Can you do the can-can?

Tonight we headed back to practice our can-sorting, weighing and lifting skills while helping East Bristol Food Bank to sort their 200 crates of supermarket donations ahead of the Christmas period. This is always a busy time, both for the donations coming in and the amount of food being processed through the food bank, so it was all hands on deck to get as much sorted as possible.

While Matt conquered his Winter Wonderland walking badge with the accompaniment of Debbie, the rest of split into two groups. Sally led a steadier group while the rest of us went on ahead. When we arrived at East Bristol Food Bank's new premises, Andy explained the sorting process to us and set the first group to work.

We can

Between the group, they manned the scales and weighed each crate to calculate how much had been donated, then split them into grouped items to make them easy to distribute.

Meanwhile, Sally's group arrived and they got the short straw of having to go straight into their fitness session from their run. On the tiny platform of dry ground outside the food bank, the group squeezed together to create a human-Tetris of plank holds, press ups, chair sits and more. After 10 minutes of work, hopefully their thighs, core and arms had enough burn to make them feel virtuous as they switched places with the other group in a food-sorting-and-fitness relay.

(but it would be better with some tin-sel...)

In no time, the group had sorted a large amount of the crates ready for distribution and had exercised GoodGym restraint not cracking into any of the biscuits. We waved Andy goodbye and set off home in the short dry-spell we had. On return, we got treated by Zdeni, who has flown through her good deeds and hit her 50th Good Deed at the weekend. She made the most amazing pernik which I promptly ate most of. Thanks Zdeni!

Welcome to Amanda, Kevin and Jessica who joined us for their first GoodGym Bristol run tonight - it was great to have you! And thanks to Alice for this week's pun!

GoodGym Bristol don't just stop at one task on a stormy Tuesday evening. We don't even stop at two. We managed to squeeze doing three good deeds into one session (and avoided many a mammoth puddle from the earlier downpours as we did so). Welcome to Shannon, Gareth, Eloise and Nikki who joined us tonight for the first time - it was great to have you!

Our first good deed was helping Children's Hospice South West advertise for their Santas On The Run event on 9th December. To do this, 12 willing GoodGymers donned Santa Suits with signs about the run pinned to their backs to spread the word. With almost 50 runners gathering despite the stormy day, some would say it got a little Claustrophobic...

We soon overcame this by getting out, warmed up and set off to our tasks, with Dave being a brilliant backmarker to our mass of red t-shirts and Santa suits. We arrived at Hannah More Primary, where half of the group were going to helping. Ruth from Hannah More Primary introduced the group to the different jobs which they needed help with. The group split into two, with one group doing a litter-pick around the school grounds and the other clearing out the After School Club room. The key to this was not to get Santa-mental and the Santas and GoodGym elves managed this and got stuck in with equal vigour.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group who wanted to stretch their legs further, ran a mile further away where they grouped into small teams to successfully deliver leaflets advertising Santas On The Run and some more of the good causes who we have been working with recently. A couple of Santa sprints later and the group were satisfied with having spread the word in the south of Bristol and were ready to head back.

Our night was topped off by celebrating the very first Santurian... Well done to Alison who did her 100th Good Deed tonight! All with the impressive added extra of doing it in a Santa suit and wearing the famous Centurion outfit with the addition of a white beard. Spectacular.

This week's cold snap didn't put off our hardy runners: in a selection of woolens, fleeces, waterproofs and more, the group gathered to do good. It was great to see so many new people tonight - welcome Charlotte, Tom, Kat, Diana, Corrie, Nicola and Rory! It was also great to have Gillian from Head Office and Pascale from Bath join us.

In our masses, we split into two groups to get to our task. Mel and Jack led a steady group through the crowds of central Bristol while the rest of us went on ahead (and gave some people minding their own business at the bus stop a show while doing jumping lunges in front of them).

As it was a short run tonight, we quickly got the British Heart Foundation in the middle of town. We had helped set up the huge new charity shop in the summer, but they sadly suffered from an awful fire just a fortnight after opening. They are finally managing to reopen the shop, bigger and better than before and we were desperate to get back to help them do this! We met Jack and the rest of the team who split us into teams.

TEAM 1: The Shop Gals

Team 1 spent a delightful 40 minutes sorting clothes and hanging them on rails ready to be sold in the pre-Christmas rush after opening. More importantly, Alice educated the group on the meaning and delights of having a Floordrobe.

TEAM 2: Darren & Phil's Room

Team 2 squeezed as many people as possible into a room and did a great job of doing a people and shelving tetris/jenga combo to get shelves on two of the walls ready for back-of-house storage once the shop has opened. As an accolade for their great work, Darren and Phil somehow managed to get the room permanently named after them, with a handwritten sign and everything.

TEAM 3: The Hangers

Team 3 got to know the different types of clothes hangers inside out while sorting, cleaning and, well, hanging the hangers ready for more donation storage. In addition, they put up many a shelf and founded the Shelfie. Meanwhile, the group invented a new GoodGym Olympics game - throw the sizing cube into the correct 10cm squared box. A risky, highly-skilled game for those who dare...

TEAM 4: The Heavy Lifters

Team 4 ended up with the slightly more physically demanding job of carting boxes, mannequins, glass and much more up the lift to the second floor then up the stairs to the third floor. Team 4 could be spotted as those panting while the other teams looked at them in bemusement.

After 40 minutes, we had got loads done at the shop and we headed into our separate groups to run back. On return, we had a very closely-contested relay to finish the night.