Dear all,

We all felt the magic of the first Melbourne Mitzvah Day, November 20 2011.

We painted the country green !! 350 t-shirts (fair trade, organic cotton) were worn proudly by members of the community young and old alike. Bunting and balloons galore. Smiles abounded on the faces of all who participated. If I’m not mistaken there were about 25 groups and 15 projects comprising about 500 people active on Mitzvah Day itself, bringing a little joy into people’s lives and cleaning the environment, as well as a number of collectathons especially by school children. I was told to start small by the London team. If this is small wait till next year!

A big thankyou to you all for sharing my vision of bringing Mitzvah Day to Melbourne and making it such a success in its inaugural year. (Put away your t-shirts in a safe place to put on again next year). Yeshakoach – congratulations and looking forward to working together again next year and reaching even further through the community.

It was wonderful seeing members of various groups and communities working together on a common project.

The success of the day was due to the hard work of so many committed people.

A special thankyou to the executive committee who really embraced the idea so wholeheartedly and put in so many hours of planning – Debra Korman, Bev Gelbart, Rabbi Shamir Caplan, Rabbi Ralph Genende and also Rabbi Gersh Lazarow and Zeddy Lawrence.

A big thank you to all partner co-ordinators and your teams of volunteers who put in so much effort to make each project a heartfelt success. The stories shared and photos shown at the afterparty really showed the worthwhileness of the day.

Thank you to the many people who helped behind the scenes and to our sponsors Pratt Foundation, Gandel Metals, Australian Jewish News. Your financial support enabled us to spread the word and to stand out with our t-shirts to show the community that Jews come together to perform good deeds in the communities in which they live. Projects were undertaken both within the Jewish community and well beyond it and were very much appreciated by all.

David Southwick MP attended and assisted at a number of projects and was so impressed that he has announced publicly at the afterparty that he intends bringing it up in Parliament and suggest initiating a national day of social action spearheaded by Mitzvah Day.

You will be able to see coverage of the day’s events in the Australian Jewish News, hard copy, online, and as an app on ipad.

Please share your stories with friends. Write letters to local newspapers as well as the Age and Herald Sun. Circulate photos and keep in touch.

Once again thank you everyone for making my dream come true.

Judy Feiglin

20 November 2011

PS Please share this thank you email with your teams