New Hope Senior Citizens of Brampton

Annual senior’s community award ceremony was held at The Gore Meadows Community Centre & Library ( 10150 The Gore Road, Brampton). June is senior’s month, mothers and fathers combined parents’ day was celebrated as usual by gifting all more than 150 senior members of the club. Shirts to men and purses to ladies were given individually by the consulate general of India in Toronto.

“We stand together” for Alberta wildfire victims

Brampton teens team up to raise funds

Over the last two weeks, two of Brampton’s schools – Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School and Chiguacousy Secondary School – organized  a successful fundraiser to support the victims of Alberta’s wildfires. The idea came to fruition when two teens and friends, Mansimran Kaur of Notre Dame and Avneet Singh of Chinguacousy  decided to do something for the victims of Alberta’s wildfires. The duo became friends as they’re both Flight Sergeants at Brampton’s 758 Argus Air Cadet squadron.

Within a week of conceiving the idea, the duo convinced teachers at their respective schools to begin a fundraiser, created marketing material, and a motivational video with students at Notre Dame declaring, “We stand together” with the victims of the wildfires. At Notre Dame, Mansimran wore a crossing-guard’s vest and headed out into the school parking lot every morning soliciting donations from parents. Taking a page out of the firefighter book and help from her teacher Mr. Tramble, she used a boot to collect funds – as a sign of respect to the firefighters trying to control the fire in Alberta.

“Every night, she’d come home, announce how much she’d raised, proclaim it wasn’t enough and figure out how to raise more. She must’ve called 20 local businesses to solicit donated raffle prizes. Then, one day she came downstairs beaming with happiness and said that Cineplex decided to donate movie tickets. We were in awe of her motivation”, her parents had to say. Similarly, Avneet got sponsored tickets from Canada’s Wonderland to conduct a raffle at his school. Akal Fire, a contractor for the Catholic District School Board, also donated 10 Tim Hortons gift cards.

Through their efforts, Mansimran collected $1,330 at Notre Dame and Avneet a similar amount at Chiguacousy. These funds will further be matched, two dollars for one, by the federal and provincial governments – bringing the total to over $6,000 – to be donated to the Canadian Red Cross. In addition to the funds, the duo also received passes to the CNE, Roots gift cards, Tim Hortons gift certificates, vouchers to the Art Gallery of Ontario, and Cineplex tickets to be used as raffle prizes!