Fundraising efforts to bring a Syrian refugee family to Saugeen Shores have been overwhelmingly successful.
Saugeen Shores Refugee Fund spokesperson Katherine Martinko says their group set out less than a month ago to raise $20,000 to relocate a family to the community and they have now exceeded their goal by nearly $10,000.
She says efforts were helped by Bruce Power's employees, who donated $9,500 through a gate collection last week, which was matched dollar-for-dollar by the company.
Martinko says they are now reviewing profiles of families at a refugee camp in Lebanon, and once the family is chosen, it could take as long as six months for the family to arrive, due to the rigorous security and background screening process.
She says there are some restrictions to consider as they review candidate families.
"We're limited in some regards in terms of medical accessibility. If someone has some serious medical condition, we may not be able to satisfy that. But for the most part, as long as we can provide education, (English as a second language) classes, housing and physiological counselling as well for a lot of these people coming out of the camps, then we should be all set," says Martinko.
Saugeen Shores council has agreed to provide a letter of support backing the efforts of the refugee fund.
Martinko adds their fundraising efforts will continue as they now hope to be able to relocate a second refugee family to Saugeen Shores.
