Category: Uncategorized

In 2021

In 2020 SLYO Canada hosted the first ever Food Drive that Drives to You due to Covid-19 restrictions that were amongst us. As Kathy Calvin said, “Giving is not just about making a donation. It is about making a difference.” ‘Food Drive that Drives To You’ is a simple event that gives back to the community. Let us work together to make a difference on those who struggle and light up their life! Your donations were much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who helped us make the contactless pick up and delivery food drive a success!

In 2021
SLYO Canada hosted our first ever virtual games night. We played interactive Jackbox games and Pictionary. It was great night of fun and good memories made. Thank you all who participated in SLYO Canada’s first ever virtual games night!

With the successful completion of SLYO’s Sharing is Caring event in 2019, SLYO in collaboration with Buddhist Youth Council and Canada Kindful Nation continued the momentum with the 3rd annual Sharing is Caring event on February 15th 2020. Teams made 200 care packages, and were able to distribute them to the homeless people on the streets of downtown Toronto. This would not have been possible without all the donations from the community for food and clothing to make SLYO’ s third annual event a massive success. In particular, the SLYO Toronto Team would like to acknowledge their enthusiastic group of volunteers that made and distributed the care packages. Despite cold weather, this act of kindness towards others let everyone return home with a warmer heart after taking part in this wonderful community event.

The goal of this project was to support the Kirinda National School located in Gampola, Kandy in Central Province, including the Special Needs Unit. One of the Toronto Chapter members, Mr. Allen Gnanam, visited the Special Needs Unit of Kirinda National School for an arts and crafts session in November 2018 and saw that help was needed to renovate the special needs units for the children that attend the school. The kids of the school enjoyed making arts and crafts and then ended the day with singing and dancing. With help from community members, West End Buddist Temple monks, and devotees the team was able to sell about 400 lunch packets. They raised enough funds to support the project from selling the lunch packets and by obtaining monetary donations. The committee had an amazing group of volunteers who worked tirelessly to come to the Temple to prepare food and come in early in the morning on the day of the potluck to cook the meal items and make the packets. This event would not have been successful without the efforts of the community members. The money raised through our facebook fundraiser, monetary donations, and from the Potluck Fundraiser event, we were able to provide the school enough funds to help complete the renovation of the special needs unit. Our SLYO Sri Lanka Chapter helped oversee the renovation project in Sri Lanka and opened the renovated special need unit on January 22, 2020.

With the successful completion of SLYO Toronto’s Sharing is Caring Event in 2018, SLYO in collaboration with Buddhist Youth council and Canada Kindful Nation continued the momentum with the 2nd annual Sharing is Caring event on February 2nd, 2019, creating 150 care packages for the homeless in downtown Toronto. With donations from the community for food and clothing the second annual event was a massive success. With an enthusiastic group of young volunteers, packages were assembled leading up to the event. The packages were then distributed by walking in all areas in downtown Toronto and where the group finally arrived at Good Shepherd to donate all bulk items. Despite walking for over 10kms in the cold and snow, everyone returned home with a joyful heart with their generosity and love partaking in this wonderful community event.

The SLYO Toronto team took the leadership to organize and facilitate a fun holiday social event for the attendees in the community. The event featured several holiday themed activities such as pictures with Santa, Karaoke, and a fashion show. SLYO would like to thank all who attended and the committee members for making this event possible. SLYO team was also able to collect toy donations from attendees to deliver to underprivileged children in the community. New friendships were built and everyone had a great time socializing with each other.