October 2006

Celebrate Toronto - Starting with the Beach

From many of my articles you already know that fostering diversity and cross-cultural connections has been an important cause for me for a long time. As an immigrant in Toronto and as a small business owner who works with very diverse staff members from all over the world, I have had extensive exposure to people from all over the world right here, in my chosen home town, Toronto. Fostering tolerance and understanding between people of different places and backgrounds has become one of the stated missions of my website.

My website deals a lot with these issues. In general my articles and interviews focus on four major topic areas:

- unconventional travel and interesting life journeys
- cross-cultural connections and celebrating diversity
- Canada, this unique multicultural social experiment of ours
- people and organizations who make a difference.

Throughout my adolescence in Europe and my international travel since then, I have been exposed to many places around the world and I believe that Canada, and more specifically Toronto, are unique. Here in Toronto we truly celebrate diversity and multiculturalism. Most of us embrace our multicultural makeup, and immigrants are allowed to retain and celebrate their heritage while they start to embrace their new home. To me travel writing is about more than the sights and the architecture, it's about the people that make a place livable and worth visiting.

In my opinion, Toronto's tolerant mindset is rather unique around the world as evidenced by ethnic tensions all across the globe. What makes Toronto so unique is this multi-ethnic makeup where people from the most diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds co-exist in relative harmony and peace. I really view Toronto as a unique paradigm of tolerance and inclusion, as a model city that could serve as an example for the world. That's why I write about Toronto a lot on my website.

Every time I return from a travel assignment I realize how special Toronto is, which motivated me to embark on a new project entitled "Celebrate Toronto". This project will consist of an extensive collection of articles as well as a series of photo exhibitions, multi-media presentations and neighbourhood portraits. The project will culminate later this year with a fundraising effort for the Scadding Court Community Centre's antigang-antigun intervention project that aims to expose Toronto area youth at risk of falling into the gang lifestyle to life-changing international learning experiences. The hope is to create future community leaders and volunteers who believe in community service and who will become positive role models for their neighbourhoods.

A portion of the revenue of my Celebrate Toronto book and photo sales will also be shared with two other Toronto non-profit organizations: Skills for Change, an immigrant settlement agency that I work with regularly, and a local community agency in each of the neighbourhoods that I profile. For the Beach neighbourhood, Centre 55 will be receiving a portion of the special events revenues.

The Celebrate Toronto article series will encompass landmark sights and attractions, organizations that make a difference, and interesting individuals that make a positive contribution to Toronto's social fabric. Over the next year and beyond, I will spend much of my time interviewing individuals and organizations in different Toronto neighbourhoods that embody the spirit of our city. I hope that this spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance will resonate with audiences across the world.

In March of 2007 the "Celebrate Toronto" project will officially get kicked off with a Photo Exhibition and a series of story-telling events in and about the Beach, my second home. Later this year I will do a neighbourhood portrait of Little Italy, followed by Chinatown / Kensington. My goal is to cover one to two unique Toronto neighbourhoods every year, highlighting the people, the places, the stories.

Here are some existing examples of interesting and outstanding Toronto citizens and organizations that all make a difference in their own way:

- Lenny Lombardi, a pioneer of multicultural radio
- Ben Viccari, a lifetime dedicated to multicultural communications
- Christina Zeidler, hotelier, social entrepreneur, artist and urban visionary
- Bruce Poon Tip: Canadian immigrant and successful global travel entrepreneur with a conscience
- Farzana Hassan: a progressive voice in Canadian Islam
- Esther Garfin and Li Yeh: two Toronto women who created a Holocaust documentary
- Dr. Rajiv Arya: a Toronto dentist, lawyer and international volunteer
- Danielle Lafond, a Toronto woman who mortgaged her condo to create an NGO in Peru
- Danielle Weiss, a Toronto woman who volunteers in Latin America
- Skills for Change, a leader in immigrant settlement
- Scadding Court Community Centre, an all-round social services agency

For your interest, here are some existing articles covering some significant Toronto landmarks and events:

- The Distillery District: derelict Victorian heritage turned into a vibrant centre of culture and entertainment
- A behind-the-scenes look at the Royal York Hotel
- Casa Loma's interesting history
- Discovering the nooks and crannies of Casa Loma
- Toronto's Taste of Little Italy 2006
- Toronto's International Dragonboat Festival 2006
- Toronto's architectural festival, Doors Open 2006
- The 2006 Toronto Street Festival and Afrofest
- Toronto sizzles in the summer of 2006
- An interview with Caribana
- An interview with Pride Toronto

So join me, in person or online, in my personal discoveries of Canada’s largest metropolis, one of the world’s most multicultural cities, my chosen home town: Toronto!