White Roses for Jo Cox - can you help?

Here's a little call for help for all you knitters out there! Can you knit a white Rose for a special Jo Cox memorial in June?

Barbara, who works in our shop is helping her niece and the school she works at with this project. We will happily take roses dropped at the Edinburgh shop from local folks. Or send to direct to Barbara from wherever you are:

Barbara Keenan

41 Howden Hall Court

Edinburgh

EH16 6UZ

Here is a bit of information about the white roses and why they need them. 

"On Friday 16th June, 2017 it will be exactly one year since the MP, Jo Cox, was tragically murdered in Birstall, West Yorkshire. The schools (23 primary and secondary schools) in the local area are working together on a project to raise the awareness of all young people about tolerance, equality, diversity, respect and community cohesion. 

The school children are keen to continue the legacy of Jo Cox's work around developing the community to be a stronger place, where people are united and work together to bring about long term, sustainable improvements in terms of employment, education, life skills and much more. Jo Cox had several projects underway about bringing the community together, tackling loneliness and supporting people in the community who may feel isolated as well as people who have mental health issues etc. 

Our schools believe in the values of equality, respect and celebrating diversity. Our ethos is all about Achieve, Believe and you will Succeed. If children believe they can be a better people and bring about positive change, then we are half way there in building a better community and a brighter future both locally and nationally. 

Our learning community at Upper Batley High School celebrates diversity and works hard to tackle stereotypes around gender, cultural matters and ethnicity. Jo Cox worked closely with our school and she was an inspirational woman who really valued education. Our boys are passionate about continuing her work within our community. Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day. She believed in equality, tolerance and humanity, and that people should work together to create safe and cohesive communities to provide a better future for ourselves and our children. Our boys are continuing her legacy and are involved in a number of projects ranging from environmental matters, feeding families from poorer backgrounds, supporting hearing and visually impaired children in India to working on local mental health projects such as the Dementia Friends. A key focus of our work in schools has to be tackling the poverty of aspiration and raising the hopes, ambitions and aspirations of our young people. They can be whatever they want to be if they set their mind to it and work hard enough to achieve it. Why not?

There are many different projects taking place this summer  and this school's project starts on 16th June with a PSHCE (Personal Social health & Citizenship) project that runs for 2 weeks in all schools and will culminate in a celebration event on Thursday 29th June where 1000 children, together with volunteers, will walk together through the town. The walk goes to a stadium where the children take part in a range of drama, art and sports activities to all work together around the key principles. It is for this walk that we are hoping to have 100 white roses for the children and staff to wear.  The white rose symbolizes Yorkshire and Jo Cox. We are hoping to be able to re use the roses every year that the event takes place. 

Our community is resilient and will come back stronger, better, more positive and more united following the atrocities of last June, and exciting projects such as this will play a key part in building a better future for Batley and Birstall. This is an exciting opportunity to showcase the talent, creativity and positivity we have in this area."

What a wonderful initiative! I have made one white rose - can you make one too?!

If you need a pattern then here is a link to one. And here is a link to a crochet pattern on Attic 24. Please make sure you include the green leaves so it looks like a corsage - thanks!

Thanks everyone!