The 2021 golf tournament was renamed the ‘Bajwa Dhami Building Bridges Community Golf Day‘ in honour of the philanthropy, passion and commitment of the golf tournament founders and Abbotsford residents – Dr. Amarjit Singh Bajwa and Dr. Malwinder Singh Dhami.
Since 2018, the SASI has partnered with community leaders Dr. Dhami and Dr. Bajwa to organize the Building Bridges Community Golf Day. The golf day is an annual fundraiser that supports UFV’s South Asian Studies Institute (SASI) Research Fellowship Endowment, which funds scholarly research aimed at answering questions and tackling societal issues that matter in the Fraser Valley and beyond. The research SASI undertakes responds to and provides practical solutions for local, provincial, and national community issues. The research also supports community-building across the region. Our goal is to move the research beyond paper into communities and find ways for people to be engaged in building stronger communities.
This years’ event, following last year’s golf tournament cancellation due to Covid, included 100 players, 31 sponsors, many volunteers and friends of SASI. Attendees included Dr. James Mandigo, UFV’s Provost and Vice-President Academic, Craig Toews Vice President External, Advancement Executive Director Anita Neilsen, UFV Alumni Chair Emeritus Nav Bains, and other luminaries of our communities. The tournament raised over $50,000.00 which was matched by the University.
The platinum sponsors of the event were Save On Foods and Westberry Farms along with 31 supportive sponsors, who are gratefully acknowledged here – https://www.ufv.ca/building-bridges-golf/.
The work of the Fellowship since 2018 has supported a number of research projects, including a response towards gang violence prevention, and how sports and youth are connected as an objective of youth violence prevention. The goal of the fellowship is to reach one million dollars with new research Fellows taking on different projects pertinent to the our local communities.
To view all images from the event, please visit our flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ufvcics/albums/72157719605919726/with/51342096559/.
