The coffee beans were ground and brewed as once again Swindon Goodgymers attended the Coffee #1 coffee shop to chat and drink coffee at the regular We're Open event!

The focus of We’re Open is to bring the local community together through the shared love of good coffee (or tea), conversation, music, cake, and maybe a little competitive board game playing, which alas was not in much evidence tonight! These get togethers happen every Thursday evening and are organised by The Swindon City of Sanctuary group to help make refugees and asylum seekers feel welcome and supported in the wider community.

We love a good chat at GoodGym, so are really pleased to be a part of this event. Regular attendee Charles was joined on this occasion by Carly, Gina and Mike, who all ran from different locations to attend the event. In no time, we were at all were chatting to people from various countries including Iran, Afghanistan, Uganda and China.

Also in attendance was Swindon's Omer Homer, who is an extremely inspirational figure in the Swindon running community. Omer started running in 2017 and his target is to win the Swindon Half Marathon, which is an ambitious goal given he had never run before, has had no formal training and has severe injuries from an encounter with an exploding landmine. We're all wishing him the best of luck next month!

No doubt GoodGym will be returning to We're Open soon, so if you have not tried it before and enjoy a good natter, why not sign up for the next one?! Remember running to attend is optional!

Can't wait until the next We're Open for GoodGym goodies?

• This Tuesday 20th August, 6pm we’ve got a TASK CHANGE when we're back at the Traverser at Steam to continue weed whacking. Sign up here!
• Next Tuesday 27th August, 6pm, we're Clearing out Overgrown Planters at the Saltway Centre for Aiming High Families. More info here!
• We’re also kicking off missions in the town to help older people with one-off tasks, and coach runs to help combat loneliness and social isolation. Interested in more info? Check out the links, or speak to the Task Force.