Met up with Jess and over 20 women volunteers. Jess gave us a briefing and explained to all of us if our various roles and responsibilities. She made everyone welcomed and gave us teas, coffee, juice etc with loads if fruit. Then we also met Nick who is the chef/cleaner. etc, etc and we met him before here. We heard from Jess that altogether there were 107 people signed up and paid in advance. We then had a wonderful lunch of jacket potatoes, wraps, lots of salad and healthy fillings, including a vegetable chilli, tofu and other healthy stuff as well . We then were served with various puddings and custards and baked cookies and flapjacks too. When the doors opened at 1pm a bunch of people came in and the stewards welcomed them in and checked their online list of people booked. I and some other volunteers were runners showing people where to go and also taking stuff up and down the stairs.. The lifts are only used for the goods. Altogether it was a very enjoyable, friendly and successful afternoon.

Michelle did a FANTASTIC job leading last nights task which also happened to be her 300th task over 8 years! Massive congratulations and thanks for becoming a Fitness Leader and we look forward to seeing you lead more sessions in the near future.

We also welcomed another new runner to the @GGSHF flock. Welcome Ewan! We hope you enjoyed your first run and will be back for more in the future!

We had a great intro, risk, injury and disclaimer talk from Michelle, followed by a RAMP warm up:

• Raise - heart rate, body temperature and blood flow
• Activation - The muscles (start with small muscle groups first and less intensive movements e.g. low skips) * Mobilise - Joints and tendons. NOTE: Activation and mobilisation can be done together e.g. hamstring scoops
• Potentiate - Essentially, we want to excite the neuromuscular system by performing explosive movements appropriate to the main activity.

We then headed up the hill to meet Jess and the fantastic group of Common Thread volunteers.

We had a great evening at Common Thread hosted by Jess and the other lovely volunteers. The clothes swap is coming up on Saturday 5th September so there was some preparation to do for this community event.

After the shortest run that we have on our books, we had various tasks to do. All very well organised and ready for us to get involved. With snacks and Regather apple juice for us. Thank you!

The changing room screen was mended and decorated to make it look more attractive. Katy was complimented on her skills relating to this although the whole team were on a race against the clock to get it done. It looked great by the end.

Cat gave herself a good hand workout cutting out cardboard labels for categorising clothes, whilst others worked on a novel box design with a bread knife to organise coat hangers.

Meanwhile, Tom had brought bicycle inner tubes for another imaginative use by the common thread team and Shahram was soon busy with this, cutting out the valves and prepping the tubes for use to tie hanging rails together.

We headed back for a stretch and then Amelia took some people for a free game of bowling for those who could make it. Thanks Amelia. A really nice gesture.

Thanks everyone for another good evening!

Report written by Michelle.

We welcome Ernest to our Goodgym group. thank you all for attending. It was fairly a hot day but 7 of us ran from The Showroom Cinema to Union Street, to Common Threads We were made very welcome with orange squash and loads if fruits too. Jess gave us a briefing and explained our tasks. We were all impressed with the 'Money Plants' at the entrance and a lovely photo was taken. We worked in pairs sorting from Baby clothes to adults and placing them in appropriate signage bags . There was also a 'Sports Bag' and we were given first choice to take what we want Not everyone is as lucky as Michelle who managed some lively sporty stuff for herself . We were also given bananas, water melons, plums and other treats. Thank you for your generous amount of treats. All in all the task was carried out with the help of other volunteers too.

It was fantastic to welcome new runner Sherif to the gg family, a welcome and really helpful addition.

The weather was fantastic last night, so it was a bit of shame we were heading inside, but as soon as we arrived Jess and the team at Common Thread brought the sunshine inside!

This week we were packing up clothes parcel for people in need, from families to funerals. It was great to know who the parcels we were putting together were going to, really bringing the charities reach and impact to life.

Some people got to general sorting of donations, whilst others had a printed sheet of the peoples requirements.

Refreshments were on had and as ever, were really appreciated.

It was great to see everyone and help out again with our friends at Common Thread.

Until next time, happy running! :)

Five goodgymmers met up with the lovely Common Thread volunteers to sort through heaps of recent clothes donations. After Fran and Jess's welcome, we organised ourselves around the tables, going through bags of clothes and sorting them according to gender and type of clothes. We were also looking for specific clothes to make bundles for other charities who were looking for particular items for clients. It was Vivien's first Goodgym session at Common Thread and just like the rest of us, she got stuck in, unearthing some fab clothes finds, making piles of coats, dresses, jumpers etc. Well done!!! We filled up the lift and soon it was time to bid goodbye to Common Thread, some of us leaving with donated leeks from Fran''s allotment or a fancy and snazxy item of clothing! Another job well done, gang! See you guys soon!

It was fantastic to welcome new runner Millie along to last nights run, we hope you enjoyed it and you come back again Millie!

It was a very short uphill round the corner type run (a popular one) round to Common Thread at Union Street this week.

We met Fran and other volunteers from Common Thread as they were mid sort, unfortunately with a broken elevator which made things a little more complicated than usual. No matter, we still get stuck in!

Rather than prepping for a clothes exchange this time we were helping to sort requested items from other charities in Sheffield including:

Ben's Centre - A homelessness charity City of Sanctuary - An asylum seekers charity Sheffield Working Women's Opportunities Project (SWWOP) - A charity providing intensive support, outreach, and harm reduction services to women involved in sex work

Each charity had different clothing requests and we did our best to sort through clothes to find appropriate donations for them.

It's always a great welcome at Common Thread and we look forward to coming back to see them for the next one!

Until next time, happy running! :)