Anussa Nithiyananthen, Micheal Vasquez, Wendy Su and Elizabeth Washington
Last weekend the L’Amoreaux Community Recreation Centre, located at 2000 McNicoll Ave, in North East Toronto, hosted Breakfast with Santa. A chance for local families with children ages six to twelve to take part in some Christmas festivities. The centre was packed with families from the community who came out to enjoy some time with the man in the red suite. The kids had an opportunity to have breakfast with Santa, take a photo and receive a gift from the jolly old man.
The Local Youth Council, Steeles L’Amoreaux Youth Empowerment (SLYE) was happy to provide members Micheal Vasquez, Wendy Su, Anussa Nithiyananthen and Elizabeth Washington to help out at the annual Breakfast with Santa. This was the youth empowerment group’s first time being involved with this event and they couldn’t have been more excited about helping out Santa with the photos, serving the food and handing out toys and candy canes to all the children.
Anussa and Micheal are staff with the SLYE group while Wendy and Elizabeth take part in the youth council, helping staff when it comes to things like event planning for Youth Speaks and their United Fall Fest, two of the major events that SLYE will be involved with again in 2014.
Steeles L’Amoreaux Youth Empowerment’s role in the community is to work with youth in the Steeles and L’Amoreaux area in places such as Chester Lee, Glen Dowers, Silver Springs and Bay Mills. They are basically a link for youth in all the surrounding neighborhoods and work to connect them together as a community. SLYE also offers employment services and work experience. Many of their youth members find this a huge benefit due to the very high youth unemployment rate in today’s workforce. SLYE also provides a great opportunity for their members to come together and get to know one another outside their neighbourhood boundaries, connecting with other youth and bringing their entire community closer, bigger and stronger. All of the SLYE members are actively involved in their communities and really enjoy helping out at community events just like the Breakfast with Santa. For more information on how you can get involved with this amazing new youth empowerment group, visit their website http://slye.ca/
