A lifetime of volunteering

Dentists named Amherst’s Volunteer Family of the Year

Rick McKenney and Rachna Minocha are partners at home, at work, and at volunteering.

The married couple from Amherst runs a dental practice together but, outside of work, they also prioritize giving back to their community.

“We help in the community any way we can, whether they know it or not,” Minocha told The Cumberland Wire.

Recently, for their volunteering efforts, the couple was acknowledged as Town of Amherst 2021 Volunteer Family of the Year.

McKenney and Minocha have involved themselves in a variety of initiatives through the years that have earned them this recognition. The couple organized the Amherst Valentine Run for many years and has volunteered countless hours fundraising, promoting and developing running in Amherst through their promotion within the Amherst Striders running club.

Through the run, McKenney and Minocha partner with different organizations in the community and help them fundraise.

“For example, Bright Beginnings, which is a daycare in town, they volunteer every year and every year we have contributed to helping the kids in the daycare,” explained Minocha.

A lot of their work is also done behind the scenes since, Minocha adds, they are not looking for recognition.

Therefore, the award came as a surprise.

“We’re very surprised to get this award,” said McKenney. “We feel that there’s so many people in town who deserve it as much as we do, and we’re very lucky to be in a town where people do pinch in all the time.”

Minocha adds they were honoured and humbled to

“There’s an old adage we go by, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and we’re very lucky to be in a village called Amherst to raise our family, to grow and be better.” Rick McKenney

receive this recognition from the Town of Amherst.

VALUING VOLUNTEERING

According to the couple, volunteering has always been a part of their lives from the time of their youth.

“Both Rach and I have different backgrounds and we believe in a lot of similar things, and it is related to our family,” said McKenney.

Minocha, who was born in India, moved to Amherst with her parents when she was five.

Meanwhile, McKenney was born and raised in Smith Falls, Ont., a small town, he says, much like Amherst.

The couple met in Moncton, through a mutual friend, in 1992 and married 1996.

They each say they learned the value of volunteering from their parents.

“Our parents have always given back to society and the community in many ways,” said Minocha. “They rarely say ‘no’ when they see that an organization needs help.”

Volunteering was, therefore, something they started doing in their youth.

McKenney recalls volunteering at the hospital as a teenager in Smith Falls to get a sense of what he was interested in doing with his life. Minocha, meanwhile, recalls helping her parents when they were volunteering.

They have tried to instill the same values in the next generation. All their children volunteer in the community and, according to Minocha, two of them have also been volunteer award recipients in previous years.

They believe it is through the support of a community like Amherst that they achieved such things.

“There’s an old adage we go by, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and we’re very lucky to be in a village called Amherst to raise our family, to grow and be better,” said McKenney. “Our kids have been allowed to do things and become volunteers because of that.”

McKenney says he was brought up in a sporting culture and he has promoted sports in the community, himself, by doing things like coaching basketball. He also has a degree in kinesiology.

They each feel it is important, especially durig the COVID-19 pandemic, for people to get out, be active and be part of a team for the benefit of both mental and physical health.

DENTISTRY

Today, the couple operates Minocha McKenney Dental together in Amherst.

Minocha graduated from dental school in 1991 and has been practicing for 30 years.

McKenney came to the profession a little bit later, after he met Minocha.

He credits Minocha’s parents for helping them raise their children and survive while he attended school during those years. He graduated from dental school in 2002. The couple have worked together ever since.

McKenney says it is technically Minocha’s practice and he is her associate.

Dentistry ties into their volunteering as they often use the dental clinic to support various community initiatives. Minocha says the business is flexible and often allows one of them to step away from work so they can volunteer in the community. They donate dental supplies to different groups and often support initiatives, such as the local food bank, financially through the clinic.