Guru Nanak inspired Surrey's Punjabi community to raise millions for Memorial Hospital
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2019 18:53:50 +0000
The entrance to the Surrey emergency ward is aptly named after Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism who was born in 1469.
With the Nov. 12 full moon of the lunar month Katak, Sikhs all over the Lower Mainland will rejoice over the Guru’s birth 550 years ago, in the sacred celebration of Gurpurab.
Were he able to, Guru Nanak would surely be pleased with the huge hearts and open wallets of the Sikh community in making so much possible at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
“There are 27 million Sikhs in the world and, outside of India, Surrey and the Fraser Health Authority has the largest population of Sikhs,” said Jane Adams, president and CEO of the Surrey Hospital Foundation.
“To put it in perspective, Sikhs make up about seven per cent of the population of India. They make up 30 per cent of the population of Surrey. That gives you some idea of the large number of people in our community who celebrate Gurpurab.”
Cheque for $543,000 that the RED 93.1FM Gurpurab radiothon raised last year for Surrey Memorial’s cardiac care unit.
One of the ways to celebrate Gurpurab is to donate to charity, and boy, if that’s the case does the Surrey Sikh community ever know how to celebrate.
Millions of dollars have been raised for the hospital over the years, beginning 13 years ago with the first RED FM radiothon in the tradition of seva, or selfless service, and sarbat da bhalla, the well-being of all humanity.
To date it has raised well over $6.5 million to improve health care at the hospital, Adams said, with the money going to the coronary care unit, emergency care, new monitors and ultrasound equipment, a specialized cancer pharmacy, the hemodialysis, stroke, kidney and cardiac units and more.
It’s a busy place, being the only hospital in a city of about 600,000 people and growing.
There are more than 5,000 births a year at Surrey Memorial, the hospital provides palliative care for people whose lives are ending, and offers care for everything in between.
The radiothon attracts at least 4,000 donors a year, sometimes close to 6,000, and hundreds of bilingual volunteers to answer phones.
SSR Cedar Roofing presenting $20,000 cheque to Surrey Memorial Hospital.
The station installs 50 phone lines, which are operated by hundreds of bilingual volunteers. Local restaurants donate a steady stream of chai tea, pakoras and traditional Indian sweets for the hundreds of people who volunteer and the hundreds who show up to donate in person.
“When they open the phone lines for the radiothon, it is the single most successful hospital radiothon in Canada,” Adams said. “We have children come and every cent they’ve collected over the past year they open their piggy bank and donate it to the hospital.
“We have cab drivers that give every cent they have earned that day to the hospital. It is one of the most humbling outpourings of community goodwill and generosity that I have seen in 30 years of fundraising.
“They are wonderful people doing fabulous things.
“It’s not just this hospital they support,” she added. “Some of the most successful food drives done in Surrey have been undertaken by the Sikh community. They are an incredibly generous community.”
The first objective of the radiothon, from 2007 to 2009, rallied around Surrey Memorial’s new emergency services, which today sees almost 200,000 people a year, (46,000 of whom in 2018 were children).
“It’s gone on to become the biggest in Canada and, I think, the third-busiest in North America,” Adams said. “And since that, they have funded many, many other areas of the hospital. This year’s campaign is focused on our family birthing unit, which is just bursting at the seams.”
Once it’s established which area of the hospital has the most dire need, the fundraising begins. Last year the radiothon supported the Sarbat Cardiac Care Unit.
“The department of cardiology has been able to purchase state-of-the art diagnostic imaging equipment for the coronary care unit,” said Dr. Raymond Dong, a cardiologist and president of the medical staff association. “Patient safety has been improved with an increased capacity to provide local and remote rhythm monitoring telemetry units.
“The well-being of family members of our patients has been addressed by providing comfortable and welcoming opportunities for rest, education and quiet reflection.”