Roots and Wings: A Celebration Through Shared Stories and Reflections

Roots and Wings: A Celebration Through Shared Stories and Reflections

Celebration of 15^th charity anniversary

Sunday

July 27^th, 2025

11:00 am EDT

On July 27th, 2025, we gathered at the Venu Event Space in Vaughan, Ontario to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Centre for Conscious Awareness – Canada. To celebrate, we shared stories between generations, wrote letters to our past or future selves and received well wishes from several impactful members of our community. In addition, the charity’s founder, Srinivas Arka, spoke during an interactive discussion about the core values of CCA, communication between different generations and the future of CCA Canada. This was a youth co-ordinated event. Host Elizabeth Webster (Event Coordinator Youth Mental Health) led the planning of this event. Co-host Jordan Meers (Event Coordinator Youth Mental Health) helped plan the event and the anniversary video. They were supported by Holly Williams (Youth Marketing Coordinator), Jessica Franey (Youth Administrative Coordinator), Wancong Song (Technical Lead) and Shannon Schmidt (Event and Marketing Support Staff).

Our celebration started with a beautiful jazz rendition of music from Srinivas Arka’s album, Saaroogovaum, performed by the Dennis Lee Trio. This trio is comprised of Dennis Lee on the piano, Steve Farrugia on the drums and Daniel Botos on the bass. To honour 15 years, this event included a video that highlighted and summarized CCA’s programs, initiatives and events over the years, starting back in 2010 with the charity’s inauguration. We were joined by two local politicians, Laura Smith who is the MPP for Thornhill, and Michael Guglielmin who is the MP for Vaughn-Woodbridge. Both expressed their appreciation of CCA’s senior and youth-centered initiatives in the community. We were grateful to hear from Mrs. Satya Arora, a dedicated community volunteer, who described the importance of the work CCA Canada has done and continues to do for her community. In addition, we received anniversary wishes from people around the world through a video played at the event.

Co-hosts Elizabeth Webster and Jordan Meers led two interactive sessions:

i. Sharing Our Stories – Discussion on the following questions:
a. If you could trade lives with ONE person for a day who would it be?
b. What’s a piece of advice you’ve received from someone younger or older than you that has stuck with you?
c. What is something you wish people from other generations would understand about yours?
d. What’s a simple joy or childhood memory that still makes you smile?

ii. Letter writing exercise
a. What do you appreciate about who you’ve become—or who you’re becoming?
b. What challenges have shaped you, and what did you learn from them?
c. What would you thank yourself for or what advice would you give?
We enjoyed listening to musical performances of the Sedges, a youth indie-fusion band comprised of Fiona James on keyboard, Carlos Mauricio Lara Samano on guitar, Imaad Naved Khan on bass guitar and Gabriel Santiago, drums.

Srinivas Arka answered some questions to spark an interactive discussion:

1. What core values or principles were most important to you in CCA’s foundation, and how do they continue to guide us?
2. As the world changes rapidly, younger and older generations sometimes struggle to see eye to eye. How can we cultivate mutual respect and dialogue so that wisdom flows both ways?
3. As we celebrate this anniversary, where do you see CCA heading in the next 10 or 20 years?
4. This event highlights the different age groups that have shaped CCA over time. In your view, what unique contributions has each group brought to CCA’s growth?

Here are some excerpts from Arka’s responses:

“One core value of Centre for Conscious Awareness is putting more of an emphasis on giving and sharing, not always taking. Albeit, one may have to take as a part of a transaction or communication. The world belongs to us. We are not only separate individuals, we are a part of the world and the world is within us and we are reflecting this constantly. The core value is to give more, think deep, say less and bring our noble thoughts into action. Another core value is to meditate in our own way to improve our conscious awareness and that will help to give our knowledge, insights and resources to the world.”

“Each person is like a walking mirror, or a walking cosmic satellite, and their presence really makes us learn something different and more about ourselves. There is something unique in us each time we meet a new person. Always be open to meet new people in your life, but respect who you have met so far.”

“Self-centeredness is our enemy; it blocks our growth and it prevents others from connecting with us.”

“Our smiles, emotions, thoughts, love and positive vibrations have no tax. The more we develop a giving nature, the more profound we feel.”

We held a raffle for attendees with prizes. We concluded our event symbolically with a cake cutting, which was followed by a delicious vegetarian Italian lunch. Overall, this event was a captivating day full of recognition of our service and impact over 15 years and introspective questions that invoked meaningful discussions between youth and seniors.