Wing: Service
Siloam Mission Service
The Winnipeg Sai Centre has been carrying out this service activity for several years, both initiated and sustained by two devotees at the Sai Centre.. The service is held once a month on every Saturday. The task is to cook and serve a warm meal at the Siloam mission. In general, the cooking is carried out in the morning over a three hour period. Typically, the devotees prepare macaroni and cheese, mixed vegetables, and beans. The items are stored in an oven until they are served at noon. Siloam provides additional items such as bread or buns, salad and dessert to the menu. This makes for a full warm and sumptuous meal for the under-privileged who frequent the mission.
Harvest Service
The Winnipeg Harvest service activity is on every Wednesday of the week and takes place in the basement of the Sai Centre. It starts with the receipt of food sent to the Centre by truck. The window of receiving can vary between 12 to 1:30 pm. It is quite challenging to receive and unload the food items as they have to be transported to the basement. We generally have a group of three volunteers, especially retired devotees, to carry out this activity. Once the food is received and arranged on the tables, this group of volunteers leave.
Father’s Day Prayers & Bhajan organized by the Ladies Wing
The Cooksville Sai Centre Ladies Wing organized Father’s Day prayers to emphasize the importance of honouring fathers and parents.
“Melody of Divine Love” – Musical program for Senior’s Home
This month the Melody of Divine Love group performed on Sunday, July 22, 2018. The theme for the month was “Celebrate Canada”.
We chose to celebrate Canada Day with the residents of Erin Meadows Retirement Home in the month of July. Despite the month of July being one when most children are away on vacation, the Cooksville Centre, with Swami’s abundant Grace was successful in putting together a wonderful performance with a limited number of children.
Meals on wheels
The Meals on Wheels is an energetic drive that was conducted at the Sri Sathya Sai Centre Mississauga- Central on 25th March. There were 11 volunteers who helped in packing 81 lunch boxes of salad, pasta and roasted potatoes. Sai Ragavan, the service coordinator of the Sri Sathya Sai Centre Mississauga- Central emphasized that the drive is an awareness program to remind us all to share food with those who do not have access to regular meals.
Christmas Carolling
On Sunday December 17th, 2017, SSE students of all ages, young adults, and several adults of the Sai Centre presented a joint Christmas program at the CLSHD Herron Seniors Home. This is the second Christmas program at the senior’s home. The home was introduced to the Sai Centre through a devotee who worked there during her internship as a caregiver. She introduced the Sai Centre and the SSIO to the Activity Director who was happily welcomed the event.
Tree Planting
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Cooksville participated in an annual Tree Planting event in partnership with the City of Mississauga. This took place on Saturday, September 23rd at 2:00pm at Aquinas Park in Mississauga. The day was also the hottest weekend of this year’s summer season. Despite the heat warning issued by the city, enthusiastic volunteers showed their commitment to Swami, in the spirit of service and love of the environment by reporting on time at the site along with members of their families.
Milliken Park Clean up
On April 21st, 2018, The Sathya Sai Centre of Toronto-York participated in the North Scarborough community clean up at Milliken Park. Alongside other members of the Walk for Values team, myriad community groups and families from the community; devotees had the valuable opportunity to demonstrate the Sathya Sai Centre’s values into action. The clean-up was rigorous and messy as all volunteers walked around the perimeter of the park collecting debris, litter and any other waste lying on the ground.
Blood Donation Drive
Tuesday April 17th, was a bitterly cold day, and there was ice on the streets and sidewalks as far as the eyes could see; however, the inclement weather did not dampen the loving spirit and undiluted generosity of Swami’s devotees of Region 1. Region 1 was given a window of time between 6 and 8pm by the Canadian Blood Service. Devotees drove in straight from work despite their hectic schedules, the harsh weather and poor driving conditions.
Monthly Sandwich Service Activity
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Toronto East has been doing this Sandwich service activity for the past 22 years on the first Saturday of every month. It was originally started as a personal service activity by a small group of families in 1993 but became a Centre service activity since 1995. Since then, it has grown significantly both in participation and volume. We have about 15-20 families currently making about 400 sandwiches every month.