Toronto Youth Walk for Breast Cancer
By: Prabhjot Dhanoa and Sunil Bhutani

On a bright Sunday morning, over 125 youth (along with a handful of adults young at heart) gathered at the Toronto Nirankari Bhawan, all equipped with their running shoes to walk 5km for breast cancer. A bank was having a nationwide walk to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. When saints found out about this walk, the planning began to have a youth delegation from the Nirankari Mission join these individuals in this walk. Initially we thought it was going to be about thirty young saints, but with the blessing of His Holiness Satguru Baba Hardev Singh Ji, we had an overwhelming turnout for our first youth organized event. Children as young as ten years old were participating. In addition, the Toronto Youth Sangat was also able to raise over $3,800 in donations from friends, family and relatives in less than three weeks.

Armed with their new white "Sant Nirankari Mission" t-shirts (made for the first time), and water bottles, they took a minute to organize themselves for photo opportunities. Once at Chinguacousy Park in Brampton, saints were given numbers and pink ribbons (worn in support of breast cancer) for the walk. With such discipline, everyone was ready and stretching at the Start line with over 2500 other individuals. We received compliments on our t-shirts that also supported the slogan "Religion Unites, Never Divides" along with our website www.nirankari.com. Our Youth Delegation was here to support a great cause, and to create awareness of the Sant Nirankari Mission.

Once the race began some of us were in the front, others lagged behind, while some equipped with the mission's pamphlets were talking to people about our mission.  We felt united and blissful, knowing we were representing our Mission well, and helping a great cause. While the 5km walk was tiring for some, it was nice to see at the finish line, saints waiting for everyone and cheering on the rest of us who were out of shape! Some of us hadn't walked this much all year, and some thought they had lost a couple of pounds. After the race was over, we came back to the Bhawan just in time for Vichaar.

Our mission stands for Universal Brotherhood, and our Satguru teaches us the importance of community involvement and sewa. With all these teachings it was nice to be able to practice what we have been taught. Just doing something in your practical life makes all the difference. There is a saying that goes, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." This was the first event organized by the youth and with Baba Ji's blessings there will be more to come.