Cherry tree to be planted with local primary school to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2018
Shropshire Council has organised a special week of activities to commemorate annual Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD), Saturday 27 January 2018. This is linked in to efforts to grow a cherry tree orchard of remembrance with schools across Shropshire, which began with the planting of a tree at Mereside C of E Primary School in the east of Shrewsbury in 2015.
(left to right): Mark Michaels from the Jewish community; Joyce Barrow, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities; Reverend Ken Chippindale, from the Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum; and Lois Dale, Shropshire Council’s rurality and equalities specialist., by the display.
The main focus for 2018 is the planting of a tree in an interfaith ceremony with pupils at Trinity C of E Primary School in Ford, to the west of Shrewsbury. The ceremony is being held at 11.30am on Friday 26 January 2018.
Mark Michaels from the Jewish community and Imam Sohayb Peerbhai from the Muslim community will talk to the children, and help them with lighting a candle and with planting of the 2018 tree. Roger Evans, local Shropshire Councillor for Longden, is also supporting the event, where the pupils will share what they have been doing in preparation for the tree planting. The Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum will be represented by Reverend Ken Chippindale in a ceremony at 9.30am that morning at Mereside to measure their tree, whilst the local vicar will take part at Trinity.
The Friday ceremonies are the final activity at the end of a week that will have started with a tree planting ceremony at Bishop Hooper School in south Shropshire on Monday 22 January morning, continuing with a display from Wednesday 24 January in the foyer at Shirehall about the HMD trees that have been planted to date across the county. This includes five that were planted with secondary schools last year. The display carries through into Wednesday 31 January, and is open to the public. It also features information about the 2018 Theme, which is ”The Power of Words”.
Joyce Barrow, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities, said:
“I am delighted that the council is working with local children in such a moving and fitting way to commemorate the Holocaust and other genocides in a way that is age appropriate. I hope that the planting and measuring of the trees across the county helps them to really think about the theme of ”The Power of Words” and the positive ways in which they can show care for each other and for the environment in everything that they do.
“I am also very pleased to welcome Nicola Toms from the National Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to Shropshire for the ceremonies on Friday 26 January, where she will be able to see all the work that our children have been doing, and the beautiful county in which they and the trees will grow and flourish.“
(left to right): Mark Michaels from the Jewish community; Joyce Barrow, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities; Reverend Ken Chippindale, from the Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum; and Lois Dale, Shropshire Council’s rurality and equalities specialist, by the display.
Woodside Academy in Oswestry, where the 2016 tree was planted, are making arrangements for a ceremony to measure their tree. The Bishop Hooper tree is in fact a replacement, kindly donated by the South Shropshire Interfaith Forum, of which Mr Michaels and Imam Peerbhai are members, after the tree that was planted in 2017 was dug up by rabbits.
Further information
The background here is that the council is continuing efforts to grow a cherry tree orchard of remembrance across Shropshire, working with primary and secondary schools and inter faith forums and local Shropshire Councillors. We identify a primary school each year, and are seeking to spread the orchard across the county. The orchard had a growth spurt last year, when we were also able to provide for five secondary schools to have trees as well, through the Incredible Edible project running that year. Having begun in the centre in 2015, with Mereside C of E School, we have planted in the north at Woodside Academy in Oswestry and in the south at Bishop Hooper School in Ashford Carbonell, and are now back in the central area again for 2018. We will turn our eyes north for 2019.
The council works closely with the South Shropshire Inter Faith Forum and the Shrewsbury Inter Faith Forum on this project, having been delighted to benefit from the input of members of both Forums in previous years. Local Shropshire Councillors are involved in the ceremonies, and this year the regional support worker for the HMD Trust, Nicola Toms, will be at both events on the Friday.
The display in the foyer at Shirehall runs through from Wednesday 25 to Wednesday 31 January 2018. The foyer is passed through by workforce and councillors as well as people from partner organisation and members of the public, so there is good potential for wide sharing of the 2018 Theme on the Power of Words, not least through people talking to each other about it.
For more information about the 2018 theme, please see resources on the HMD Trust website at www.hmd.org.uk
A round up of previous HMD cherry tree planting activity by Shropshire Council is available on the council website at shropshire.gov.uk.
