A group of GoodGym volunteers took the hilly route up through Bear Flat to get to St Phillips and St James' Church in Odd Down. We spent the evening preparing and painting their Christmas display that will be featured outside the church for all to enjoy. It was a tough and very vertical run, but we were pleased to manage over 7km in total and give a huge helping hand to the volunteers at the church.

Our host for the evening, Andy, met us at the Leisure Centre to run with us. This rarely happens at GoodGym and we were delighted to have him along for the run. Andy gave us an overview of the fun task ahead to motivate us to get up the hill and then, after a warm-up, we were on our way!

At GoodGym we don't shy away from a challenge, so we clubbed together and made it up Holloway and Bloomsfield Drive in good time. We were tired when we got to the church but fortunately Andy and the other volunteers had very kindly arranged some sugary refreshments and drinks of water for us.

Every year, the church creates a fantastic and original Christmas display that goes at the entrance to the church, by the main road. Last year we got involved and painted some GoodGym camels and we were delighted to be back again to help out.

This year, the church are going to have a set of painted wooden boards to make a massive life-sized advent calendar. Each day in the calender will have its own door that will be opened. There is a design in the background and different community groups (including us!) will get the chance to have their own day in the calender.

The first part of the task was to sketch the outline for the background onto the boards. The team at the church had set up a projector and we made good use of our patience and steady hands (easier said than done after running up the hill!).

While one team were sketching the outline the other team got started on painting the background to the boards. What a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday evening.

On our way out we noticed that we had made 'the wall' with pictures of us helping out at the Sunday Funday that the Church hosted earlier this year. See if you can spot the picture of us!

We made a huge impact on the project in the short time we were there and we are excited to be going back in a few weeks time to get involved in the next stage and do some more painting!

Andy and the team really appreciate the hard work we put in, so thanks for coming along and getting involved.

Thanks!

Thanks to Andy and the Church for hosting us. Thanks to Nicola for backmarking for us and thanks to Nicola as well for the pun!