If you ask Suzan Krecsy, the executive director of the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village, where her organization would be if it weren’t for the magnanimous gestures of support from Ash Khan, you would get deadly silence for an answer.
She’d rather not think about having to be back in the cramped and unsafe quarters of their original location and there certainly wouldn’t be the kind of progress in providing social services that exist now.
“We wouldn’t have the community village. We wouldn’t have the space,” she said, remembering the search to move to a bigger site just within the last year or two. “When we saw this space, he never hesitated with giving it to us.”
Khan was recently presented with the 2010 Mayor’s Philanthropy Award for his work and dedication to improving life for all in St. Albert by supporting numerous sports, cultural and social groups. The second annual award is designed to recognize the commitment and effort of someone who selflessly gives their time and talents for the greater good.
Mayor Nolan Crouse explained exactly how Khan stands tall as a man of extraordinary charity.
“He’s been willing to sponsor or provide funds to just about anything. The list goes on forever. The need to acknowledge that contribution was evident.”
Krecsy couldn’t agree more.
“He’s a fabulous man. Everything that he does [for us], he doesn’t do it publicly. Any help that we ask him for, he’s more than willing to go along with. He said, ‘Anything that makes your operation work, go ahead and do it’.”
She said that there is so much more that he does that he does behind the scenes. “He’s very, very generous but he’s never looking for acknowledgement. That’s the sign of a true philanthropist and a huge heart.”
Crouse hopes that Khan serves as an example to others as the kind of person that St. Albert stands for.
“Not everybody is as giving – and can be as giving – but we’re not going to ignore people who are. It really highlights the broader good to the community.”
