Mitzvah Day

Mitzvah Day 2011 was a fabulous success with wonderful activities that benefit our congregation, our community and our world!!!

More than 300 congregants participated on Mitzvah Day 2011 and made the day a tremendous success!

Look What We Accomplished!

We made:

• 36 welcome baskets filled with kitchen and household supplies for newly arriving refugee families from  Asia, Africa and Iraq
• 40 polar fleece blankets for at risk infants and toddlers
• 107 Birthday cards for elder Temple members
• 181 Emergency Room Activity Kits for kids waiting at Cambridge City Hospital
• Dinner and PB&J sandwiches more than 100 homeless men and women at CASPAR shelter in Cambridge
• 234 bookmarks for local literacy programs
• 24 Birthday Parties-in-a-Bag for local homeless and low-income children
• 70 painted flowerpots filled with flowers for elderly residents of Neville Center in Cambridge
• 115 Personal Care Kits for homeless teens
• 60 Painted Onesies for at risk infants
• 53 cards for United Sates Soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and wounded veterans recovering in VA hospitals
  
  

We sorted:

54 bags of childrens’ clothes, for homeless and low-income children helped by Cradles to Crayons

24 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 pulled up 17 bags of invasive Japanese knotweed at Rock Meadow Sanctuary in Belmont

We planted 2000 celery root 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 mentally disabled adults in Lexington

We wrote more than 300 letters and postcards on behalf of prisoners of conscience around the world

Our work on Mitzvah Day will literally touch thousands of lives - more than 800 before you take account of all the celery root 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.