Mike Freer MP and Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Lisa Rutter, with be joining Norwood staff and volunteers on Sunday 20 November in support of Mitzvah Day. The day of good deeds includesa special tea party for members of the Unity recreational group for children and young people with disabilities, which will be attended by the Mayor. The party will feature a number of games and activities including the creation of a large artwork to be hung at Norwood’s Kennedy Leigh Children and Family Centre.
A number of volunteers will be taking part in a large number of volunteering projects across Norwood, a charity that supports people with learning disabilities and children and families in need. At a Norwood home in Finchley, Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, and Barnet councillors will be joined by David Harris, Norwood’s Director of Operational Service, to clean the kitchens and entrance hall.
The aim of Mitzvah Day is to encourage people to give up their time to perform a good deed for others. Norwood’s Mitzvah Day volunteers include members of the Edgware Reform Synagogue and Raleigh Close Synagogue, who alongside Norwood staff and volunteers will be helping to paint the 2011 Mitzvah Day mural, whilst giving the Family Centre a spring clean. Children from the Edgware synagogue’s Chedar will also be helping to make cards and Chanukah decorations for Norwood services users.
Meanwhile, Barnet Councillor Barry Rawlings and fellow volunteers will join residents and staff at a Norwood home in Hendon to paint the front entrance and dining room and tidy and sweep up the home’s front driveway.Elsewhere, members of Belmont Synagogue will join residents of a Norwood home in Stanmore for music, singing and arts and crafts sessions. They will also bake biscuits for the occasion.
Norwood will also be arranging the following activities:
- Residents at a Norwood home in Hendon will be joined by volunteers from Hendon Synagogue as they make Chanukah cards and candle holders for other Norwood services users.
- Staff at Norwood’s head office in Stanmore, plus those at its family centres in Hendon, Hackney and Redbridge, will be collecting cards for North London Hospice to be recycled and sold. Head office staff will also be collecting unused cosmetics in aid of Norwood.
- Volunteers at Norwood’s charity shop in Barkingside will be organising a sewing circle to recycle donated clothing into vintage wear.
- An afternoon of singing and music based around the songs of Ella Fitzgerald is being held at a Norwood home in Stanmore, led by volunteer Malcolm Shorrick.
- At the Kennedy Leigh Family Centre, volunteers will help to paint the fence which marks the entrance to the Nursery and clean toys used by the children. Nursery staff will bake some cakes for residents of nearby Norwood homes. They will also help to scrub the walls of the Centre and clean plastic chairs used by family support groups.
- Families who use the Norwood Nursery and Family Centre in Hendon will be collecting winter clothes for good causes, including an Ukranian orphanage, Tikva Odessa.
- The Binoh boys group will help to prepare food for a Unity tea party alongside other volunteers, while a girls group will decorate pillow cases and gift boxes for children and families supported by both Norwood and Barnardo’s homes.
- At the Somers Family centre in Hackney, Staff and volunteers will be busy in the Hackney centre’s garden, planting spring bulbs and winter vegetables and maintaining existing plant boxes.
- Volunteers at the Kennedy Leigh Centre’s Deli will be making biscuits and cakes for Mitzvah Day volunteers taking part in activities on Sunday and for residents in nearby Norwood homes.
- Volunteers from Kingston’s United, Reform and Liberal synagogues will be helping to plant more than 1,200 bulbs amongst other gardening activities at Ravenswood residential community in Berkshire.
Get Involved
