Community Impact: A brother’s love for learning lives on in others
July 23, 2019
The Community Impact program gives Intact’s employees flexibility to choose how and where they give, in ways that are meaningful to them. Over the next four weeks we’ll be profiling employees who are making an impact in their community.
On a warm, sunny day last September, more than 100 people gathered in Lambert Wilson Park in Aurora, Ontario, to play baseball, eat hotdogs and raise money for the Mehran Afshar Education Fund.
It was the kind of day Mehran, an avid baseball player, would have loved, says his younger brother, Commercial Lines Manager Kamran Afshar. “My brother was my best friend and my role model,” says Kamran. “When he died, I wanted to honour him in a meaningful way.”
In 2015 Mehran suffered from a brain bleed and fell into a coma. He died 16 months later at age 35.
Mehran had worked at North York General Hospital in Toronto for 10 years. He started as a respiratory therapist then took courses, while still working, to become an anesthesiologist assistant. In addition to advancing his own career, Mehran mentored colleagues to help them advance theirs through education.
After Mehran died, Kamran and his sister-in-law partnered with the North York General Hospital Foundation to create the Mehran Afshar Education Fund. The scholarship is awarded to hospital staff who need educational assistance to further their careers – be it tuition assistance, financial support to attend conferences, or other education initiatives.
Every year, they raise funds through baseball and basketball tournaments. They’ve raised $46,000 to date – enough money to create an endowment, ensuring the scholarship will be given in Mehran’s name every year.
As an Intact employee, Kamran can use the company’s Community Impact program to match the donations he and his colleagues make.
“I love the fact that we have the Community Impact matching program,” said Kamran. “It makes me proud to work for an organization that supports employees’ individual efforts to help the community.”
If you would like to support Kamran’s cause, you can donate to the Mehran Afshar Education Fund online.
