Mitzvah Day 2010 was Sunday, May 16th

Thank you, thank you to the more than 300 congregants who participated and help make the day a tremendous success!

Look What We Accomplished!

We made:

• 43 welcome baskets filled with kitchen and household supplies for newly arriving refugee families from Southeast Asia, Africa and Iraq
• 49 polar fleece blankets for at risk infants and toddlers
• 56 Birthday and Get Well cards for elder and ill Temple members
• 104 Emergency Room Activity Kits for kids waiting at Cambridge City Hospital
• Dinner and lunch for more than 100 homeless men and women at CASPAR shelter in Cambridge
• 226 bookmarks for local literacy programs
• 12 Birthday Parties-in-a-Bag for local homeless children living in cheap motels while they wait for housing
• 70 painted flowerpots filled with flowers for elderly residents of Arlington served by Meals-on-Wheels
• 167 Personal Care Kits for homeless teens

We sorted:

40 bags of childrens’ clothes, 2 boxes of shoes and 4 boxes of toys for Cradles to Crayons, as well as 4 bags of clothes for S. Vincent de Paul

43 bags of books for local literacy and ESL programs and More Than Words Bookstore run by and for the benefit of at-risk teens

We visited and sang for residents of Neville Place and Neville Center

We cleaned up Rock Meadow Sanctuary in Belmont

We planted 6000 spinach plants at Waltham Community Farm, that will be distributed to food pantries and shelters after harvest in the fall

We created a flower garden for a group home of developmentally disabled adult men in Arlington

We wrote 35 letters  on behalf of prisoners of conscience around the world

We painted 72 Onesies for at risk infants.

Our work on Mitzvah Day will literally touch thousands of lives - more than 800 before you take account of all the spinach to be harvested in the fall from the plants that our team planted, which will be distributed to food pantries and soup kitchens and the hundreds of people who use and enjoy Rock Meadow and will benefit from our clean up efforts.