At GoodGym Bristol we love a bit of fun and creativity, which is why we think the Children’s Scrapstore is awesome. Companies donate their unwanted junk and the Scrapstore sort and pass it onto schools and community projects who turn it into toys, art, stage sets and anything else they can think of. As it is such a popular project they are always thankful for a helping hand sorting the donated scrap, so this time we brought over 50 helping hands!

After meeting at Vivo Sports Club and introducing ourselves we realised that not only did we have a massive group with even more happy new faces, but a lot of runners were called Emily and Dave, so remembering names on this run would be a lot easier than usual!

We ran 1.5 miles from Vivo to St Werburghs with an epiphany of Emilys and a deluge of Daves taking Bristol by storm. Our goodness must be contagious as a guy who was jogging by saw us and after a quick chat with Paul, who explained our task for the evening was to “go and cut stuff”, decided he wanted to join our helpful hoard.

After this gentle warm up we were ready to take on whatever the lovely ladies at the Scrapstore had to throw at us. We were shown around the warehouse of wonder before being split into groups and set to task. And what do you know, Paul was right in his prediction that we would be cutting stuff up. People were ripping apart curtains, cutting guttering, tearing tents, dismantling chairs, burning through rope, taking thread off of reels and our old favourite, taking phones out of boxes. It may sound destructive but rest assured that there is method to this madness. As ever when the time came to leave it was tough getting everyone to finish their task in hand. “Just one more curtain…” they exclaimed, “We’ll be quick, just gotta finish this…” came another shout. Eventually we got everyone together for a group shot before heading back into the night.

After jogging back, we assembled in Queens Square for a rather random but productive warm down. With a few tricep-dips, squats, sprints and lunges we finished off a very successful evening. Thanks to everyone who came along, you are all ruddy brilliant. Don’t forget the Scrapstore are having an open day on Saturday 17th October when you will be able to go and grab yourself a basket of scrap for a small donation. So why not come and help us build a rockery in Redcliffe at 11am and then head over there to get creative afterwards.