“So what inspired you to first get involved with Kidsplay?”
“Well, it started off with me being a shy little girl and as I began, I was able to find different opportunities and when i was in about grade 11 I got to meet Kal Dosanjh, who is the founder of Kidsplay and he told me the type of work that he does, so I started volunteering with him and before I knew it, I was a part of a bigger group, a bigger family, and eventually, when Kidsplay was started in 2015, I happened to be around, so I was given an opportunity that I took. And thats the message that i always try giving out is, there are many opportunities out there.” “Yeah, you have to see it and grab it.” “You have to seize it, it's your job to seize it and then make something out of it because you’ll always have opportunities.” “Yeah and it's important not to let them pass you by.” “Yeah try it! You might not like it, but thats okay.” “So, whats your official position in Kidsplay and what are some challenges you face in that?” “I am right now the vice president of Kidsplay foundation. Some of the challenges I do face are because right now i’m a student, so I balance student work, I balance work life, I tutor, so I balance that, and then I try balancing family time. So one of the struggles I see is to be able to spend time with everything else while I do this because this so important to me, but another big thing is, just getting everyone involved, it’s a challenge but also easy at the same time. Its a challenge to get people in a room but its not a challenge to engage them.” “If they’re passionate about something, yeah.” “So it works out.” “Yeah, so how did you work your way up? So, you mentioned that you were first a volunteer and then you worked your way up into the role of vice president.” “Yes, so I had to stay determined. I had to stay determined with anybody at Kidsplay or anywhere else. You know, if you’re go into real life, you can’t just go into work one day and not come back 10 days, so its very important you stick to it. If you think it’s important, stick to it. I- I don’t know if you’ve heard of our BC place tournament, but I started volunteering years ago with them before Kidsplay started, and I used to just make sure that kids had water. That would be my role and as I came out more, I learnt more from them I became a part of it, and slowly I was able to develop skills that are now helping me run the organization alongside many other leaders.” “Yes, so its progressive. You need to slowly make your way up to the top. and , what was your goal? What was your specific goal? What did you wanna bring to the organization?” “My role was to give. If I was giving 5 minutes of my time, it was to the fullest. If i’m here for 10 minutes, my fullest- I have to be present. I don't wanna sit here and be on my phone. Or I don't wanna sit here and not do anything but if i’m here and given the opportunity, even if its 10 minutes, 20, 30, half a day, one day, I have to be in it fullest and thats what I want to bring to the table and thats what I encourage everybody else to bring to the table because if you are going to be here, if you’re going to be present, if you're going to be making change in someone’s life, try to be there for the fullest, because generally, with Kidsplay foundation, we’ve touched thousands of lives without knowing it. When you hear stories like, “hey I didn’t want to be a part of it at all but now I come to every event.” ’d like to share a small story. This year, November 2018, we did the forum, same forum we do annually, so last year we did it in November 2017, and a single mom and a child came out. He was a child age 12 and they were having a lot of trouble at home. He was doing things that he shouldn't be and the mom didn't know how to tackle it. We worked with him, we worked with each other, we tried making sure we gave him everything he needed and this month, not too long ago, just two weeks ago, the mom called me, telling me how great the son is doing and how happy she is. When I messaged him saying, “hey dude, you’re doing so good, i’m so proud of you,” he replied saying, “Kiran, honestly its because of you guys.” and that tells me, I got to stay determined because 10 kids I won’t be able to help, but 1, if I am able to help, that's what its all about.” “Yeah, so, you know now that the gang scene in Surrey has become something like an epidemic, how have your goals or the goals of the club changed and evolved to suit that need?” “Well absolutely the biggest goal and objective of Kidsplay foundation is taking our communities away from the cycle of drugs and gangs. So thats why Kidsplay was started. Because as you know, our founder is a police officer. Thats all he’s seen. So the biggest component is to stay away from that. So everything we do just revolves around keeping kids out of it. Whether thats through education, whether thats different faculties, whether thats different types of work, everything- the main goal, the main objective is drugs and gangs. We go into classrooms, we go into different schools, we do presentations, just with the goal of raising awareness for kids of how much there is out there for them to seize compared to what they’ve been exposed to.” “And, just for us, do you have any advice for us in our endeavours (?) to start our own club?” “You know what, you guys are doing amazing- you always have to start. The hardest part is to start something because you think, “I'll do it tomorrow, I’ll do it the day after, or you might even think, its not my problem.” that happens a lot, so the fact that you actually are determined, you’ve set a goal, make sure you do everything you can to achieve that goal. You know, sometimes it will get tiring, sometimes it will get frustrating, sometimes it won't work out, but its very very rewarding. And you know what they say, “the longer you wait, the better the food is.” |