Christmas get together
Our Christmas gathering was held on Jan. 12, 2024, from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm at Whyte Ridge Community Centre. The event planning committee scheduled several proceedings allowing all attendees to participate.
Lileena Mendis inaugurated the session by conveying Christmas and New Year blessings to all. Singing two Christmas carols in English and Sinhala was the first event. A few games were lined up for participants to enjoy. Hama Perera volunteered to recite some Sinhala poems to bless all seniors. A Christmas gift bag was presented to each person as a souvenir. Indra Ariyaratne President, SLSM gave the vote of thanks.
As a special treat, appetizers, main meal, and desserts were home-made. Everyone posed for a group photo at the end and the dance floor was opened for dancing fans.
Trinity United Church: retirement celebration farewell for minister Elizabeth Brown
Chandani and I attended the lunch and invited Fermin Mendis to join us to celebrate the retirement of Minister Elizabeth Brown. There was a concert by the Sunday School students’ choir and six individuals conducted speeches admiring the minister’s 14 years of service. Elizabeth expressed her gratitude for their presentations.
When my granddaughter was attending Montessori School of Trinity United Church in 2012, I got to know Minister Milly Malavsky. She introduced me to Minister Elizabeth Brown. I attended a variety of events in Trinity United Church including Bible studies, Seniors’ Group and other voluntary events. Still, I am the Secretary of the Trinity United Church Seniors Group.
Involvement in the Trinity United Church helped me establish Sri Lankan Seniors Manitoba in June of 2017 during my tenure as the President of the Sri Lankan Association Manitoba.
To Manitoba Seniors: A bit about Sri Lanka
Pembina Active Living is one of the well regarded and active Seniors’ organizations in the Province of Manitoba. Board Member of Sri Lankan Seniors Manitoba and Vice President of Pembina Active Living Mohamed Ismath invited me to conduct a presentation about Sri Lanka for the benefit of members.
Ismath also invited my wife Chandani to participate. We were delighted to comply and gave the presentation to the Whyte Ridge Community Centre on Jan. 22, 2024, from 1:00-2:00 p.m. I have been presenting talks such as this within the City of Winnipeg free-of-charge for more than a decade. Former Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada Mr. Ahamed A. Jaward sent a commendation to me on this endeavour.
During the presentation interesting discussions were raised such as a comparison of the size of Sri Lanka and Canada as well as free education. Canada is the second largest country of the world with 9.9 million sq. km whereas Sri Lanka is only 65,610 sq. km When I stated that Sri Lanka introduced free education policy in 1945 most of the participants asked number of questions. As Chandani was a retired-school teacher in the state sector she explained other facilities contributed by the Government such as free school uniforms and free textbooks for all students in Government schools.
As a practice I shared a copy of my presentation with the invitee. Similarly, I sent a copy to Renee Vincent, Program Coordinator, Pembina Active Living to share with needy members. She sent me a letter of thanks and Susan Fletcher, Executive Director, Pembina Active Living sent me the feedback from the participants about their extended knowledge on Sri Lanka.
