The Osoyoos Refugee Project has raised nearly $30,000 through requests for donations and even fundraising tables at grocery stores and craft fairs. Lisa Ondejko Calder (left) and Eileen Hopkins (right), fundraising chairs, had a table last month at Buy-Low Foods. Behind are volunteers Mary and Frank Halpin. (Richard McGuire file photo)
The first planeloads of Syrian refugees began arriving in Canada last week, but organizers of the Osoyoos Refugee Project are still in the dark as to when the family they are sponsoring will arrive in Osoyoos.
“We’re on high alert now,” said Michael Ryan, the former Osoyoos town councillor who is co-ordinating the project with his wife Vera. “We learned that the timeframe is diminishing to as little as 48 hours.”
Sponsors are now being told the amount of notice they’ll be given before refugees arrive ranges from two to five days, Vera explained in an email.
Meanwhile, donations from people in Osoyoos and beyond continue to be received and last week passed the $27,000 mark. The target is to raise $30,000.
“I was very pleasantly surprised at the speed (donations came in),” said Michael. “We did get quite an outpouring from a few people who gave rather large gifts. That was very touching. It’s a generous community, but I think this has really touched people.”
While there was initial apprehension from some people in the community, the committee worked hard to address the “fear factor,” Michael said. Recently he’s heard much less negativity.
“We certainly want everyone to know that we were very touched by the generosity of people and their well wishes,” said Michael.
Thank-you notes will be sent out with tax receipts, he said, but the committee is also grateful to donors who gave anonymously and at blitz campaigns in grocery stores.
The family of four that the Osoyoos project is sponsoring, including two young children, fled from war-torn Syria to Lebanon.
The first two planeloads of refugees to Toronto and Montreal flew directly from Beirut with a fueling stop in Germany.
Later refugees from Lebanon will be flown first to Amman, Jordan, where the Canadian government has established a refugee-processing centre and from where chartered commercial and military planes will fly to Canada.
At a meeting last week, Osoyoos Refugee Project committee members were given various tasks for the lead-up and arrival of the family.
“It was basically just making sure that we had all the bases covered,” said Michael. “Particularly their arrival, getting them set up with a bank account, dentists, doctors and that sort of thing.”
Work on getting the house ready is continuing, Michael added, noting that donations of furniture, bedding and other items have been received and the group is now in good shape for many of those items.
The community-based project is being sponsored through St. Anne’s Catholic Parish. Last week the project announced that St. Anne’s Special Collection raised $6,100 for the project.
Donations have come from as far as Ecuador, Vera said.
“We’re really in good shape,” said Michael, adding that he’s confident the $30,000 goal will be reached. “Now we’re just keeping our ears to the radio and TV and watching emails to see when we’re going to get a call that the family has arrived.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
