Article Summary
CSN MJ Auto Collision hosted the inaugural Bim on the Boulevard festival, a Bajan cultural celebration that attracted approximately 1,200 visitors on July 24-25. The event featured live soca music, traditional Bajan food, cultural performances, and community activities, bringing together people to celebrate and share Caribbean heritage in the Greater Toronto Area.
- CSN MJ Auto Collision hosted the inaugural Bim on the Boulevard festival on July 24-25, 2025
- The festival attracted approximately 1,200 visitors to the Scarborough collision repair centre
- Event featured live soca music, Bajan cuisine, cultural performances, road tennis, artisan vendors, and family activities
- Co-sponsored by CSN Collision, the festival aimed to celebrate Caribbean culture and unite the GTA community
- Organizers plan to make this an annual event that will continue to grow
CSN MJ Auto Collision has co-hosted the inaugural Bim on the Boulevard festival at its Scarborough collision repair centre.
The Bajan cultural festival was held July 24 and 25 in the parking area behind CSN MJ, which was the presenting sponsor.
Monifa Williams-Yahya, who launched CSN MJ with her husband Jerry Yahya, said her Caribbean background made the event important to her.
“I’m from the Caribbean, so it is always first and foremost in my heart to be able to celebrate anything that promotes Caribbean culture,” Williams-Yahya said.
“It is such a rich and diverse culture that it is important that we share it with the GTA and with Canada.”
She said the festival also brought the community together. Festivals such as these, serve to bring, not just the Caribbean community, but the wider richly diverse Toronto community, closer together.
“Anything that brings our community together so that we can celebrate together is always first and foremost on our minds,” she added.
The festival included live soca music, Bajan food, cultural performances, road tennis, artisan vendors and family activities.
Sarah Sampson, a representative of the Indo-Caribbean Association, said the event helped her maintain a connection with both sides of her heritage.
“I’m half Trinidadian and half Bajan, so events like these are really important to me,” Sampson said. “They let me represent both sides of my culture here in Canada.”
Sampson was raised in Barbados and recently moved to Toronto to study.
“Seeing events like this helps me keep that tie to my culture back home,” she said. “It also keeps me motivated while I pursue my studies here.”
She said cultural events can also help build stronger communities.
“Bringing together people with a similar cultural background creates positive change,” Sampson said. “Community drives change and positive empowerment.”
A separate invitation-only reception was held Saturday inside the front showroom the CSN MJ facility. Steel pan musicians performed set the tone for the day with melodies of the Caribbean, while guests were served brunch and drinks before joining the festival outside.
The array of drinks included a traditional Bajan sorrel mocktail. Caribbean sorrel is made by steeping the red calyces of roselle, a plant related to hibiscus.
According to Natalie Hayway, Heighway marketing coordinator at CSN Collision gave full credit to the CSN MJ team.
“The shop has done the majority of the heavy lifting for this,” Hayway Heighway said. “It’s a wonderful event and a great day for the community. It brings a little spirit, liveliness and a summer atmosphere.”
She said CSN was pleased to support the festival and represent the network at the event.
“We’re thrilled that we get to help out and represent CSN here and enjoy a very nice day with music, food and all the fun stuff,” she said.
Guests later moved outside for the national anthems of Barbados and Canada, speeches and a ribbon cutting. During his presentation, Jerry Yayha Yahya thanked the organizers LUX Carnival, Toronto Police Services, event volunteers and security personnel, MJ Auto Collision staff and the local Scarborough community.
"Community is everything! MJ Auto Collision is a culturally diverse organization and will go to great lengths to support cultural integration across Scarborough and larger Toronto area" said Jerry Yahya. "Let's unite and support one another."
Williams-Yahya said this was the first time CSN MJ had hosted the community festival.
“So far, it is going fabulously,” she said. “We are very impressed with the LUX Carnival team and how they have been able to pull everything together in the concentrated time they had.”
She said she hoped it would return to see more of these cummunity-building events in the future. “We hope there will be many more to come,” she said. “It will only get bigger and better as we continue.”
CSN MJ opened in September 2025. The 25,000 sq. ft. state of the art facility was founded by Monifa Williams-Yahya and her husband Jerry Yahya after they began planning the business in 2024. Wayne Faria manages the centre.
