Sikhs Raise $125,000

[Summeet Kaur]

Sikh community raises $125,000 for hospital ER

By Paula Carlson--Surreyleader.com (June 23, 2003)

Hundreds come to hear him speak at Sikh temples about family, parenting, life, death and health, and the message was no less important at Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH) Thursday afternoon.

Revered Sikh holy leader Gyani Sant Singh Maskeen visited SMH to help launch a new fund-raising campaign to expand the hospital’s emergency department. Accompanying him was a cheque for more than $125,000 — proceeds from a fund-raising dinner at the Grad Taj Banquet Hall last Friday organized by the local Sikh community.

“His visit was significant,” said Kate Ludlam, manager of corporate and community partnerships for the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation. “We were very honoured to have him.”

Maskeen, 69, is a respected spiritual leader, explained Joginder Singh Sidhu, president of the Canadian Singh Sabha Gurdwara, a Sikh temple in Newton.

He is a preacher, and his appearances around the world (India- and U.S.-based Maskeen travels most of the year) draw crowds often numbering in the thousands.

Sidhu was expecting more than 1,000 people at his temple Friday night, where Maskeen was appearing in the last of 31 sessions during his two-week stay in Surrey. A regular crowd would number about 200, Sidhu says.

“He is such a good speaker,” says Sidhu. “He talks about how we can live a true life and reach our destination, how to be good grandparents, good parents.”

A similar message of kindness and compassion was the theme of the Bhai Kanhaiya fund-raising dinner, na

med after Sikh humanitarian and healer Bhai Kanhaiya.

Through ticket sales and corporate sponsorships, proceeds totalling more than $125,000 have been earmarked for the upcoming expansion of the emergency room at SMH — a project that is expected to cost $14 million.

A formal campaign will be announced later this year, with the foundation needing to raise $7 million of that amount. The government will contribute the rest.

While details have yet to be finalized, Ludlam says the renovation will enlarge the cramped ER, create a separate area for acute care, and reduce waiting times. Surrey’s emergency room is the busiest in B.C., caring for 70,000 people annually — a third of them children. Forty per cent of patients at SMH are Indo-Canadian.

Ludlam says the Sikh community’s donation is “amazing,” and credits a small group of businessmen – and the hospital’s own pediatrician Dr. Pargat Bhurji – with organizing the successful dinner, which may become an annual event.

It’s not the first time Bhurji has rallied support for a health cause.

In 2001 he helped launch Life Link, a donor program at Canadian Blood Services, after his wife Gurjinder nearly died in childbirth.

Twenty-nine units of blood saved her life, and Bhurji wanted to express his gratitude.

[S1ngh]

Awesome Work.. GREAT GREAT... I really support these type of projects.. And really a good news.. "Giving back to Community without looking at race/creed/sex etc.."

[gupt faujaan]

gr8 work. more singhs hav 2 come forward for social sewa.