Who doesn’t love a good story especially when it’s read to you?
This year, on Mitzvah Day, 19 November, we teamed up with the Mitzvah Day and PJ Library – the Jewish children’s book programme – in a lovely intergenerational storytelling session, when we welcomed young visitors and their families from the surrounding community to pop in and read a story with a resident. We also brought over a group of children who were attending one of our Play & Learn sessions at our children’s centre for the afternoon. (Link to Play & Learn/Children’s Centre on website).
Joyce Khan, our Marketing & Communications said “This year’s three-way Mitzvah Day partnership – between The Fed, Mitzvah Day and PJ Library was a great example of what collaboration between charities can achieve. You cannot beat the wonderful interactions we witness weekly between toddlers and residents at our regular Thursday morning Fedlings group – they are priceless – so we jumped at the chance of running a special event for Mitzvah Day which also would bring people together from across the generations.
Heathlands Village activity coordinator, Kate Ryder, told us afterwards:
“The activity centre was really busy and there was a wonderful atmosphere. We did have to help break the ice and encourage the children to sit with the residents at first – but once they got talking to them, they were really confident!
One of the residents, Marigold who used to be a teacher, was reading to a child from our children’s centre, and Jane another resident was sitting listening to the story as well enjoying it just as much as the child – it was a so lovely to see. It was so lovely to see.”