After much thought and consideration, Moose Jaw Pride has decided they would like to welcome a refugee. 

Last week the local Pride group held a meeting for anyone interested in joining a potential board that would be in charge of the administrative work in bringing over a refugee or a family of refugees. It wasn't long into the gathering that attendees had decided during a joyful, but serious talk that this was feasible and something they wanted to move forward with.

"It's not necessarily that we would bring someone who is LGBT, we could anyone who is available within this U.N. (United Nations) approved refugee list," explained Joe Wickenhauser, Executive Director for Moose Jaw Pride. "We're really excited about doing that realizing that it's the right thing to do, to help people that are fleeing persecution or fleeing for their lives."

Part of the reason the local group was able to take on this exciting new endeavor was that the financial aspect was already covered by the Shapiro Foundation for the BVOR (Blended Visa Office-Referred Program) fund. Wickenhauser said the Shapiro Foundation offered 1.1 million dollars to organizations and businesses across the country to help aid in making sure Canada was accepting all the refugees they can each year. 

He noted sometimes refugees don't make it to a safe country when they're attempting to flee because one of the two parts isn't completed, either they don't have someone to take on the administrative aspect or the funds aren't in hand. 

"Unfortunately not every year do all of those people get placed and so I think the fund is really intended to try and help place those families that Canada has already said that 'we'd be willing to place them if there are people who are willing to do that settlement work and the funding is there'."

Kelly Carty is the chair of the Moose Jaw Pride board and willing be apart of the driving force to help make someones dream or living in a safe country come true. She noted that it's going to take an army to pull this together, perhaps a small loving one, but they could still use some help. 

"We would welcome people who could help us in various aspects of the preparations because they could come as early as in two months. They might be here by December and that's a lot of things we have to figure. We'll have to contact, most likely Moose Jaw Housing, to see if there's something available but we have to find out if we're getting one person or three people or four people."

Both Carty and Wickenhauser encourage anyone who would like to be apart of the board or help with the settlement of the future refugees you're asked to contact Moose Jaw Pride.