On a sunny Sunday in May, five teenagers from our Beth Shalom Noar youth group, together with their undergraduate leaders and teenage friends from the Quaker and Bahai communities, worked through the afternoon for Rosica and Cary, our neighbours, and Friends of Midsummer Common to tidy up the Community Orchard.
Beth Shalom overlooks this beautiful orchard, which was reclaimed from a wild patch of Midsummer Common some fifteen years ago (roughly when the shul-building project itself began). It is ‘our garden’, and of course it is important to look after your garden!
The group weeded, watered, raked and mowed and helped plant a new row of canes. Everyone then participated in a discussion about community service, and afterwards we invited our friends into the shul so everyone could have a look around and compare our faiths.
It was a glorious afternoon, and our new friendships mean that we will meet up again, and FOMC have gained some new volunteers across the four seasons.
