By Karon Godson
A woman has gone to the all lengths to make events happen despite COVID-19 having the centre stage! Schools did not provide lists of names of children, ages and gender. Community partners were restricted to allow functions. Ms. Esther Carenza literally went door knocking to find the children for weeks as she was worried their needs may not be fulfilled. The Children’s Holiday Get Together and Other Events cater to these children understanding that COVID-19 has changed the parameters with all its repercussions and with the high probability of a lockdown shortly. Christmas, Diwali, Guru Nanak Gurpurb, Eid, Chinese New Year was also celebrated in advance.
What extraordinary events! Ms. Esther Carenza cares about people almost like in a God-like manner. Such a refreshing change!
Ms. Esther Carenza reports that she was told to give up for this year and wait until the following year to offer events. However, she in fact has been successful and caters to the underserved children. The phone rings off the hook for food, goods and toys.
She sent e-mails and spoke to many professors at York University to engage the children in an educational and innovative way to enhance their life and financial skills.
The sole purpose of her determination was to alleviate the children’s mental health issues. Her kind, compassion, thoughtful and so accommodative position to people’s needs along with her generous sponsors to assist children was quite special. The children are not receiving toys and other goods from other places.
The Children’s Holiday Get Together and Other Events is honouring a little boy, Aryan, who died of a heart attack.
Professor Laurence Harris, a distinguished and kind York University professor and previous Director for the Centre of Vision Research and affiliation with the Canadian Space Agency brought up the spirits of the children with a lovely talk on outer space and subsequently offered a question and answer period to stimulate their appetite for worlds beyond earth. In fact, he will open another talk if there are other children who would like to participate.
Following this function, the Children’s Holiday Get Together and Other Events will have a dance lesson by Jessica Mannara, a Team Canada dancer and Artistic Director & Founder of D’Air Dance Collective with a dance competition for a dance scholarship to an underserved child who has a passion for dance.
Over the years, we have attracted a number of professional musicians from different walks of life will play a host of music for all religions.
An applause should be given to The Body Shop; Data Integrity; Commercial Bakeries; Dr. Ramzi Haddad, Skyview Family & Cosmetic Dentistry and York Lanes Dental; Vito’s No Frills; Mr. Sub (Keele and Finch); D’Air Dance Collective; Cosmetic World; York University; Thai Express (York University); Long & McQuade Musical Instruments (Bloor Street); Joseph Fiore, Photography & Business Mate (647) 818-8615; Parminder Kaur, [email protected], graphic designer and other sponsors.
What an amazing woman, Esther Carenza!
