The local Ahmadiyya Muslim community (AMJ) owns a scenic property on 10 Sideroad, just north of Line 11 in Bradford West Gwillimbury.
It’s the home of Hadiqa Ahmad Mosque, and with its extensive grounds, playing fields and areas suitable for camping, the site has also hosted a number of national AMJ events.
For the past few years, the BWG location has played host to the National Ijtima for young Ahmadi men and boys from across Canada – a weekend of religious camp, study, poetry and sports.
And this past Saturday, for the first time, the Ahmadiyya Women and Girls’ Association held their Nusrat Jahan Sports Day and Annual Picnic at Hadiqa Ahmad – an afternoon of free food and sports competitions, that attracted over 400 women and girls from across the GTA and beyond.
The sporting competitions included races and obstacle courses, organized by age group. Participants had to succeed at the local and regional levels, to compete at the National level.
But it wasn’t all serious. There was a Musical Chairs competition, and an Amazing Race-style challenge for the spectators.
And there was plenty of food. Organizers served up free rice with chicken, and slices of watermelon, and there were food sales of naan, ice cream and parfait, as participants enjoyed a picnic out-of-doors.
“This is the first time we’re hosting,” said Mona Shah, a member of the BWG branch of the Association. And there was another first: the introduction of green bin and blue box recycling at the event.
“We took the initiative this year,” said Shah, contacting Simcoe County to provide the bins and information on waste diversion.
“It’s a learning curve. We’ve got volunteers manning the recycling stations,” she said.
As participants finished their meals, they were encouraged to sort their trash: Paper and organics went into one bin, plastics into another, and recyclable bottles and cans into a third.
The meals were served on paper plates or in paper compostable boxes, to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Everything was done by the women themselves, including 40 volunteers from the Bradford mosque. They not only organized the games, set up the recycling stations, and brought in a water station to reduce the need for single-use plastic bottles, they were the ones who purchased the 120 watermelons at Walmart, loaded them into a truck, and then unloaded them for the picnic.
It was a learning curve for the volunteers as well, who were surprised by the size of the turnout. By the end of lunch, the waste station bins were overflowing.
“Now we know we need to go bigger,” said Shah, already planning for a bigger crowd next time.
Among those attending was National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women’s Association, Amatul Salam Malik.
