News & Announcements
December
Pillaiyar Nonbu
Message from Incoming President:
Hello CNS members,
We had a very successful Pillayar Nonbu function on Dec 24th at the Sringeri Temple with over 214 elais taken. The function was well organized by Sethuraman-Nirmala & Arun Kumar-Karthika families, along with the support of the CNS committee led by Raj Valliappan Annan. The event started with Bhajans by children and adults, followed by Deepa Aaradhana for Pillayar. At the end of the function, two volunteers came forward to run the 2024 Pillayar Nonbu function; Arunachaleswaran Chidambaram and Meena Muthuraman - thank you to them both for volunteering; We look forward to supporting you with the next year's function.
Yelam
At Pillayar Nonbu we also had a record-breaking Yelam collection in which we raised $33,484. Your generous contributions will help many underprivileged children fund their university education and support others with marriage and medical assistance. It was nice to see Yelam contributions from many youngsters, and past CNS members. 33,000 dollars is a significant donation from our small group of Canada Nagarathars, which is reflective of our community's generosity and commitment to the well-being of others. This success is due to our strong community involvement in the Yelam. The auction was led by V Pal Annan and as always, he did a fantastic job engaging us to contribute to such a great cause. The Yelam would not have been successful if not for the families who were so gracious to donate items, purchase items from India and Canada, and transport them to the function. Once again, an outstanding job by all involved, and it is great to see the hard work from everyone be rewarded with such a successful Yelam!
Change of committee
The Pillayar Nonbu function also marked the transition from the previous committee to the new one and we want to thank the past committee for all their hard work during the past two years. Raj Valliappan Annan successfully led the committee and managed to engage all social activities solely with membership funds without taking a penny from Yelam funds, which is remarkable. He has introduced a new CNS event during his term which is Murugan Thirukalyanam, at the SVBF Temple. Everyone enjoyed the event and got blessings from Lord Murugan. Thanks to Arun Chockalingam Annan for being the advisor to the committee and for helping to get the SVBF hall rental at a nominal rate. Working with a bank in India, he managed to quickly and efficiently e-transfer funds to hundreds of deserving students for education - thank you, Annan. Thanks to Nachiappan Muthukaruppan - CNS Secretary, for coordinating and executing the CNS committee initiatives including marriage assistance with ease and efficiency. The Education committee led by Soundaram Lakshmanan processed all the education applications and awarded around 205 scholarships for the year 2023 at Rs.8,000 - thank you for your commitment. Also thanks to Haripriya Ambalavanan for assisting Soundaram throughout the process. The Social Committee led by Kannathal Nachiappan and Karthik Chockalingam managed to coordinate all the social activities with the support of their entire families and successfully managed to keep us entertained for over three hours at a time; well done. Thanks to Sindhu Vijay for stepping in and helping the social committee throughout the tenure whenever needed. Our Treasurer, Meena Suppiah Achi efficiently managed to collect and disburse large amounts of funds supporting CNS initiatives - we appreciate your dedication. Thanks to Ambalavanan Meenakshisundaram for successfully managing the CNS website and streamlining it as well. Murugappan Ramanathan Annan managed the monthly Bhajan with ease - thank you for your support. Thanks to V Pal Annan, who was our NSNA representative and successfully linked our Sangam to other Nagarathars from all around the world. Thanks to Vairam Palaniappan for successfully editing and issuing two Vaanga Pazhagalam magazines. He was able to collect the supplementary bursary of Rs. 7,000 for 22 students for the year 2023 through the magazine - thank you for your commitment. Also, thanks to the sponsors for their generous contributions. New CNS committee is as follows:
- President: Sathya Kannan
- Secretary: Karthika Arunkumar
- Treasurer: Manickam Sivalingam
- Social Committee: Swedha Vairam and Sigapriya Subramaniam
- Education Committee: Swarnavalli Nachiappan, Ramanathan Lakshmanan and Nagasubramaniam Kumarappan
- NSNA Representative: Ramanathan Andiyappan
- Web Editor: Haripriya Ambalavanan
- Magazine Editor: Subathra Ganesh
- Past President: Raj Valliappan
There are a few changes to the committee structure as proposed and accepted at the Pillayar Nonbu function. The Secretary will additionally take up the Bhajan Coordination work. The Social Committee and Education Committee will now have three committee members due to the increased volume of work. The Social Committee is looking for a third member, so if you are interested, please let us know. The Magazine Editor has now officially been added as a functional committee member, after 5 years of contribution to the community.
As mentioned during the Pillayar Nonbu function, this new committee is primarily made up of younger blood, but we are looking for support and guidance from all our elders and past committee members. If you have any suggestions or ideas for improvement, please let us know. We appreciate your input and support.
Looking forward to another great two years.
Thanks,
Sathya Kannan
November
Diwali
CNS Diwali event was conducted on November 26 at Sringeri Vidya Bharathi Foundation. Around 110 people attended the event. The event started with a devotional song sung by our budding singers, followed by an inaugural speech by our President Raj Valliappan. We had variety of performances from little boys, girls and teens such as singing, dancing and keyboard. Finally comes the greatest hit of the event 'buzzer round' organized by the Social committee where the whole group had so much fun ! We had a scrumptious potluck meal prepared by our achi's.
Thank you to everyone for making this event a great success!
July
Summer Picnic
CNS picnic was held on a bright and sunny day on July 9th at Erindale Park, Mississauga. The event was well attended by over 100 members with many new families joining us. The picnic started with a bang with Barbeque and welcome drinks. Adults and Kids had lots of fun playing games like Cricket etc. to burn off the calories . All that hard work, made us ravenously hungry & we were treated to a sumptuous and delicious potluck lunch. We relaxed under the shady trees and took strolls along the river catching up with friends. We had a high tea with tasty samosas, cakes and coffee in the evening before winding up. Everyone enjoyed the picnic with great weather, good food and wonderful company all along!!
June
Mother's Day & Father's Day
The Mothers day & Father's day event was conducted on June 24 at Sringeri Vidya Bharathi Foundation. Around 100 people attended the event. The event started with a devotional song sung by Navya Meenakshi Nallan, followed by an inaugural speech by our President Raj Valliappan. Our kids performed an acapella performance along with Ganesh Annamalai on Keyboard and guided by Lakshmanan Perichiappan as the dedication to all the moms and dads. We had amazing dance performances from Little boys, girls and teens choreographed by Kiruthika Karthik. We had our very own Pattimandram on the topic who helps kids more - Mom or Dad presided by V.Pal. We had a scrumptious potluck meal. The program ended with a group photo.
Thanks to all the CNS members who attended the event and made it a grand success.
May
Murugan Thirukalyanam
We added this new CNS event for this year based upon the feedback from our members. Murugan Thirukalyanam event was conducted on May 20th at SVBF Temple. We had over 50 people attending the event. CNS members brought all the items for the thirukalyanam and it is great to see the generosity of the Canadian Nagarathars. Many people worked behind the scenes to make this function a grand success. Many thanks to Raj Valliappan for arranging the Murugan thirukalyanam with the temple and handling all the logistics. Temple provided delicious dinner at SVBF hall for all. We thank all of the volunteers for their efforts. We would like to acknowledge all of the peoples efforts for making this function a grand success.
We also would like to thank all the CNS members who voluntarily brought items for thirukalyanam. Once again thanks to all CNS members for attending this event and making it a grand success.
February
Murugan Abhishekam
Hello Nagarathars, Thank you to the CNS Members for making Murugan Abhishekam a grand success. We had over 100 people attending the event and many people contributed generously for this function. Some of the funds were provided by CNS members without sponsoring any abhishekam items and it is great to see the generosity of the Canadian Nagarathars. Many people worked behind the scenes to make this function a grand success. Many thanks to V. Pal for arranging the Murugan abhishekam with the temple and handling all the logistics. Scheduling a large function at Richmond Hill Temple is not an easy task as you have to deal with many volunteers who do not make any decisions. With larger than anticipated attendance at the function, we had to make a last minute increase in Prasadam orders which the temple did not agree to initially. V. Pal worked with the temple to ensure that each family received one order of each Prasadam. Thank you, V. Pal, for all of your hard work. Prasadam was put in containers and packed in plastic bags by CNS members during the function. We thank all of the volunteers for their efforts. Thanks to all of the people for preparing the Abhishekam items prior to the function at the temple. We would like to acknowledge all of the peoples efforts for making this function a grand success.
We also would like to thank all the CNS members who voluntarily bought items for abhishekam. Once again thanks to all CNS members for attending this event and making it a grand success.