain to empty cupboards and then worked in small teams to throw away any rubbish, group items into similar boxes and re-stack the contents in a safe and accessible way.

Lacing the report with puns

There was an enormous variety of items that needed sorting, including: plastic bows and arrows, boxes of colouring pens (which some of our team patiently tested to make sure they worked - thanks!), a bag of rubber ducks, lots of navigation equipment and metres and metres and metres of shoelaces!

Cut(lery) us some slack, we're working hard!

The other half of the team worked hard completely reorganising the church kitchen. They emptied all of the cupboards in the kitchen and cleaned the cutlery and glasses. Other groups as well as the Scouts use this kitchen, so there was lots of items that needed a thorough clean and then putting back in the right place again.

This wasn't an easy task given the time constraint, the small amount of space to work in and the amount of kitchen equipment. But in classic GoodGym fashion, they left the kitchen so much tidier and more usable!

Thanks Ashley!

Ashley thanked us enormously on behalf of the Group for the results of our labour. We were pleased to help and thanked him for arranging this task for us. We shall return! We said goodbye and got back to Leisure Centre at exactly 8pm!

Ready for more?

51st Bath Scouts are always looking for more adult volunteers to help them out. Scouting provides an enormous amount of benefits for adult volunteers as well as young people. If you are interested in helping to improve the lives of young people in our area then please use this form on their website to get through to Ashley and his team.

Thanks!

Thanks to Emma for backmarking for us this week and thanks to Emily for the pun!

Coming up

• Join us for our monthly pub quiz this Thursday! More details here.
• Want some more running? Come along to our 12km run along the canal this Sunday.
• Next week: a deep clean at St Phillip and St James' Church. Sign up here!

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!

It was a chilly evening in Bath but that didn't stop a fantastic force of 19 runners coming out to help clean toys at Oldfield Park Toddler Group.

We welcomed Chris, on tour from GoodGym Bristol, and Andreea who has joined Bath from GoodGym Hounslow.

After a quick warm up we ran out to Oldfield Park Baptist Church, where our host Katie was waiting to meet us with a huge pile of toys which needed cleaning. This has become a regular half-term task for us, as we can get the work done in 30 minutes whereas it takes the church volunteers at least a day! We split into two teams and got to work!

Esme, Chris, Katrin and Dora were the dishwasher team, who took care of all the small plastic items, including building blocks and an interesting array of plastic food, including a very realistic Pringle! We had to send in back up as there were so many small toys to dry and we ended up leaving some very soggy tea towels behind!

The rest of our mean, clean running machine took care of the larger items, using cloths and anti-bacterial spray to give everything a wipe down. Tom left his Maths PhD behind and went old school with an abacus, Dan resumed construction of the castle he built on a previous visit and Pascale was let loose with the steam cleaner to clean up some softer, squishy items! Tim even grew a tail?!

After cleaning up and a quick group photo, it was off on the run again and back to the Leisure Centre. Thanks to Pascale for back marking this week. Emily had to come up with the pun and can only apologise for lack of originality. We need a replacement pun-master while Joe is injured!

Happy running!

Upcoming runs

*Running the Bath Half? We have a series of weekend training runs. Next one is Sunday 3rd February and will be 12km. *Send A Cow have also offered us some FREE BATH HALF PLACES as a result of all our fantastic flyering. You just need to try and raise £200 for the charity. So get in touch with Emily or Sam if you're interested. *Next week we are helping to organise the store cupboard at 51st Bath Scouts

Socials

We're headed to St James Wine Vaults for the pub quiz next Thursday (31st January) for our end of the month social. Join us if you can!

Social Media

Please like/follow us on social media and share/retweet our content! We are on Facebook and Twitter. Organisations are getting in contact with us through these platforms and this means we are securing more varied tasks for you to enjoy!