A team of members of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints performed a ‘Helping Hands’ community project on Saturday 13th July at St Patricks Church Hall in New Whittington, Chesterfield. 23 members, aged between 11 and 78 years old, gave more than 130 man hours on the day and in further follow up sessions afterwards.
| 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 grounds at the rear of the building were cleared to ensure they do not become an out of sight hot spot for anti-social behaviour. Litter was collected, trees and shrubs were pruned, lopped, chopped, removed and then shredded. The grounds were prepared for the planting of local strains drought resistant low maintenance flowers which have been cultivated and donated by local members of the Church. Logs taken from the site were donated to local residents for use on wood burning stoves.
Councillor Barry Bingham worked throughout the day with Pip Turner of ‘New Whittington Residents Association’ while June Bingham and Stephanie provided refreshments and drinks to keep the workers going as temperatures reached as high as 26 degrees.
Councillor Barry Bingham said "As the Ward Councillor I'd like to thank the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for helping make our community a more attractive venue to hold events and functions for young and old to enjoy.”
Pip Turner said " I fully endorse Councillor Bingham's comments and would like to say a big thank you to all involved with the Helping Hands programme of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their enthusiasm, effort and willingness to give their time freely to enhance our wonderful community centre which is the heart of the village for the benefit of others. A special thank you to Bishop Hamilton for choosing us for this Helping Hands project we hope to have future opportunities to work together.”
This project follows many other previous Helping Hands projects in the local area as well as giving donations to the National Blood Transfusion Service and collecting over £3000 for the Poppy Appeal for British Legion at a local superstore.