Nishan Minhas was in his early 20s when he learned what it feels like to sit alone in a hospital waiting room.
Within a few years of each other, both of his parents had cardiac events. Both were cared for at Trillium Health Partners.
"Being in a room all by yourself and not knowing if you're going to go home without both your parents --- my future [was] very uncertain at that time,” Minhas recalls.
A father of two, Minhas has never forgotten the compassionate care they received. That profound gratitude continues to fuel him.
He is a co-chair of The Trillium Diwali Gala, one of several annual signature events hosted by Trillium Health Partners Foundation.
Minhas also runs Pearson Convention Center, where the Gala has been held for more than two decades.
"I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Trillium [Health Partners]," he says. "Because they took care of my parents, they basically saved my life in saving my parents' life."
What Is the Trillium Diwali Gala?
This year, The Trillium Diwali Gala celebrates its 25th anniversary. As Canada’s first and largest Diwali gala --- celebrating the festival of light with the Mississauga, Etobicoke and West GTA community while fundraising for Trillium Health Partners Foundation --- no other event of its kind in Canada had reached the quarter century milestone.
Over its first 24 years, the Gala has raised more than $16 million for patient care, and this year organizers have set a goal of more than $1.4 million.
"It's not going to stop.” For Dr. Vir Sennik, founder of The Trillium Diwali Gala, the longevity of the event is remarkable in itself.
"It's incredible to have a community function last that long. It's unheard of," he says. "We're proud that this has continued for 25 years, and it's going to continue for another 25 years."
How the Trillium Diwali Gala Began
Sennik is an orthopaedic surgeon at Trillium Health Partners and Medical Chair of the Gala, which he founded in 2002. A few hundred guests were in attendance that evening.
In 2025, more than 1100 guests filled the ballroom at Pearson Convention Center, with special guests, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford also joining the celebration and addressing attendees.
The Community Behind 25 Years of the Trillium Diwali Gala
Dr. Sennik is quick to share the credit for the Gala's existence, evolution and impact. “It's all the volunteers, all the chairs, all those years [they] have committed their time and given their time to us. That's why it's continued that long.”
As a physician, Dr. Sennik has watched donor dollars turn into better care firsthand. He doesn't hesitate when asked how much philanthropy matters.
"It is the most important thing in health care," he says. "When a donor gives us money to create a project or to create a new idea, it helps the whole community. The physicians are able to… bring in new ideas, bring in new research, bring in new ways to treat people. It just opens doors for us."
The effect compounds, he adds. "The more we can do in our own hospital here, the better our hospital becomes, and more progressive it becomes."
The Growth of The Trillium Diwali Gala
Sapna Mehta, the Gala's other co-chair, has served on the Trillium Diwali Gala committee for 15 years.
Her husband is a radiologist at Trillium Health Partners. She has watched the event grow from its early days into one of the region's signature celebrations.
"It's just been amazing to see the Gala go from just a small group of people to now we have over 1,000 people attending," Mehta says.
What drives the committee, she explains, is making sure every dollar goes where it's needed most. "Every year, we try and raise money for different departments that really need the funds," she says. "So we really try and gear our Gala towards what the community needs and what the hospital needs."
The work, she says, doesn't feel like work. "Everybody here is like a family. The [Trillium Health Partners] Foundation, all the staff, all our committee members. Everybody really helps one another."
A Personal Connection to Trillium Health Partners
Minhas has seen the growth of Trillium Health Partners up close. His children were born there, and had surgery there himself.
"I just see the progression from that to now, to now building this new mega hospital," he says. "It's just fantastic."
That progression is entering its most ambitious chapter. The 25th anniversary gala arrives as Trillium Health Partners Foundation is making history --- undertaking the largest health care infrastructure renewal project ever in Canada.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Trillium Diwali Gala will support the building of The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital, the Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children, and expansion of complex and continuing care at the Gilgan Family Queensway Health Centre
Dr. Sennik remembers the organization's humbler roots. "The hospital where we started off from was Mississauga Hospital, which was a small community hospital," he says. "To see what's going up right now, it's mind-boggling… And in our community, that is even more amazing."
Mehta points to who the new hospital will serve. Trillium Health Partners, she notes, "doesn't just treat patients in Mississauga; it actually treats the most diverse and largest population in Ontario."
Twenty-five years in, the Gala's mission remains what it was at the start: a community celebrating together, and giving so that care is there, close to home --- when their families, friends and neighbours need it most. Like the Minhas family.
For Nishan Minhas, the reason to keep showing up year after year --- for more than two decades --- has never changed." Trillium [Health Partner] has always come through for me."
