It was beginning to feel a bit like Christmas yesterday as GoodGym Nottingham took part in a very special task for the charity, Bags of Blessings.

Matt, Rachel W, Vicky, Rachel L and first-time GoodGymer, Jess, met at 11am and were greeted enthusiastically by Chris and Cathy. They gave us an introduction to the charity’s work and the amazing things they do and, after a quick Health and Safety briefing from Mike, we were ready to start work (but not before Cathy had made a round of tea and coffee to warm us up!).

Our job was to pack toys and gifts into bags which would be distributed to young people in need around Nottingham in the run up to Christmas. The items had already been sorted into age ranges and either male, female or non-gender specific, so we split these between us and worked our way through various age and gender groups. As well as toys, the bags were packed with things like books, soft teddies, stationery sets, crayons, some items of clothing, stocking fillers and a Christmas card (items varied depending on the age of the recipient).

At one point our pile of Christmas cards started running low, so Vicky took on the task of composing and writing festive messages in a pile of cards. Matt and Jess also finished up by stickering a pile of stationery sets that had already been put into bags.

Once the bags are packed, they go off to another team of elves who wrap the gifts and pop them back in the bag. In early December, the amazing Bags of Blessings volunteers then distribute the bags among local foodbanks and projects who pass them onto the children.

We spent 2-hours on this task, but the time flew by. It was so much fun and a great atmosphere working alongside Chris, Cathy and Mike. All of our tasks are fun, but this one really felt like we were having a clear and direct impact on those in need, and whilst packing the bags we could literally imagine a child opening their bag on Christmas Day.

Before we left we did a quick calculation of how many bags we had packed – an impressive 270!! Credit to Matt who contributed over 80 of these (and was the only one of us to keep a personal total!), but overall we were chuffed with our efforts. The charity has managed to increase the number of bags given out every year since they began, and in 2024 they have plans to distribute well over 2000 bags. We are delighted to have contributed to this total!

A huge thank you to the GoodGymers who took part in this task and welcome to Jess.

See the photos for a list of items you can donate to Bags of Blessings and a list of donation points can be found at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Rq7G6jTP/

About Bags of Blessings

Bags of Blessings are a charity, local to Nottingham, which distributes donated gifts to deprived young people in the Nottingham area.

They put collection boxes in local schools, churches, and businesses, with the request for small, pocket money toys, stationery, books, or items of confectionery. They then sort the donations into age groups, gift wrap each item and put 4 or 5 gifts into a red cotton bag to be distributed to young people aged 0-16 via food banks, homeless and refugee charities or organisations which support disadvantaged children.

They believe that every child deserves to experience the magic of Christmas and Bags of Blessings steps in to help Father Christmas do this for thousands of children each year.

GoodGym Nottingham replaced their usual Wednesday evening session with a social last night. Four regular GoodGymers, Peter, Tom, Vicky and Rachel L met at the Lion at Basford for some food and drinks, and to take part in the pub’s weekly quiz. They were joined by honorary members, Jane and Samuel, and by team mascot Blain the sprocker spaniel. He spent most of the evening stationed under the table wagging at anyone who walked by but he also, it would seem, proved a very lucky charm…

After a fairly successful picture round naming famous landmarks across the world, the team navigated through 5 more rounds of questions on themes including crime, collective animal nouns, music and ‘who am I?’. Despite pulling some stonking answers out of the depths of our brains (and Vicky coming into her own in the music round), we weren’t confident that we were in a position to challenge for the prize. We’d definitely hit the post on a number of questions and there were sixteen teams including some serious looking regulars.

However, as the results were read out and the scores got progressively higher, we began to think that maybe, just maybe we were in with a shot. As the host announced that there was a tie for second place with a round-number score, we couldn’t contain our excitement and disbelief – we knew we had a half mark so we could not possibly be one of those teams. And so it was, team ‘GoodGym’ triumphed by about 3.5 points on our very first foray into the Nottingham pub quiz circuit!!

We will definitely be adding pub quizzes to our list of regular activities, so if anyone has any recommendations let us know. We’re on a roll now!

On what was a wonderful Wednesday for Team GB in Paris, Team GG (Nottingham) were going for gold at Victoria Embankment at what proved to be one of our most challenging events yet – litter picking where there wasn’t much litter! After meeting Emily for a quick briefing, the pack split and headed off at pace, armed with litter picking batons and a determination to bag some rubbish.

It was a lovely warm bright evening (grateful that we don’t yet need our torches), although we were competing with a bit of wind which caused our bags to flap like flags. We were also thrown by all the feathers lying around the place which looked a lot like bits of rubbish. Thankfully, all our litter-picking training leading up to this event paid off and we all managed to rise to the challenge. By the end we were running rings around all those pesky cigarette butts and lolly sticks!

After 45-minutes or so, we met at the finish line for our usual closing ceremony – a chance to relay to each other what we had collected followed by a group podium photo. There were no stand-out items worthy of a gold medal on this occasion – a BBQ grill, a toy car, a silver key ring and a picnic blanket qualified in the ‘slightly exciting’ category.

For those of us who ventured down to the riverside itself, we were treated to the sight and sound of some dragon boat teams training out on the water, as well as the occasional group of paddle boarders and kayakers gliding by. Being so close to Trent Bridge, we also heard a lot of whooping and cheering from what sounded like an exciting cricket match. Oh, and a huge group of runners went by en mass(cot) – unfortunately we all had high-viz vests on so we don’t think they would have spotted our red t-shirts.

Thanks to everyone who attended for being such good sports - Serafina, Nigel, Bozena, Hannah and Vicky.

Come and join us at one of our next sessions – find out more here.