Mitzvah Day gardening project builds bridges between faith communities
Marking 20 years of Mitzvah Day, members of Stanmore & Canons Park Synagogue kicked off their annual Mitzvah Day activities with another fantastic interfaith gardening project at Canons Park. Joining in the fun were enthusiastic volunteers from the local Mosaic Liberal and Mosaic Reform Synagogues, the Shree Kutch Leva Patel Hindu Community group, St William of York Roman Catholic Church, and the Friends of Canons Park. Among the volunteers working in the autumn sunshine were Laura Marks, founder of Mitzvah Day, Bob Blackman MP and Councillor Zak Wagman.
Getting stuck in, the 40 or so green-fingered gardeners lost no time in building connections between the different faiths and generations while working together weeding, raking leaves, sweeping, planting clearing and tidying the overgrown flower beds in the walled rose garden, in order to get everything ready for the winter months ahead. Having planted 100 daffodils, filled 40 wheelbarrows of compostable and non-compostable weed; pulled out some huge clumps of sedge, an invasive weed, and collected 10 bags of rubbish, the group left the garden looking glorious to be enjoyed by the local community.
– Corinne Linskell
[Please see our full gallery below, with photo credit to Yakir Zur and Godfrey Dyan]