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NewmarketToday continues its annual tradition of marking the giving season by celebrating Newmarket’s Community Angels — the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make our town one of the best to live in the country.
Arif Khan and Salman Ahmed have worked together to help Newmarket and bring their Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association branch to the forefront.
The Newmarket branch of the association has worked to organize local blood, clothing and food drives for years as part of regular community service work. But over the past few years, they have created the Run for Newmarket, which has become a massive event raising tens of thousands of dollars for Southlake Health.
“It is very satisfying when we give back to the community,” Ahmed said. “We try our best and we strive to make an impact as much as we can through different initiatives. We believe that we have a responsibility to do more for the community.”
The association has more than 50 branches in Canada, dedicated to community service. One of the auxiliary organizations within the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, it represents young men, generally between the ages of 15 and 40. The Newmarket chapter of the association has about 40 members and has been around for more than a decade.
Khan said the association helps teach youth through community involvement — “teamwork, leadership and bringing youth to come and engage.”
The two said the association has strived to become more active in recent years. Ahmed said this occurred as members of the association grew up and left university.
With that, the association began the Run for Newmarket in 2022. Khan said it came about as the group wanted to create a more unique fundraiser for Newmarket. He said they got a fantastic response, and it has just grown and expanded since then.
Ahmed said the run was a way for them to connect to the greater community more than they had done with their other community service work.
“With Run for Newmarket, we connected with the community a lot, and we realized the importance of working together,” he added. “With that first run, we learned that working together as a broader Newmarket community adds a lot of value.”
Since then, the run has grown massively, with the Run for Newmarket and Run for Bradford raising $51,689 for the Southlake Foundation this year.
Ahmed said they will continue to organize an array of causes, including the Run for Newmarket, blood drives, food drives and spring cleanups. But he said they are always willing to help those in the community in need when called.
“No one is a paid volunteer. We all have our day jobs that we do,” he said, “but we take time out from those things things to give back to the community.”
