Wing: Service
SSE Christmas Drop
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Toronto York Service team, in collaboration with the Education wing prepared and delivered 200 gift bags containing various holiday treats to each of the children’s homes.
2020 Non-Perishable Food-Drive – Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Mississauga – Central
A Food-Drive was arranged by Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Mississauga – Central to commemorate our Beloved Swami’s Mahasamadhi.
Winter Coat Drive – Gratitude In Giving
A Winter Coat Drive was organized by the Downtown Eastside Community, Vancouver on November 10th, 2019 to make the cold weather more bearable for needy people in the region.
‘Annadhanam’- Seva Food Bank Drive
Mississauga, in the Greater Toronto Area. Around 900 families depend on this food bank every month and this number drastically increased during the pandemic as a lot of people had been laid off their jobs. It was the Ladies wing who proposed this initiative; however, there was a lot of coordinated support from all the wings during the coordinators meeting. The idea of picking the items from the members’ houses on specified Saturdays came up during the meeting. Once the plan was agreed upon, a broadcast email was sent out to all the members to take part in our first ‘Food Bank Seva – via pick up’. The email included the hand washing, hygiene guidelines and informational poster which had items the Food bank needed with recommended guidelines for volunteers. A spreadsheet was prepared to help the teams in having a record of names and addresses. Tremendous support and enthusiasm marked this initiative. The Seva and the Ladies Wing coordinated to pick up the food items from the members’ homes. Many members who were not able to personally buy the food items donated money to the service coordinator. The food items were picked were weighed after the first and second pick up. The first Saturday pick was 550 pounds and the second pick up came to 40 pounds. which was later dropped off by the coordinators of the Ladies wing and the Seva Wing to the Food Bank location at Slough Street, Mississauga. The Cooksville Sai Centre’s “Food Bank Seva-via pick up” is a humble offering towards Aradhana Day Mahotsavam.
Walk For Values 2019
The 17th Annual Walk For Values was held in Toronto, Canada on Sunday May 26, 2019 in the heart of the city at Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto City Hall. Under a beautiful blue sky, the opening ceremonies commenced at 10 am with the Canadian National Anthem and the Walk For Values Anthem to a crowd of over 2000 participants standing together in unity to spread the message of the five Human Values of Love, Peace, Truth, Right Conduct, and Non-Violence. The walk called upon fellow Torontonians to share their vision of a world where all are unified by human values.
“Melody of Divine Love” – Musical program for Senior’s Home
March is a celebration of green and yellow, so we had the children wear green and yellow for St. Patrick’s day. We chanted opening prayers which was followed by a Ganesh bhajan called Gauri Ganesh sung by the youngest children of the group. Next a bhajan called The Lord gave the World was sung. This bhajan reminds us to be grateful to the Lord for the gift of this beautiful world.
Monthly SSE Narayan Seva – Sandwich preparation and donation to Drop-In-Center
The Calgary Drop-In Centre offers shelter and meals for hundreds of homeless people all year round. This service activity called as Narayan Seva involves the preparation and distribution of sandwiches, granola bars, and non-perishable food to the Calgary Drop In center that was initiated about a decade ago.
Home for Dinner
The Ronald MacDonald Foundation is a charitable organization that built accommodation facilities near children hospitals in several North American cities to host attendants (parents, siblings, grandparents etc.) of children receiving treatment in the children hospitals. Several charitable and other organizations sign up for volunteering including cooking meals in these facilities in support of these attendants who usually become very busy taking care of their children and have no time to care for themselves. Calgary Sai Centre’s participation in this activity was initiated in the beginning of 2017.
Cooking and serving lunch for homeless people
The Calgary Drop-In Centre offers shelter and meals for hundreds of homeless people all year round. Several charitable and other organizations routinely offer volunteering services including cooking and serving meals. A few devotees have been cooking and serving lunch on every third Saturday of the month in the name of Sri Sathya Sai Centre for nearly 25 years.
Sharing, Caring & Knitting for God organized by the Ladies Wing
Swami has taught us all the importance of “Love all Serve all” and Swami has often said that service (Manav Seva) is service to God (Madhava Seva). In support of Swami’s mission, on the 19th of May 2018, the Ladies wing initiated a Sadhana called “Sharing, Caring and Knitting HIS Love Together”. The goal of this Sadhana was to serve the less fortunate ones through knitting needy items while engaging in Swami’s namasmarana.