HISTORY - OUR 10 YEAR STORY (2005-2015)

The Canadian Zim Society, formerly known as Zim Picnic, was established in 2005 to cater to the steady flow of South Asian immigrants from various parts of Zimbabwe settling down in Canada in late 2004 and 2005.

Hitesh Kika was in contact with Ajay Dullabh, Vimal Naik and Pradip Patel who came together and decided to take it upon themselves to begin the process of seeking all the other immigrant South Asian Zimbabweans. They called and emailed everyone on their contact lists and sought out others through common contacts. Since the summer was coming up they decided to organize a picnic where the main purpose was to reconnect, make new connections, catch up on stories from back home and have some fun in the sun.

In the summer of 2005, our first potluck picnic was held at Milne Dam Conservation in Markham, ON. It was a great success; about 10 families attended.

In 2006, we had our second potluck picnic at Heart Lake Conservation in Brampton, ON. We had a good turnout as more Zimbabweans were on our database and enjoyed the fun family games together at the picnic.

Hitesh took the initiative to start up a database and added more members to the list as he went along. With the backing of his team as well as his persistence and dedication, Hitesh took full control of coordinating and planning future Zim picnics.

In 2007, he located the current picnic spot (Glen Haffy Conservation Area) which has the picnic site “Ridgeview” (suburb in Harare, Zimbabwe). The park offered a private surrounding equipped with a shed for rental that Hitesh covered out of his pocket in advance. In the following years families were asked to make a donation to assist in paying for renting the shed.

As the years went by, the number of families immigrating to the Greater Toronto Area increased and a couple of members were approached as well as expressed their interest in assisting Hitesh to plan, organize and execute the picnics.

In February 2010, the first committee was officially formed and the members were Hitesh Kika ,Vimal Naik, Seema Patel and Amit Vishram. The first meeting was held at a Tim Hortons in Milton, Ontario with the goal of injecting new ideas and sharing common contacts to increase our attendees for our annual picnics.

In June 2010, the new committee organized our 6th annual potluck picnic. Our members enjoyed the introduction of children and family games. As everyone was in the World Cup Soccer fever (South Africa, 2010) a mini world cup tournament with co-ed teams was organized.

In early 2012, due to family commitments, two of the committee members informed the committee they would be unavailable to continue.

In June 2012, we lost our great leader Hitesh Kika who passed away suddenly. In his honor the picnic was cancelled for 2012. Our sincere gratitude to Hitesh and family who were instrumental in organizing picnic events for our group to the time of his death.

Without a full committee the future of the Zim Picnic group was uncertain. It would have been disheartening to see the previous committee's diligent and tireless efforts in getting the group together dissolve. Vimal Naik took the initiative to seek out a new team to keep the spirit going and assist in coordinating future picnics.

In February 2013, a meeting was held at a Tim Hortons in Vaughan, Ontario to establish a new committee. This meeting was fruitful and Vimal proposed a few goals over and above organizing the annual picnic. It was now time as a group that we needed to create an identity and establish a name and logo that would represent us. The second goal was to look to the future as a committee and work on milestones we wanted to achieve by our 10th Anniversary in 2015.

In September 2013, the new committee organized the 8th annual potluck picnic. Our members were impressed with the changes, the introduction of young vibrant ideas as well as creating and implementing a new online platform for gathering and disseminating information. A trophy was donated in memory of the Late Hitesh Kika for our annual volleyball tournament which was played by four mixed teams of ladies, men and teenage boys and girls.

As our goals were set as a committee, Tejal Solanki immediately took action and played a leading role in setting in motion the search for our name and logo. It was agreed at the meeting that members of the group, young and old, would be involved in this process by creating a contest to search for a new identity.

After months of campaigning and encouraging members to put in their submissions for both the name and the logo, a judging committee was formed in early 2014 as we received exciting entries. Through endless hours of discussions and meetings, the judging committee was able to finalize the final entries for approval.

In May 2014, the Judging Committee, in consultation with the Executive Committee, selected the winning name and logo. The winner of our logo contest was our youth member, Harshil Naik. As for the name contest, the Judging Committee and the Executive Committee merged a few submissions to finalize the name “Canadian Zim Society”.

In June 2014, our members were officially informed by the Executive Committee that the Zim Picnic Group had a new identity: Canadian Zim Society. The winning logo was to be revealed at the upcoming picnic in September 2014.

In September 2014, our 9th Annual potluck picnic was held and over 26 families attended. Our members enjoyed the organized kids’, ladies’ and family games as well as the co-ed volleyball tournament which had four teams. We were excited and proud to reveal our new logo as our committee members proudly wore their t-shirts with the Canadian Zim Society logo. The Chair, Vimal Naik, presided over the cake cutting ceremony, incorporating our logo, and was confident our Society would grow stronger with the active involvement of our members.

In December 2014, the committee took the initiative to organize a family bowling event which was a successful event. The members enjoyed the fun bowling night, pizza and drinks.

In 2015, the year of our 10th Anniversary, the committee went all-out to celebrate, by adding two new events which strengthen our social, cultural and recreational interactions among our members, with the hope that these will become regular events.

In January 2015, a directory was created as we now had grown from about 10 families to 55 families and the committee truly believed that the benefits of the directory were vast. It has helped facilitate and promote new relationships and opportunities for our entire society.

In February 2015, the first Bhajan Mala was held at Mississauga's Ram Mandir to launch our 10th Anniversary. Our talented child and adult members got a chance to sing bhajans as well as play the various instruments. Despite the surprise snowstorm, we had a great turnout. Members enjoyed delicious snacks and tea after the uplifting bhajan session.

In March 2015, we held our first Banquet Dinner and Dance to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. This was a sold out event, held at Payal Banquet Hall in Mississauga,ON with a unique African, Indian and Canadian touch. The night started with the Zimbabwe National Anthem followed by our own Canadian National Anthem. This was followed by diya lighting ceremony to officially open the celebration which was officiated over by the Chair and his wife and followed by our respected seniors for their blessings. A group of children from the society sang the opening prayer, Jai Ganesh.

The Chair, Vimal Naik, gave his welcome speech. He officially introduced his committee; Secretary - Tejal Solanki, Treasurer - Jitendra Jasmat, Committee Members - Ajay Dullabh, Bhavini Solanki, Jeydeep Patel and Pradip Patel.

The Chair thanked the committee and volunteers who tirelessly planned and organized the entertainment, the unique stage décor, the memorabilia photo booth, cash bar, raffle prizes and DJ.

We were served a delicious three course dinner and entertained by the golden oldies and latest Bollywood and Western dance routines and singing by our children, youth and senior members. As the night progressed, the DJ played a mix of Garba, African, Bollywood and Western music to ensure we had all ages on the dance floor celebrating in the true Zimbabwean spirit.

In August 2015, our 10th annual potluck picnic was held with a twist! The picnic had the usual activities for children, youth as well as the volleyball tournament. The twist added was a Talent Show with a magic show, dancing and a short skit prepared by the children and adults of the Society.

In December 2015, after months of hard work and dedication, the brand new website for the Canadian Zim Society had been finalized and was to be launched in the new year. The goal of the website is to provide members of the Canadian Zim Society as well as Indo-Zimbabweans around the world an opportunity to share resources and information.

​We can be proud of our achievements in the last ten years and look forward to growing the Society by strengthening our social, cultural and recreational interactions in the coming years.