Now we're in December it was the perfect time for some Christmas decoration spotting, all got off to a festive start with "what's your favourite Christmas song?" as the ice-breaker question.

Of course, we weren't only getting Christmas decoration inspiration/envy, we were also delivering leaflets for The Porch day centre's winter fundraiser. The Porch Day Centre provide day-long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people wanting to move away from street-life. They focus on housing, health, wellbeing, education and employment, providing healthy food, practical help (such as laundry andhot showers), companionship, learning skills, work related skills and opportunities for development. Roger, who had asked is to help get the leaflets delivered, explained to us that they have to raise 85% of their operational costs through grants and individual gifts, and each leaflet delivered is worth around £2 to the centre.

Tonight we delivered over 700 leaflets, and hope that will translate to over £1000 for The Porch.

Congratulations on your 100th Good Deed Henry!

Well done on reaching the 10 Good Deeds milestone Andy:-)

Thank you for the homemade mince pies Matty - they were much appreciated.

The Porch Day Centre have been providing day-long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people for over 35 years. They focus on housing, health, wellbeing, education and employment; providing healthy food, showers, laundry, learning skills, work related skills and opportunities for development.

Demand for the centre's services keeps growing, and they are now providing breakfasts and extending their opening hours. With the rising cost of gas and electricity their costs were going up even before they extended their hours. The freezing weather in December meant The Porch were heavily involved in providing emergency sleeping spaces and breakfasts in partnership with Oxford City Council, and doing so across the weekends as well as their usual weekday opening hours. They needed to open and heat their second building throughout the nights, further adding to their costs.

Having seen their plea on social media for help to deliver leaflets advertising their Warmth and Welfare Winter Fundraiser, GoodGym Oxford sprung into action. We delivered leaflets to homes in the area around The Porch before Christmas, and in a final push before the fundraiser ends on 18/1 we did another leafleting effort last night around Summertown. The blustery, rainy weather definitely focused the mind on how much we appreciated our warm homes to go back to, and how bleak it would be to be homeless.

We've received the following message from The Porch:
"We have already received another £500 from last night as a direct result of your drop which keeps us running for most of a day!
I'm sorry you all had to endure that weather - but we're all so grateful! Thanks again and please thank the rest of your team on my behalf."

The success of the fundraising is already helping meet the centre's winter energy and running costs, and having surpassed the original target now it looks like it will help them buy 2 new commercial washing machines and 2 tumble driers to replace their old and inefficient machines - re-vamping the much-used laundry.

A few hours out facing the elements has made a big difference - well done team!

Welcome to GoodGym Kerry and Nic. Good to see Henry's black '50 Good Deed' Tshirt get it's first outing.

A few of us picked up where we left off on Wednesday evening by delivering flyers to a few more streets for The Porch Day Centre’s Winter Fundraiser.

The Porch Day Centre have been providing day-long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people wanting to move forward in their lives for over 35 years. They focus on housing, health, wellbeing, education and employment; providing healthy food, showers, laundry, learning skills, work related skills and opportunities for development. Each Christmas The Porch provide Christmas lunch and presents, and a warm, safe venue for the day. This year they are also providing blankets, hot water bottles, thermos flasks and torches.

Demand for the centre's services keeps growing, and they are now providing breakfasts and extending their opening hours. With the rising cost of gas and electricity their costs were rising even before they extended their hours, so this year's Christmas fundraising campaign is more important than ever.

The Porch Day Centre have been providing day-long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people wanting to move forward in their lives for over 35 years. They focus on housing, health, wellbeing, education and employment; providing healthy food, showers, laundry, learning skills, work related skills and opportunities for development. Each Christmas The Porch provide Christmas lunch and presents, and a warm, safe venue for the day. This year they are also providing blankets, hot water bottles, thermos flasks and torches.

Demand for the centre's services keeps growing, and they are now providing breakfasts and extending their opening hours. With the rising cost of gas and electricity their costs were rising even before they extended their hours, so this year's Christmas fundraising campaign is more important than ever.

Having seen their plea on social media for help to deliver leaflets advertising their Warmth and Welfare Christmas Fundraiser, GoodGym Oxford sprung into action. It was the coldest day of the year, so we were a smaller group than usual, but it definitely focused the mind on how much we appreciated our warm homes to go back to, and how bleak it would be to be homeless. Suitably layered-up against the bitter cold and fueled with mulled cider, we leafleted around the Iffley Fields area (some excellent Christmas decorations on display already), then also managed quite a few of the roads west of Magdalen Road.

Between us we got 736 leaflets delivered - 105 per GoodGymer!

Joe plans to do another 110 over the weekend, and with the aid of the wider GoodGym Oxford community we hope we'll get about another 500 delivered over the next week. If you feel moved to donate to support the work of The Porch this winter you can do so here.

This group task took us to over 6000 Good Deeds done in Oxford - Great work team!