Christmas is a good time to spend with your family and it is also a time for giving, especially to those less fortunate.
It is a special holiday season that draws the community closer together.
Whether it is a charitable event such as the recently passed seventh annual Festival of Trees or a community-based social event such as Santa’s Workshop, Barrhead shows the lengths that people within a municipality will go to ensure everyone’s needs are met.
It is a wonderful sight.
However, let’s not forget about those who fall through the cracks in spite of all of these glad-tidings and good feelings.
A handful of people are all that remain of the near-dozen who turned out to the first meetings of the Barrhead and Community Refugee Support group and while intentions are good, actions are better.
In a story in next week’s issue, chair Ralph Helder says the group is proceeding with an application to sponsor a 35-year-old gentleman from Lebanon, but they have hit a few snags.
For one, membership is down and that means the number of available hands for various tasks needed to help possible refugees — transportation, recreation, financial planning, language training and health or childcare, for example, are clearly lacking.
For another, the group itself did not anticipate the additional costs associated with their good deed and are starting to feel the pinch, so to speak.
Whether or not it was a good decision to join the hundreds of other communities across our nation, in offering assistance to citizens of Syria and other war-torn countries fleeing undesirable conditions, is not the issue.
Everybody deserves the right to a certain quality of life.
Helder says frustrations are growing however.
Members who volunteered for tasks with the understanding they would not be operating solo are now feeling stretched to the limit and could use help from people who are willing.
It is the understanding of the Barrhead Leader that the issue, as described by the group’s membership to our reporters, is not financial.
If the group is to continue in a relevant and meaningful way, it needs more people to volunteer their time.
There are other groups doing the same things — Westlock has one for example. So if the volunteer is a dying breed, as Barrhead fire chief John Whittaker has said on numerous occasions in his efforts to find firefighter recruits, and if Barrhead cannot get the people they need, maybe it is time to explore other options.
More than a few of us were new to the area once however and maybe one of our readers will remember that fact. Hopefully there are still residents out there who have not filled their Good Samaritan quota for the year.
