Truro churches fundraising to sponsor refugee family

Candle sales, a weekend in the woods, and a comedy night will bring Truro churches closer to their goal of bringing a refugee family to their town.

Truro Alliance Church (TAC), Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Truro, and East Coast Christian Fellowship are some of the organizations fundraising to sponsor refugees.

They’ve been working together since Hannah Main brought the idea up to TAC.

“Before I even brought it up I heard people talking about it and having ideas, so that was really encouraging at the beginning because I wasn’t sure if people were going to be receptive to it,” Main said. “Their response has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Since then, Main and her co-fundraisers have been raising money.

24 hours without power

A dozen teenagers from TAC left modern comforts behind for a weekend in an isolated cabin.

“The youth group did this thing called 24 Hours Without Power, so they gave up their phones and internet, electricity, running water. They got people to sponsor them to do that,” Main explained.

According to Main, they raised over $1,000.

Online candle sales

Foxhound Collection is a Nova Scotia fragrance company. It joined the fundraising efforts for the month of November.

“They’re donating $5 of each online candle sale this month, which I thought was amazing,” Main said.

Kelsey Wier owns Foxhound and says it raised $300 from this initiative.

“When I heard about what Hannah and her group were doing in my hometown of Truro, I asked how I could reach her and set up a plan that night to start donations right away,” Wier said in an email. “Coincidentally, November was the perfect time for this with holiday sales.”

Comedy night

On Thursday, Truro celebrities and volunteers will participate in a fundraising comedy night. Adults will read things they wrote as kids.

Truro Mayor Bill Mills will be performing – but he’ll be reading Oscar Wilde’s story, The Selfish Giant.

“It’s been a good story and it seems to fit this refugee issue,” Mills said in a phone interview.

He hopes the town of Truro will be involved beyond the comedy night.

“Once they get their planning done, we’ll talk to them about what role the city can play,” Mills said. “We’re keen on what immigrants have done. They’re hard, hard workers.”

Long-term goals

“We’re hoping to choose a family in early January,” Main said. “We really want a family of six. We also have a heart for a single parent family as well.”

The fundraisers won’t necessarily be looking for a Christian family.

“We’ve decided that it doesn’t make a difference. Obviously we think it would be really cool if they came to our church and we could have that kind of relationship with them,” Main said.

She said the combined efforts have raised $2,500 so far, with a goal of raising about $25,000.

“That will go towards startup costs, so having a home, furniture. We have to set up a household for these folks. If somebody would donate a house or donate furniture, that would be subtracted [from the fundraising goal],” Main said.