The will is there, but some Merrittonians want to know the way to get Syrian refugees settled here in Merritt.

To that end, both of the Rotary clubs in town — The Rotary Club of Merritt, and the Rotary Club of Merritt Sunrise — are hosting an information session on April 6, open to anyone who wants to know more about the process of refugee sponsorship.

“It’s a call for participation and it’s a call for information, because we first started talking about this in December, and we found it quite difficult to access information on how we can support,” said Becky Puterbough, the international co-ordinator for the Rotary Club of Merritt.

The two guest speakers are intended to help with that. Brian Ayotte is the chairperson for the committee formed in Salmon Arm to get Syrians into their community. Those refugees arrived last month. “They’ve already gone through the whole process,” said Puterbough.

The other guest will be Gudrun Malmquist, with Immigrant Settlement Services, who will be there to talk about the logistics, and if it would be a feasible option for Merritt.

“We’re hoping to take it forward, but we need to find out what we need to do as a community to make it happen,” said the Rotarian.

If it is not possible for a Syrian family to relocate here, she said she hoped Merrittonians would be willing to contribute to the issue in some other way. “I’m optimistic that if we don’t decide to bring a family to Merritt itself, that we could help a family elsewhere that may be in a larger centre — there’s two options for us, we just want to explore both of those.”

She said in her personal experience, talking to friends and members of the community, Merritt wants to help. “The feedback that we seem to be getting is that there are a number of individuals in the community that feel quite helpless and have been wondering how they could personally support. I hope that will translate to a good turnout at this information night.”

She said she hoped to see local community groups, such as church groups, as well as students at the April 6 meeting. “If we can get from representatives from the younger generation there too, that would be great.”

It starts at 7 p.m. at the NVIT lecture theatre.