GoodGym Bath ran to Oldfield Baptist church to give their toys a thorough steamin' and cleanin'! The toys are used by the weekly toddler group and they are all well used and well loved. We had a lot of fun making a noticable difference to this community group and ran 4km in total.

GG Social

Next Tuesday after the run we are going to The Stables for some food. Please sign up so we have an idea of numbers to book a table.

Running to Oldfield Park

Emily led the run from the leisure centre out to Oldfield Park and we met our host Paul. Lots of us have been to this task before, but for those who hadn't been before Paul explained that they get around 40 families (over 100 people) at each of the toddler group sessions. There are lots of different toys that can always do with a cleaning.

Steamin' and Cleanin'

Some of us were on the kitchen crew and we put lots of smaller plastic toys through the dishwasher and wiped them dry. We got through a big box of Duplo and a huge box of plastic food items that the toddlers use in their mini kitchen. We were amazed to find individual plastic pringle crisps!

Another group of runners were spraying and wiping down the larger toys. There was a big elephant slide and lots of musical instruments that were quite sticky and benefited from our cleaning!

Finally, another group of GoodGymmers used the steam cleaner on the fabric toys. The rocking horse looked a lot happier after we had steamed her!

At the end we lined all of the toys back up and we were pleased how much cleaner they looked and smelled! It was a really rewarding and fun evening!

Thanks!

Thanks to Paul for setting up for us and for hosting us. We really appreciate it, Paul. Thanks to Rachel and Phoebe for backmarking for us and thanks to Emily for leading the run.

We ran to paint the communal spaces at a hostel for people facing homelessness in Oldfield Park in Bath. Our work brought some new life to the space and made it an even more inviting and comfortable room. As well as painting we even managed to find time to clean some children's toys and we ran 6km in total.

Welcome, Seb!

We welcomed Seb to his first run with GoodGym. Thanks for helping us out last night, Seb, and we hope to see you again soon!

GG News

Before we got going I shared some GG news with the group:

• At the weekend several of our runners completed the Dark Horse race. Despite the awful wind and the darkness they all made it round (mainly!) unscathed. Look out for more runs organised by Relish Running - they are always really fun!
• We have another social coming up on 3rd March after the run. It was really good fun last time, so please sign up and join us!
• The GoodGym 'Big 6' races have been announced. These are pre-organised events where GoodGym groups from across the counry get together to support each other during the race and there is often a GG task/social involved too. A great way to meet like-minded people and travel the country! See the listings here.

On with the task!

Curo provides emergency temporary accommodation to homeless single people and families. They offer supported accommodation and assist people with a very wide range of issues to access and maintain a permanent tenancy in the future with the aim of avoiding the system again. At the project on Dartmouth Avenue they have places for 23 households.

Our task was to paint the walls in their communal space. We worked as a team to make sure we covered all of the areas we needed to. We were so efficient that we managed to paint an extra wall that we hadn't planned on doing. A group of runners who had completed their painting mission spent some time cleaning boxes of plastic road and cars with disinfectant to keep them clean and safe to enjoy.

The hard work we put in made a really visible difference and we were pleased with what we achieved.

Thanks!

Thanks to Emily and her team at Curo for hosting us for a fun task. Thanks to Mark for backmarking for us and thanks to Rebecca for an awesome first GG 'pun for the run'!

Last night we were originally due to paint and reorganise a communal space at Pathways, but due to a change of plans we ran to Odd Down Sports Ground to paint the inside of their community cafe and clean their children's toys. The route we took was essentially one big hill and were all pleased to complete a steep 7km training run.

Welcome, Sophie, Luke and Stephen!

When we met at the leisure centre we welcomed three runners to their first run with GoodGym Bath. Sophie and Luke have run with other GoodGym groups before and it was Stephen's first ever GoodGym event. It was great to have you all along to join us and thanks for your help. I hope we see you again soon!

Latest GG News

• Thanks to Phoebe and Rachel for representing us at a Community Mission at the weekend with Dry Arch Growers. You can read about what they achieved and the interesting wassail ceremony here.
• Rachel has kindly set up a GoodGym social for next Tuesday after the run. Please sign up so we have an idea of numbers to book a table.
• There is still time to sign up to the Dark Horse, a fun nighttime 10km in Bath. Several GG runners have already signed up so there will be friendly faces to see there!
• Next week we are running to help The Nest.

A night of two tasks

The first main task was painting the walls around the room. The community space is used a lot by different sports groups and members of the public and so they get quite mucky. There were spills on the walls by the teas/coffee area and there were marks from where old posters have been removed. We split into teams to improve the walls: some of us covered the edges with frog tape, others cleaned the walls down, others used the big roller brushes to clean the main areas of the walls and finally other runners swept in behind to paint the edges and skirting board with finer brushes. It required a lot of team work and coordination to get it right in the short amount of time we had and we were really pleased to get it all done.

The second big task was to spray and wipe down as much as we could. The cafe has a large collection of plastic and wooden toys and there are lots of tables and high chairs. A group of runners put their gloves on and got to work. This was a really important job to keep the cafe clean and free from germs.

Finally, we thoroughly cleaned and tidied where we had been. We took a group picture and then ran back down the hill to the leisure centre.

Thanks!

Thanks to Ali and her team at the cafe for hosting us at such short notice. Thanks to everyone who turned out last night to make the task a success. It was a classic example of where we can make a huge difference in a short space of time. And also thanks in particular to Chris, Emily and Rachel for backmarking for us.

On a chilly winter evening 11 GoodGym volunteers ran to St John's, an independent living space in central Bath, to put up Christmas decorations for the residents ahead of their Winter Fete and Chritmas parties. It was a great way to get into the festive spirit and put a smile on people's faces. We did a great job and our hosts were really pleased with what we achieved!

Before the run I went through some upcoming events. We might have a Community Mission helping to clear the grounds of a school in Odd Down at the weekend, please be on the lookout on the listings and in my weekly email! Next week we have another great Christmas-themed task and our GoodGym Bath Christmas social afterwards. It would be great to see you there!

On with the task: It was only a short run along the river last night in contrast to all the longer and hilly runs we have been doing recently, and we were glad to be able to spend more time at the task doing good!

We have been to help St John's before and we were delighted to be back again to help a great asset in our community. We broke off into small teams to cover their shared spaces and entrance hall with Christmas cheer! Lots of the staff and volunteers are busy people who don't have a lot of time to put up decorations and lots of the residents aren't able to do decorate, so our help made a huge difference.

1 task, 4 Trees!

Allie and Rachel embraced the task of putting up the tall Christmas tree in the entrance hall. It was a tougher job than expected but they managed it in the end and it looked great! Whether it looked better than the effort last year was fiercely debated. Chris L and Phoebe assembled and decorated two Christmas trees in the resident's lounge. And Chris D and Richard worked together to put up person-sized Christmas tree in the cafe area and covered it in an obscene amount of chains and tinsel! Love it!

Tim, Emily, Nicola, Max and me spent most of the evening putting up tinsel, chains and hanging decorations all around the main cafe area. This is where the Christmas events are going to be hosted and it was really satisfying to make it feel happy and festive.

We will be back in January to take the decorations down for the residents. This is our first session back after the Christmas break and it will be a good way to get back into running again!

Thanks!

Thanks to the staff, volunteers and the Resident's Association at St John's for arranging for us to come along and help out. We had a great time!

A group of GoodGym volunteers put their running shoes on and ran out to The Nest Project in Bath to help them sort some donated toddler and baby clothes. We ran over 7km in total and got loads of good work done!

Despite the cold weather we still meet outside the leisure centre in the middle of Bath. After catching up on the latest news and advertising the pub quiz social that is being held tonight we got under way with a warm up. This is one of our longer runs and we wanted to make sure our legs were ready for what lay ahead.

Off with a bang!

We took a route through the centre of Bath and along Upper Bristol Road. We usually run along the river path when going to The Nest but it is far too dark at this time of year, sadly. However, although we didn't have any great views of nature on our route we were treated to a host firework displays as we ran. Last night it was the 5th November, commonly known as Guy Fawkes night, and lots of people had gathered for firework displays across Bath.

We met our hosts at The Nest Project, based in Lower Weston. The volunteers there take in donations of toddler clothes, prams and toys that are then passed on to anyone in need. They open each Friday 10am-2pm to the public and they regularly get up to 25 families there each week. It's a great way to help people in need and also a great way to reuse materials and help the environment.

Sort it out!

Our task tonight was to sort girls clothes into different boxes. There were boxes for 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months and 9-12 months. There was a whole mountain of clothes there before we started and four tidy and organised boxes when we finished!

There were some miscellaneous items that were put aside. We found some Christmas items, some wee little booties and some onesies (that actually looked really comfortable).

After storing the boxes safely away, we thanked our hosts and ran back to the leisure centre. On our way back we admired a fantastic firework display in Prior Park.

Thanks!

Thanks to Pip and her team for hosting us for the evening! We had a great time and it was a great way to look after our physical and mental health at the same time. Thanks to Allie and Emily for backmarking for us and thanks to Emily for the pun this week!

Upcoming

• Tonight we are heading to Widcombe Social Club for a pub quiz. It would be great to see you there!
• Next week we are flyering for Send a Cow. This is a great task for getting some running practice!