Sun Run has helped youth take a step in the right direction
24-year-old says participating kept him away from the ‘darker side’ a decade ago
What goes around comes around.
That’s the motto of 24-year-old Faraz Siddiqui, a Vancouver man quick to credit the Vancouver Sun Run — in which he took part in 2004, 2005 and 2006 — for keeping him on the straight and narrow. He’s now helping at-risk kids in the same way he was helped.
“For me, it’s all about giving back,” said Siddiqui, who, along with his former mentor Matt Johnston, is helping 177 young people participate in this year’s 10-kilometre Sun Run.
“I got lots from (the Sun Run) when I was a kid. It kept me away from bad influences, the darker side of east Vancouver. It empowered me and really helped me at the time.”
Siddiqui, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan when he was eight years old, eventually studied sciences at the University of B.C. and is now regional sales manager for the Lower Mainland and Manitoba for Vivint SmartHome, a security and home-automation company. “(The Sun Run) gave me somewhere to go and helped me get good grades, meditate, relax and focus,” he said.
With Johnston and Siddiqui on Sunday will be about 50 kids from the Ray-Cam Co-operative Centre, many of whom will pound the pavement in memory of Paul Thompson, a youth worker at the inner-city community centre who died in December.
“He was like a father to a lot of the youth in the Downtown Eastside,” said Johnston, a semi-professional runner turned grassroots running club organizer who used to conduct a clinic out of Ray-Cam a decade ago.
Johnston, 38, left Ray-Cam in 2006 after he moved to Surrey, where he works as a firefighter. At Thompson’s memorial service, he reconnected with many of the teens he used to train, now in their mid- to late 20s. In Thompson’s memory, they restarted the RayCam running club and organized a youth team — the aptly named Paul’s Team — to participate in the 33rd annual Sun Run on Sunday.
Another 100 kids joining Paul’s Team will participate in the Sun Run without having to worry about registration fees thanks in part to the Jack Gin Family Foundation, which is covering the costs of about 450 children and teens in the Lower Mainland who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to participate.
Johnston said he’s trying to promote healthy lifestyles and active living for children and families who can’t afford to participate in sport. “And running is the most accessible activity that people can do,” he said.
Johnston said he’s helped more than 2,000 kids — “one year we had over 300” — compete in the Sun Run over the years.
“These kids come from innercity settings, definitely low income. They’re at-risk children and youth. It gives them a healthy outlet,” he said.
“I look at running as an important piece of dealing with anxiety and depression.”