The Milton Youth Task Force (MYTF) hosted an online virtual Youth Awards Ceremony recognizing the contributions of young people in Milton. The purpose of the awards is to promote a positive image of young people and to generate awareness of the valuable contributions that youth make in our community.

This year the winner of the Community Leadership award is Sheharyar Khan. During the pandemic, Sheharyar and his sister Kashmala started a project called Mums and Daisys – Gifts of Happiness by surprising community members with thoughtful, handmade crafts like picture frames, painted rocks and cards.

With support from other community organizations, they organized fundraisers to support Milton District Hospital, Halal Food Bank, Food 4 Kids Halton and the Muslim Association of Milton.

To date, they have delivered over 300 Gifts of Happiness.

In his own words, Sheharyar Khan shared with us the activities that him and his sister did and what the award means to them.

Milton Youth Community Leadership

“Mums and Daisys is a group support project that my sister and I started in order to spread happiness in the neighborhood. Our plan was to give everyone a random surprise in the same way as our parents do for us.”

“Daisys represents Dads and Mums represents Moms. We begin by making handcrafted presents, such as painted rocks, jewellery, sketches, or paintings, and dropping by at our friends’ and neighbours’ homes at random intervals. “

“We were able to organise fundraisers and gift drives; thanks to the tremendous community support. For our holiday drop by gift drive, we invited Santa Claus and magician, Magic of Tyler Fergus to spread cheers to those who were coming to support our drive. On special days, we choose a charity to support and collect funds and supplies for. So far, we’ve supported the following organisations along with many local families: *Milton District School Hospital *Milton Halal Food Bank *Food 4 Kids Halton *Halton Women’s Place *MCRC *ISNA Canada *Nisa Homes & *Milton Muslim Association. We have expanded our work by selling our pieces in order to raise money. We opened an eshop with a wide range of handcrafted gifts.”

“It’s mind boggling to me that such a small gesture turned out to be a big impact to our society. Winning this award means a lot to me because I started this business/ organization to help spread happiness to our beloved Milton community since we are all going through such a difficult time enduring this pandemic.”

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