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Concert raising dollars for refugees

Everything is in place for a young refugee family expected to arrive in Okotoks this spring, but members of three Foothills churches are doing a little more to ensure the family is comfortable in their new home.
The Sherwood Like to Play Community Band will perform at the Red Deer Lake United Church on April 15 at 7 p.m. to raise money for a Syrian family that is expected to arrive
The Sherwood Like to Play Community Band will perform at the Red Deer Lake United Church on April 15 at 7 p.m. to raise money for a Syrian family that is expected to arrive in Okotoks this spring.

Everything is in place for a young refugee family expected to arrive in Okotoks this spring, but members of three Foothills churches are doing a little more to ensure the family is comfortable in their new home.

The Syrian Refugee Steering Committee raised more than $20,000 in one month to support a couple and their two-year-old child who lost their home in Homs, Syria.

The committee is now organizing a concert featuring Sherwood Like to Play Community Band and the Salvation Army Brass Band at the Red Deer Lake United Church on April 15 at 7 p.m. to raise a little more to support the family.

The Syrian Refugee Steering Committee consists of members of the Red Deer Lake, Turner Valley and Okotoks United Churches.

“We need a cushion, just in case, as we have to support them for a whole year,” said committee member Phil Jackson. “We don’t have a legal obligation after one year, but a moral obligation for sure. If they don’t have jobs and can’t afford another place to stay we may have to support them into another year. We are trying to raise just at little so they have enough.”

Most of the family’s material possessions have been donated and the $20,000 plus will be used for other expenses such as clothing, groceries, daycare fees, transportation and recreation, Jackson said.

“They have nothing,” he said, adding they are currently living in an apartment in Beirut, Lebanon while waiting to be processed for emigration to Canada. “We have no idea when they are going to arrive. We hope to see them by summer.”

Jackson hopes the benefit concert will raise another few thousand dollars through ticket sales and a silent auction. He said the refreshments, snacks and venue have all been donated.

Scott Campbell, conductor with the Sherwood Like to Play Community Band, said this event marks the brass and wind concert band’s first charity concert. They typically perform at seniors’ homes and for friends and family.

The 24-year-old community concert band is based in Calgary’s southeast and consists of adult musicians from teachers to retirees who play at all levels and abilities.

“There is some really top-notch players and some that are not so much,” said Campbell. “Everybody loves to play. We’ve got a really good community feel.”

He said the band, which received an excellence rating at the Alberta International Band Festival last winter, will play a variety of music from old swing to renaissance.

Also performing is the Salvation Army Brass Band, which will play half the concert and join the Sherwood Community Band in performing a hymn and O Music by Edmonton composer Allan Gilliland in what Campbell calls a high-energy performance.

“This concert allows us to play for a bigger audience than we normally do, while helping provide support and hope for a family coming from a truly hopeless situation back in Syria,” he said. “From the moment that I first proposed the idea of the concert so many people have stepped up and asked, ‘Can we do this, can we do that, what can I do to help?’ They’ve taken what I thought was a fairly simple idea and allowed it to grow into something truly special.”

Jackson said the Red Deer Lake United Church members had been following the Syrian Refugee crisis when it decided it needed to do something to help.

After learning that members at the Okotoks and Turner Valley United Church were also interested, the three worked together to create a committee of eight members to sponsor a Syrian family.

With the help of their congregations and interested residents, they collected donations of furniture, kitchenware, cleaning supplies, drapes, blinds and other needs for the family, who will live in the upstairs apartment of the Okotoks United Church for a minimum of one year.

To attend the concert costs $15 per person or $40 for a family. Tickets can be purchased at rdlunitedchurch.org or at the door, which open at 6:30 p.m.

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