As a kid, Bob Singh would have been a great candidate for the charitable program he now runs to help get kids involved in sports despite financial barriers.
"I was one of the fastest kids in the school but couldn't afford good running shoes," recalled Singh, who grew up and still lives in Surrey.
"And back in those days, you know, growing up on a farm, we worked, we worked all the time — before we got to school, after school, it's just the way it was back then, and there wasn't a lot of time dedicated to school sports or other things."
As an adult, Singh's hard work as a geologist helped him retire early following the discovery of a significant gold deposit in Northern Ontario, and he's since turned his attention to work with The Singh Foundation, which he launched in 2022 to "just let the kids play" in Surrey and surrounding cities.
The soft-spoken Singh, 56, said he doesn't the like the limelight but agreed to talk about the foundation to help it grow and, ultimately, help more kids in need.
"We've donated or put into the community $179,000 since 2022," he said. "And a lot of that money is going to Surrey kids through the Surrey School District. We've committed to long-term funding of $44,000 a year to the Surrey schools."
At a year-end camp June 11, close to 100 kids from five elementary schools filled the BC Prep Academy gym in Newton for a day of basketball organized by Emerson Murray and Jumpshot Generosity, which works with The Singh Foundation to run after-school hoops programs.
"We bring in deserving kids that need to be in this program, whether they are lacking opportunity to be able to play basketball or they just need some joy in their lives," Emerson explained. "Every kid gets a brand new pair of shoes, they get a shirt, dental kits, a water bottle from the RCMP, they get pizza and we have a mini doughnut truck coming, and then ongoing mentorship. The kids can always reach out to us. The 18 coaches who come volunteer their time, and they're always available too."
The basketball camp was "kind of overwhelming" for Singh "because it's a lot of old memories growing up here in Surrey. I'd probably be one of the kids that would have been selected for this type of a program."
Brad Newell, the King of Floors in Surrey and an early investor in Great Bear Resources, has been friends with Singh for 15 years.
"Bob is one of the most humble guys ever, and as a kid he had a tough life," Newell said as Singh looked toward the floor. "It wasn't easy, and he wants to give back to kids because he knows how important this is. It's so important for kids now to do this kind of stuff like play basketball and stay away from the gangs, stay away from all the garbage, stay away from the social media. We need kids to play sports.
"Bob was in the mining business and he's one of the best geos (geologists) on the planet. He did well on one deal and realized the best thing to do is help kids, and that's what he's doing here."
For close to 20 years Singh has coached basketball at Surrey schools including Johnston Heights and Frank Hurt, who in 2020 made the provincial championship tournament for the first time in 28 years.
"It's a passion of mine and I see how much impact it has," he said, "but the foundation has also funded various things other than basketball including a horse archery program run by a group in South Langley. With Surrey Schools we also helped fund the group of kids from Princess Margaret who went to the NASA Challenge." Other initiatives include supporting local food banks, UBC geology scholarship and mental health resources.
After high school, Singh finished two black belts and feels that he probably could have taken an athletics path in life, but that opportunity just wasn't there for him at the time.
"I don't like to talk about myself," he admitted. "For me, personally, I think my journey, it is what it is today because of what I went through. And I think if I had taken another path, we probably wouldn't be in this room talking to each other. I'm 100 per cent grateful for my journey to get to this room right now, to be with these people and help these kids and having this conversation."
Today, Singh lives 10 minutes from the Cloverdale-area farm where he grew up.
"We've been reaching out trying to grow the foundation from both the financing side, the donation side as well as awareness and business," he said. "We're starting to build. We just put our heads down and get the work done, and that's kind of how I did my 33 years in mining, just put my head down and go to work and it ended up really well.
"With the foundation, we're in that stage right now, putting our heads down, going to work. We're not too concerned about name recognition and we're certainly not looking for photo opportunities or anything. We have money in the foundation that we're treating as an endowment fund, we're giving away the interest every year. That money that's gonna go back out next year is gonna be basically growth off of this. The more we get in, the more we can do."
