It's finally time to reveal the annual Best of Richmond where we survey our readers and ask them to rank local businesses – everything from pizza joints to hair salons.
Along with businesses and organizations, we also love to highlight Richmondites who make a difference in the community and who make the city strong. Some you may have heard of, others maybe not. Either way, their contribution towards building a healthy, vibrant community has been invaluable. Each day this week, we will introduce three of these people to you.
Balwant Sanghera
Few people are embedded in the Richmond community more than Balwant Sanghera is a well-respected educator, community activist and bridge builder.
If you haven’t met Sanghera you may know his name from the Richmond News letters section, where he’ll often swoop in with words of wisdom in times of strife and encouragement for positive actions by his fellow Richmondites.
Now in his senior years, Sanghera, as president of Richmond Multicultural Community Services (RMCS), is deeply concerned about community harmony in Richmond and is often viewed a s abeacon of rational, reasonable discourse and solutions in a city that has undergone incredible demographic changes over the past 20 years. A highlight of such community work came in 2010 when he was voted as one of Top 25 Canadian Immigrants.
Sanghera is also a passionate voice for East Richmondites, as president of the East Richmond Community Association. His work in the South Asian communities is also abundant. He is presently president of the Punjabi Language Education Association of Canada, and an executive member of the India Cultural Centre of Canada Gurdwara Nanak Niwas.
Sanghera is a retired school psychologist, serving public schools for 36 years. His selfless service earned him various awards, including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and Order of British Columbia.
How do you stay healthy in Richmond?
Richmond has a lot of recreational facilities, parks, dykes, Community Centres and more. That gives me an ample motivation and opportunity to stay healthy.
What’s your favourite Richmond park?
King George Park
What's top of your bucket list?
An enjoyable walk along Richmond's dykes.
What's your favourite food?
Curried Chicken
What do you like best about Richmond?
Everything: Clean and fresh air, beautiful parks, wonderful people, an enviable intercultural and inter-religious harmony as exemplified by our Highway to Heaven.
What's your favourite sports team?
Vancouver Canucks
Best place to take an out-of-town guest?
Steveston Village
Barry Hastings
When it comes to keeping Richmondites safe on the water, Barry Hastings is one of the best, if not the best. After all, one of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue boats is named after him — the B.R. Hastings.
Born in Richmond in 1942, marine safety has defined Hastings’ life in so many ways.
“It was forests and lots of bogs the. My future took me to being a professional radio officer serving various locations in B.C., and serving at Coast Guard ships and Coast Guard radio stations,” explained Hastings, a 35 year veteran of the volunteer-driven RCMSAR Station 10 in Steveston.
In 1971 Hastings was stationed with the Coast Guard in Richmond and moved offices to Vancouver in 1973.
“Although I served on a few of these air stations, my love was the marine side. I transferred into Vancouver Coast Guard radio 1973. Circa 1980, the federal government authorized the formation of an auxiliary to augment the Canadian Coast Guard so I joined the Steveston Auxiliary in 1983.”
Hastings had three children who graduated high school here and when he wasn’t with with family, he has dedicated endless hours serving the community on the water. For instance, he’s logged over 600 marine rescues and taskings out of Richmond. That doesn’t include the bulk of his time training other rescuers and keeping the station in tip-top shape.
“The best times ever!” said Hastings.
How do you stay healthy in Richmond?
Good parks and pleasant trails along the Fraser River for walking.
What’s your favourite Richmond park?
Garry Point/Britannia
What’s top of your bucket list?
Go up to Lone Bute BC (100 mile house), go fishing, drink beer at my daughter’s pub (Iron Horse)
What’s your favourite food?
BBQ medium-rare steak and a beer.
What do you like best about Richmond?
Cool sea breezes in the summer.
If Richmond was a celebrity, who would it be?
Stumped.
What’s your favourite sports team?
BC Lions
Best place to take an out-of-town guest?
Steveston docks, Britannia, North Arm boat launch and park
What other city would you compare Richmond to?
Dawson City. Mix of new, mix of history, mix of ethnic people (gold seekers) and sits on the Yukon River.
Calista Espinosa
From a soft-spoken teen to a national champion wrestler. Calista Espinosa’s transformation once she gets o the competitive mats is quite remarkable.
The Grade 12 student has enjoyed another outstanding season — winning her second straight National Cadet championship in Edmonton and also crowned provincial high school champion for the first time in her career.
Living in Richmond since she was five, jiu-jitsu was her speciality at Apex Martial Arts for seven years. Once she started high school at St. Pat’s Regional Secondary, Calista made the switch and joined Bhullar Wrestling — the renowned family run club on their Sidaway Road farm — working with Jag Bhullar.
Through plenty of hard work and dedication, she became one of the top youth wrestlers in the country, representing Canada at international events.
The next stage of her career will take place in Abbotsford starting in September after being recruited by the University of the Fraser Valley. Still, her heart will remain in Richmond, thankful for the coaches who taught her to stay “true to my goals and my feet planted on the ground through the tough times and victories.”
How do you stay healthy in Richmond?
In my opinion, Richmond has one of the best wrestling clubs in BC. Bhullar Wrestling incorporates physically fitness and mental resilience in training young people to wrestle.
What’s your favourite Richmond park?
From the bustling waterpark of King George Park to the hidden jewel of Terra Nova Adventure playground, I grew up visiting so many parks in Richmond. My favourite would have to be my local park in South Arm where I learned to swim outdoors and where I walk and run my dogs.
What’s top of your bucket list?
One day I hope to say that I have tried every food booth at the Richmond Night Market.
What’s your favourite food?
I love sushi and it’s probably because I live in a city loaded with great sushi restaurants. If you’re hungry, you’ll want Banzai Sushi; if you want to try something different, you want Gami Sushi, and if you only have a few dollars, you’ll want to wait for the late night menu at Matsuyama!
What do you like best about Richmond?
The shopping in Richmond is fantastic. From large scale shopping malls to the small hidden boutiques, I can always find what I am looking for.
If Richmond was a celebrity, who would it be?
Richmond would be Michael Bublé: classy, soothing, and always entertaining
What’s your favourite sports team?
Definitely the Bhullar Wrestling Team. I hear they have awesome wrestlers…
Best place to take an out-of-town guest?
My family’s favourite place to take out-of-town guests would be the Richmond Night Market!
What other city would you compare Richmond to?
I see Richmond as the San Fransisco of B.C.
Along with these profiles, more than 6,000 people ranked companies in four categories: Food & Entertainment, Shopping, Services and Health & Fitness this year. This week, we will share the winners of one category each day. Today, it’s Services, which can be found here.
See the full, digital version of our special Best of Richmond edition here.
