Around 50 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took part in this year’s Helping Hands event in Elmdon Park, Solihull. The church members from the two congregations in Chelmsley Wood and Solihull got together for this joint project which was arranged in conjunction with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Solihull Council’s 'Love Solihull' initiative.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
The project lasted for almost five hours and members were involved in clearing vegetation, repainting park benches, clearing and sawing fallen tree branches, cleaning information signage, litter picking, cutting back areas of willow and creating an environmental habitat to attract wildlife, particularly hedgehogs (under the direction of the Wildlife Trust). The 50 strong work group was made up of a very diverse group of people, ranging in age from two to seventy seven. One of the youngest, Leah Williamson aged 5 said, "We went to clean up the park and it was fun. I loved making a hedgehog out of clay and sticks - I put it in my garden. It was fun to help collect the logs that we used to make a hedgehog hotel. I hope they like it!"
All the children were particularly keen to help with the creation of the hedgehog habitat and Simon Thompson from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust commented, “It was a great opportunity to work with young people to help them learn how they can do simple things to help our hedgehogs. Building a log pile helps to increase the number of insects for the hedgehogs to feed on and provides shelter.”
Councillor Tony Dicicco, Cabinet Member for Environment, Housing and Regeneration stated: “It is always great to see members of our community coming together to improve the look of their area. I hope the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Solihull area will be an inspiration to get outside and make a difference in the borough.”
Bishop David Charmbury, local leader of the congregation in Chelmsley Wood was pleased to be able to work with the 'Love Solihull' initiative for the second time this year, he commented, "It was a pleasure to support the Council's 'Love Solihull' initiative once again. Our members were eager to help on the tasks that needed work, regardless of age or ability. With the added support of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, our children also took away a strong message about respecting our environment and protecting our local wildlife. This was a wonderful opportunity to put the Church's emphasis on serving in our local community into practice."