UNKNOWN HERO
David McCann

David McCann is a recipient of the Order of Canada, one of our country’s highest honours, recognizing a lifetime of extraordinary service to others.  David’s journey began many years after his childhood, when he had to draw on his own strength and expose decades of abuse at two Ontario schools, giving survivors a voice that led to a ground-breaking reconciliation settlement.

David did not let his early years as a boy impact his life choices; instead, he went on to become a respected businessman, a philanthropist, a community leader and a tireless advocate for children and human rights.  David’s “random acts of kindness” have reached across British Columbia, Canada, Ukraine and Mexico. 

As General Manager of Creekhouse on Granville Island, David surrounded himself with like-minded people who supported his cause and to share with us a true story how he and his tenants became a close-knit family. He shared with us two touching life stories.  “When the Pandemic hit I offered to provide relief for some of our tenants and they thanked me saying they would be okay to use this gesture to help those in need.

“Then my sister died last week and I became ill, my tenants reached out to me and said for me to take whatever time I needed to recover and they would cover my job for me.” This was tearful moment as David went on to say “what tenants would offer to do something like this?”

Through “Granville Island Cares for Kids”, David set an ambitious goal, to raise one million dollars to help feed hungry school children in British Columbia.  Out of nowhere, David received a phone call from a gentleman who had a warehouse full of art prints and offered them for “Free” to help David raise funds for charity. He accepted the gift and hired a young teenage boy Morgan to help him pack up the inventory and move them into storage.  After a ten-hour day, David asked Morgan how much he owed him, Morgan said “I can’t take a penny, you are doing all this to help kids in need.”  Morgan continues to volunteer to help David with his charity and encourages young people to get involved.

During another interview on Granville Island where David and Morgan were raising awareness and funds for “Granville Island Cares for Kids” David told us a story about a father, mother and their two sons who stopped at their booth to make a donation. For $10.00 they received two prints of their choice ($5.00 provides a meal for one child).  David also gave the two sons a free print and suggested they do an “act of kindness” and give the print to a friend, or a child in a hospital.  David, fighting back the emotions said “the next day (Sunday) the father made a special trip back to the site and told David his two boys have not stopped talking about how they can continue to do “acts of kindness” and he wanted to let David know his efforts are appreciated.”

David McCann is one of the finest examples of how we should all view the world. He began with humble beginnings and became a beloved gentleman and humanitarian who works tirelessly to help others, save lives and reduce suffering.

UNKNOWN HERO
Danny Sitnam

In 1986, Danny Sitnam co-founded Helijet Airways. In 2019, he founded Helijet International Inc., a privately owned Canadian company.  Today their operation has expanded to 15 Helicopters, two Jet Planes and 160 Employees.

Sitting in Helijet’s hanger in Richmond, Danny talked about how he started with one Helicopter. “I remember the first day of operation, we had one customer all day with seven flights scheduled.  The first six to twelve months were challenging as we had created a new way to travel from one destination to another here in British Columbia and future customers needed to experience first-hand the advantages of travelling by helicopter.” 

Then an opportunity with the BC Government presented Helijet with a new challenge to transport emergency medical patients to the nearest hospital as our vehicles could fly in and out of remote areas and could fly in inclement weather.

We have  now grown this division into one of the largest medical service providers in western Canada for BC Emergency Health Services.  We  currently have two designated helicopters out of the Richmond Base and one in Prince Rupert and it’s a project we’re proud of because we’re helping to save lives. 

Danny and his son Owen who is also a pilot and a captain added yet another project – “Helicopters Without Borders”. 

They formed a charity, raised money through the private sector to fly into remote, rural areas, transporting supplies and emergency care and recently added the  services of doctors and dentists with access to medical care where previously there was none.  “This project we feel really good about giving back.”

Helijet received international recognition when they removed a medically equipped helicopter from their fleet and donated it to Ukraine with the stipulation that it be used for transporting medical patients.  Training pilots and maintenance crew took place at Helijet’s Richmond base.  The helicopter was dismantled, packed and delivered to Ukraine and Danny Sitnam was in Ukraine to ensure the delivery was successful.

UNKNOWN HERO
Raymond Cheung

Twenty-six years ago, a young entrepreneur Raymond Cheung created an event that catered to the whole family - parents, children and grandparents that was inexpensive and entertaining.  Some have tried to duplicate the night market’s creation but with little success. Through hard work and dedication, came success and “growth”. Unfortunately, the growth in popularity included drawing the attention of more vendors which meant Raymond’s vision was much bigger then he could ever imagine.  Moving to five different locations over twenty-six years was not about packing equipment into a moving van every time it included:

• City approval, By-law requirements
• Studies for Traffic Control, Crowd Control
• Property re-design & land preparation
• Re-building a stage for entertainment
• Installing underground plumbing & inspections
• Electrical installation & inspections
• Health inspections, Food inspections
• Fire inspections
• Safety regulations
• Retraining traffic controllers, crowd control & maintenance crew

Raymond finally found the perfect location “Duck Island” at the foot of No.3 Road & Bridgeport providing:

• A large site for the market with a large parking lot 
• Easy road access from all directions
• Rapid Transit train station
• Bus loop providing transportation from all surrounding communities
• International Airport Rapid Transit to site

It was this site that allowed Raymond to expand the size of the market, attendance and international recognition. He never imagined that one day, his  creation would host 15,000 people a night. The initial handful of employees became an army of: 

• Administrators
• Traffic Controllers
• Security
• Emergency Services
• RCMP
• Maintenance, Plumbers, Electricians

When Raymond announced that this was the last season for the Richmond Night Market due to lease issues, every media network carried the story and he and his team were overwhelmed by his social media reaching 1.6 million messages. 

What the public does not know, is that Raymond started from humble beginnings. It was never easy and the challenges were more then what most can handle but he stayed dedicated. Raymond built an opportunity for thousands of small businesses and created employment for thousands more. The Richmond Night Market became the launch pad for thousands of young entrepreneurs and family home-based businesses to engage in an opportunity to:

• Test the market place
• Build a customer base
• AND Learn the realities of running a business

Over the years, many gained the confidence to establish food brands, restaurants, retail stores and other thriving enterprises. Raymond took a vision and for 26 years he helped dreams come true for thousands.