Sikh temple and nursery celebrate joint 50th
A Sikh temple in Telford and a neighbouring nursery have celebrated their 50th anniversary.
Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Hadley opened 50 years ago alongside the Hadley Under & Over 5s Nursery, and the two have existed side-by-side since. They marked the anniversary with the children to visiting the temple for a tour, to learn about Sikhism and to enjoy a lunch.
Jag Singh Muttu helped to arrange the event and says getting children involved at a young age is important.
"Having young people come here and learn about what we do day-to-day and learn about prayer and the emblem has huge benefits in terms of them getting to know us," he said.
Kerry Jones, setting manager of the nursery, said it was important to continue to traditions of the temple and the nursery working together.
"It's about recognising differences in our community, and bringing those differences together," she said. "We concentrate on promoting modern British values at the nursery, which is tolerance and acceptance of difference and this is just one example of how we do that.
"It celebrates differences and communities existing side-by-side."
Telford & Wrekin mayor Raj Mehta was at the event and says it is the sort of thing he wants to see more of in the borough.
He said: "I launched a project called Building Bridges which is about the youngsters of the borough integrating with the elders of the borough. For me to see this is great. It's two different generations getting together but also two different cultures as well. My vision for the year is to bring communities together so to see this has been a great experience and a prime example of what I'm looking to do."
