DIVERSEcity’s 46th Annual General Meeting and Awards of Impact was a celebration of social impact!
Last night, the Surrey Art Gallery’s main stage theatre was buzzing as DIVERSEcity’s Board of Directors, members, staff, community partners and more made their way to their seats, settling in for an evening focused on celebrating changemakers in our communities, reflecting on the past year and looking ahead.
DIVERSEcity Awards of Impact: Celebrating Champion Changemakers
Kicking off the award portion of the event was DIVERSEcity Chief Financial Officer Ian Robinson. “We have 10 different award categories to capture the diversity of tonight’s inspiring recipients, from emerging to established community leaders, and from grassroots organizations to business,” he said.
The award recipients are as follows:
- Gender Equity Award sponsored by Dupuis Langen Group awarded to Dr. Farah Schroff, Founder of Maternal and Infant Health Canada
- Newcomer Champion Award sponsored by RBC awarded to Dr. Lawrence Chidzambwa, Executive Director of The Great Zimbabwe Cultural Society of BC
- Reconciliation in Action Award sponsored by KPU awarded to Dr. Sarah Beaulieu, Faculty Associate, Community Health and Social Innovation Hub at University of the Fraser Valley
- Community Changemaker Award sponsored by TD Bank awarded to Hon. Bruce Ralston, the retiring MLA for Surrey-Whalley and cabinet minister
- Empowering Employer Award Sponsored by Fortis BC awarded to Coast Capital
- Food Justice Advocate Award Sponsored by Nanak Foods awarded to Narinder Singh Walia, Founder, Guru Nanak Food Bank
- Youth Leadership Award Sponsored by MSM Unify awarded to Rabiah Dhaliwal, Founder of Voices for Hope Foundation
- Humanitarian Heart Award Sponsored by Fairmile awarded to Madison Fleischer, Founder of Slava Sweatshirts for Ukraine
- Inspiring Seniors Award Sponsored by KPU awarded to Kusum Kundiwal and Peter Li, two senior volunteers for DIVERSEcity’s Community Kitchen program
- Strengthening Safety Award Sponsored by our past board member Jane Shin, in honour of her mother, Myung-Bok Lee awarded to Shelter Movers Vancouver
To a standing ovation, Hon. Bruce Ralston, retiring MLA for Surrey–Whalley, accepted the Community Changemaker Award for his four decades of service and innovation in Surrey. With humility and humour, he called the description of his achievements read onstage as “very generous.” He complimented DIVERSEcity’s Board, team and range of work. “Surrey — and the communities we serve —are the future of British Columbia and it’s not much of a reach to say it’s the future of Canada. It’s the fastest-growing city in our province and we are engaged in profound change as we welcome newcomers and their families seeking to establish themselves here. The work that you do is invaluable and I’m proud to say that I played a part in the unfolding of that particular story.”
Each award winner shared with the audience words close to their heart. Youth Leadership Award winner Rabiah Dhaliwal, Founder and Director of the Surrey-based Voices for Hope Foundation, a youth-led non-profit that focuses on improving the perception of mental health through an intersectional approach, shared about the importance of kindness. “This award inspires me to do better, be better and to take my mental health advocacy to greater heights,” she said. “And if there is a message I can leave you here with today, it’s continue to be kind to each other. You never know the internal battles that someone is fighting so please be kind and continue to build each other up and build up this beautiful city we call home.”
We, at DIVERSEcity, want to congratulate all the winners and thank all the award sponsors who helped make these awards possible.
Keep an eye out for spotlights on each winner as they are released over the next few weeks!