Sikh temple honoured with street name in northeast Calgary

A Sikh cultural centre in northeast Calgary is being recognized for years of humanitarian and community work.

A section of Martindale Boulevard will have a secondary, honorary name added to it afterCalgary city council approveda motion put forward by Mayor Naheed Nenshithis week.

• Sikh awareness week held at theUniversity of Calgary

In honour of theDashmeshCultureCentre, the stretch between MartindaleGate and Falconridge Boulevard N.E. will be named GurdwaraSahib Boulevard.

"Thecommunity will be so happy,"centre presidentRanbirSinghParmertold the Calgary Eyeopener on Friday morning.

Gurdwara"means guru's door, like where we enter in and go for prayer," he said.

Sahib is a word that represents god or a higher power, sometimes used as a sign of respect.

"It means a lot to get recognized and this temple,DashmeshCultural Centre,we've been serving the community for almost 40 years," Parmer said. "This temple was built in 1989 when there was like noMartindale,really, no houses and stuff."

The cultural centre is dedicated to prayer but also community outreach and charitable works. They've run fundraisers for 9/11, Haiti and Fort McMurrayrelief efforts, the Alberta Children's Hospital and the Calgary Food Bank.

The centre is often open to the public from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.

"We do provide afree kitchen to anyonein spiteof race, religion," Parmer said. "We do have people come who are homeless and we never say no to them. They're always welcome."

The cultural centre pitched the idea last year in a meeting with the mayor, he said, and members were pleased to see the mayor's motion, co-sponsoredby Coun. Goerge Chahal, on council's agenda on Thursday.

The city will change sites along that stretch to show both names.

Council also passed a policy on how to consider requests to add a second name to streets for historical or cultural values.

• MORE CALGARY NEWS | City councilvotes to ban public pot consumption
• MORE CALGARY NEWS |School board mislabelled $9.1M in administrative costs as instructional expenses, saysAlberta Education
• MORE CALGARY NEWS |Company out thousands after batteries stolen from trucks

With files from Susan Holzman and the Calgary Eyeopener.