Helping disenfranchised youth through leadership; Boston Pizza Celebrity Server Night

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

Helping disenfranchised youths get ahead educationally through leadership and empowerment is what the Citizens for the Advancement of Community Development (CACD) is all about. Since 2014 they have been partnering with the famous Boston Pizza at 35 Square One Drive in Mississauga to make this a reality. The franchise owner of Boston Pizza Armin Bansal told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper “This is a great opportunity for bringing community and business together under the same roof.”

It was amazing to see how the event was executed; the leadership candidates from CACD paired up with MPS, MPPS, collectors, and members of the Boston Pizza team, and became part of the serving team. Boston Pizza not only provided the experience for these candidates, but they also donated 10% of the money that was collected in sales from 6:00pm-9:00 pm to CACD.

A number of political figures and a sponsor were on hand on Thursday, March 28^th, 2019, to lend their support towards a deserving cause. Omar Alghabra, a Member of Parliament for Mississauga Centre explained the importance of supporting the youth; “I am here to offer my support to CACD for this workshop that works with young people on empowering them, training them, preparing them for their future career, and getting them engaged in community and society.” Sheref Sabawy, MPP for Mississauga Erin Mills, took a moment to speak with us; “Our government is trying to open Ontario for business, and we are getting closer to businesses to understand their challenges, how we can help, and how can we remove some of the obstacles or red tape. Anything we can do to help businesses prosper and grow. One way is by attending and talking to the people to understand what their issues are at the grassroots level. When I ask someone, “When is the last you saw or met your MP,” and they say, “Never,” there is something wrong.”

Mr. Mark Skidmore, Manager of Facility Maintenance Operations at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada donated a gift basket for the door prize and said his company just loves to help when they can. The CACD Founder and Executive Director Mr. Ron Cunningham, and his wife Mrs. Sonia Cunningham were present ensuring the event ran as smoothly as possible. Earlier in the week, Mr. Cunningham gave TCN an inside view of how CACD operates. “As an organization, we run a number of programs with the key idea of addressing youth development. It’s a model that says positive development equals: positive experience, positive relationships, and positive environment.” The programs are tailored specifically to address some of the issues these youths are going through, as well as help with life skills. It also assists those students who are looking to complete their volunteer hours for certification. Anyone who has completed 40 hours is presented with a certificate from the city of Mississauga; when they do 60 hours, they are presented with a certificate from the Ontario Legislature, and when they have completed 75 hours they are presented with a certificate from the House of Commons.

Rayan Khan and Athar Elahi are two of the CACD senior students who were present, and they were delighted to be a part of the night. “Ron is doing a fantastic job teaching us, helping us and giving us a hint of the corporate world,” explained Rayan. Athar disclosed some of the skills that he has been taught which include leadership skills, mentoring, and community development, “It’s a really good organization!”

Ron took a few final minutes to explain why this program is so important, “Right now I have three members of our board that are under 25, and they were going to high school when I first met them. They have gone on to university and college and are now back helping out at CACD. So many have come back and told me personally what this organization has done for them; it’s a tremendous satisfaction to hear that I am a part of helping people advance in life.”