BURNABY – Those who question the benefits of bringing in grandparents under the family class need only to look at Kehar Singh Aujla to see how one such grandparent makes Canada a better place. Aujla was recognized for his volunteer work as this year’s Top 25 Immigrants award.
Aujla came to live with his son’s family (which includes three of Aujla’s 12 grandchildren) in Burnaby, B.C., when he was 63 years old. That was 16 years ago. And Aujla began contributing to Canada’s economy immediately, first as a farm worker and then as a security guard until he retired about 10 years later in 2005.
“Had we stayed in India, we would have been away from our grandchildren. We liked to come here to be near them,” says Aujla, who worked in India’s coal mines for 40 years before immigrating.
Today, the 79-year-old dynamo is officially retired, but is busier than ever before. He volunteers 40+ hours a week, with nine different organizations.
Recently announced as Burnaby’s Citizen of the Year, Aujla proudly serves as a surrogate grandparent with Burnaby’s Volunteer Grandparents program, regularly visiting a family with three children without grandparents nearby.
But that’s just the start. A different volunteer activity takes up each day of the week on Aujla’s jampacked calendar. On Mondays, he volunteers with the city’s citizen support services program. “Every Monday, we have the duty to take handicapped people to the shopping mall,” he explains. “I go by bus to the mall, and take the person around the mall and help them shop.”
On Tuesdays, he spends the better part of the day at his Sikh temple (Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar) in New Westminster. “On Tuesdays, I go there from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., when I look after the temple completely,” he says with pride. He returns to the temple most other days as well, committing about 26 hours per week, helping with everything from “passing out pudding” to “guarding the holy book.”
On Wednesdays, you will find him at the information desk at Burnaby Hospital, helping patients and visitors find their way. On Thursdays, he might be giving a tour at the Burnaby Village Museum to tourists and local schoolchildren, explaining in very good English what living in Canada was like in the early 20th century.
On Fridays and weekends, he’s at the temple, of course, but can also be found volunteering at festivals held at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts or canvassing for the Vancouver Breast Cancer Foundation.
He also connects with other seniors through the Burnaby Seniors Outreach Services Society. “We actually help seniors who have got different types of problems, like depression, feeling outside from society, who lost their partners. We console them and show them there are resources and organizations to help.”
Why does he do all this and more? And travelling by bus to it all, to boot?
“I never put that question to me. I want to keep myself busy … not just sit in the house watching television,” he says, with a chuckle.
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