Surrey LA Matheson students celebrate Vaisakhi with colourful festivities<\/p>\n
Published 3:15 pm Friday, April 10, 2026<\/p>\n
A Surrey high school held a colourful Vaisakhi celebration Friday filled with music, food and dance that also, raised funds to support culturally sensitive seniors\u2019 care.<\/p>\n
As part of Sikh Heritage Month, Punjabi classes at LA Matheson have raised more than $17,000 for for Guru Nanak Diversity Village over the past several years, a project the helps raise cultural sensitivity awareness for seniors in care.<\/p>\n
The fundraiser is now in its sixth year and has become an annual tradition for students and staff, blending in culture, community and giving back, culminating in Friday\u2019s (April 10) festive, fun Vaisakhi celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you ready?\u201d Surrey Schools trustee Garry Thind asked staff and students, hyping up the crowd before taking to the dance floor himself with some student performers. \u201cHappy Vaisakhi to all of you \u2026 this is one of the best Vaiskahi celebrations in all of Surrey Schools and you should be proud of yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gurpreet Kaur Bains, the languages teacher behind the fundraiser, says students have been working hard to make this year\u2019s initiative successful. The fundraiser is a collaboration with the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, a non-profit organization that has served the community since 1987, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started during COVID, we\u2019re now in our sixth year \u2014 we still wanted to celebrate and give back to the community,\u201d Bains said, noting LAM students often help translate for those in the local community who don\u2019t speak English, many who are often, seniors. \u201cIt\u2019s very important that (seniors) get culturally sensitive health care, especially if language is a barrier. We had a goal of $700 the first year, and we\u2019ve exceeded ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grade 12 student Jasmine Cohan said she\u2019s proud to help support seniors in the local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think seniors in our community have given so much to us \u2014 we have so much to learn from our elders,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, Vaisakhi is a way to connect back to our roots \u2026 and how much more we have to grow. It\u2019s a very cultural and very bright event with lots of food, dances and colourful clothing and a great way to learn about Punjabi culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many students were dressed in beautiful, brightly coloured and embellished outfits Friday, with the Vaisakhi celebration featuring performances by LAM Bhangra, LAM Giddham and DJ Element.<\/p>\n
Grade 12 student Mohinder Sandhu said for him, Vaisakhi is not only a harvest festival, but a chance for people to come together.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me personally, when I think of Vaisakhi, I think of people coming together, whether that\u2019s on the dance floor or eating food side by side \u2026 I think it\u2019s about the people,\u201d he said, adding the fundraiser is going exceptionally well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want (seniors) to really feel comfortable in the space that they\u2019re in and to make that space as comfortable and as safe as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students and attendees had the opportunity to participate in Kahoots \u2014 popular, interactive quizzes used to teach Sikh history and the significance of the Khalsa \u2014 as well as get the chance to win door prizes and get Mehndi, also known as Henna tattoos.<\/p>\n
An open dance floor and photobooth were also popular with students at the Friday event.<\/p>\n
Learn more on how you can donate at surreyschools.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey LA Matheson students celebrate Vaisakhi with colourful festivities Published 3:15 pm Friday, April 10, 2026 A Surrey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-597283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}