BLOOMINGTON - Moses Montefiore Temple celebrated its annual Mitzvah Day Sunday by performing good deeds for others, including members of other species.

Hallie Martin-Chadwick, 9, Victoria Garner and Rachel Marx, both 8, all of Bloomington, made posters for Central Illinois Small Animal Rescue in Colfax to help CISAR place its adoptable pets in homes.

Al Novick of Normal, who teaches the seventh and eighth grades of the temple's religious school, printed pictures of the animal rescue group's occupants with the each animal's breed, age and sex from the shelter's Web site. He then gave the pictures and vital statistics to the girls who pasted the pictures on paper and wrote encouragements to adopt the pets.

Mitzvah Day is associated with the idea of "Tikun Olam," which means repairing the world, through good deeds that fulfill the commandments, or Mitzvot of Judaism.

Victoria showed Tami Martin, a teacher of the religious school's third and fourth grades, a poster that she had made with a picture of a female pointer named Mandy and the caption, "Adopt Mandy the dog. You'll love her."

"Did you sign it?" asked Martin. "All great artists sign their own work."

Rachel Marx, 8, of Bloomington, produced a poster promoting a white dog named Jake that read, "Adopt me, please." Rachel and her mother, Cathie Marx, volunteer for the Humane Society and have 11 pets at home.

Hannah Lechty, 10, of Normal filled donated socks with tennis balls and tied them at the ends in order to make chew toys for CISAR's dogs.

In the kitchen, Hallie, Victoria and Rachel baked tuna cookies for CISAR's feline residents and bone-shaped "fox run dog biscuits" for the organization's canine tenants, with the help of Mitzvah Day co-chair Cathy Weiss.

"We made these last year for the cats," Weiss said to the girls as she helped them kneed the tuna treat dough. "The cats said they really liked them. They meowed."

Weiss also made brownies for Clare House food pantry.

Cathy's husband, Larry Weiss, conducted a free-throw activity in which participants donated $1 to shoot five free throws at an indoor hoop. The collected money went to Nothing But Nets, an organization sponsored by the Reform Jewish movement that provides insecticide-treated mosquito nets to Darfur refugees to help prevent the spread of malaria. One net is provided for every $10.

Victoria made three of the five shots that she threw and, for participation, Weiss gave her a mardi gras necklace with pink beads.

The temple's youth group, for seventh-graders through high school seniors, made activity books with crossword puzzles and stickers for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital clinic at the Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. Temple members also brought items such as canned goods for the Western Avenue Community Center and toiletries for The Salvation Army's Safe Harbor homeless shelter.

A pizza lunch was served to the dozens of participants, and all seemed to be enjoying the activities.

"It's a fun day and it's just to try to involve everybody in thinking about somebody else," said Myra Gordon, Mitzvah Day co-chair.

Hannah Lechty, 10, of Normal, agreed. "It's fun!" she exclaimed as she prepared to shoot a free throw.