Eye - 27 October 2023
Paving a path to peace
Friends in Hitchin Meeting have been hard at work fundraising for a new addition to their Peace Garden.
Local Friend Chris Kell set the scene: ‘It has taken several years to convert our Quaker burial ground into a Peace Garden for use by the people of Hitchin. Our Meeting house stands in the centre of a one-way system in the town, built on stilts to protect old burial stones.
‘In response to the world war one centenary events (2014-18) our Meeting began to work on creating a Peace Garden in the grounds. We started with a conscientious objectors seat, dove-shaped pond, interfaith picnic table, peace pole… and have finished with a “Unity” sculpture, sundial and mosaic.’
So what inspired the latest addition? ‘The aim of the path is two-fold – to connect up points of interest in the garden and to ensure that those with mobility issues have as much access to the garden as others.’
But popping a path in a peace garden, though delightfully full of ‘p’s as a sentence, is not quite so straightforward as it might sound – cue Quaker creativity!
‘We are not a Meeting with any money to spare so have had to fundraise for most of our installations and in this our local authority, North Herts Council, has been very helpful. We raised money for the sculpture through crowdfunding and decided to try our hand at holding a fundraising quiz for the path.
‘Fundraising in this way also helps to promote the activities of Friends more widely. We had posters up in every local venue and, of course, posted them online to Meetings in our area and to friends of Friends.
‘We needed to raise £3,500 to have the path made. £1,000 was donated by a local councillor through his locality budget; £1,500 was agreed through Local Meeting funds, and we had £1,000 to raise.
‘We were astonished and gratified to raise £940 in entrance fees at £10 per head (some people donated but couldn’t come), £235 through a raffle on the night (yes, we discussed whether this was encouraging gambling and decided not), and £28.50 from cakes.
‘We needed to pay for the hire of a church hall (the Meeting house has nothing like the space needed) and catering for nibbles from Costco. The quiz master(s) – a local vicar and her husband – gave their services for free. We ended up with just over £1,000 from that one-night quiz.’
Chris writes: ‘We hope that both the path itself and our activities putting on the quiz have widened awareness of the Peace Garden.’ The Meeting held a walking meditation using the new path on the International Day of Peace on 21 September.
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