ETOBICOKE: The Gujarat Public Affairs Council of Canada (GPAC) celebrated the festival of Diwali and Hindu New Year, with live music, Bollywood dances, raffle draws and speeches by Chief Guests at the EST Banquet Hall in Etobicoke recently.
Consul General of India (Toronto), Mrs. Apoorva Srivastava and Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown were Guests of Honor at the event.
Also attending the celebrations was Infrastructure Minister of Alberta, Prasad Panda, MP and former federal minister Kirsty Duncan.
Congratulatory messages were sent to GPAC by Premier Doug Ford , MPP Deepak Anand, Mayor of Toronto John Tory and Mayor of Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Mrs. Bijal Patel. Former Gujarat Gaurav awardees and board Members along with all Advisory Council members were also present.
The event began with a ‘Deep Pragatya’, followed by National Anthems of Canada and India. The guests were welcomed with specialities like mathiya/mafda (Deep fried snacks) & penda/kajukatri (sweets).
Dhaval Vediya, President of GPAC, addressed the 575+ audience and he reiterated that GPAC was an umbrella organization for 430,000 Gujaratis in the GTA.
He also introduced 6 new female members and also 5 others who signed up. CIBC was the lead sponsor for this event, supported by another 35 organizations. Mrs. Srivastava provided additional information about programs led by CGI and Govt. of India. Mayor Patrick Brown spoke about his Indian and Gujarat connections.
GPAC introduced 3 concepts which were well received by all:
1.Inclusion and Diversity
2.Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation endorsement and donations (Vijay Pandya, ex-Director)
3.Reduction of Single use plastic
GPAC Directors – Bhupendra Raval, Nayan Brahmbhatt, Bhavik Parikh & Jitendra Vyas coordinated the event and provided overall leadership. Event committee comprised of Jignesh Patel Secretary, Event Chair- Rajesh Shah, Rajesh Brahmbhatt (VP) and Rajnikant Patel.
Bollywood Tunes orchestra entertained the crowd with some awesome music and songs by Sunil Patel. here were 7 raffle prizes, with the first prize was an Apple watch.