Lewisporte minister expands home to house refugees

A United Church minister in Lewisporte is going the extra mile to help a family from Syria. 

Rev. Stephanie McClellan is putting a basement apartment in her home to accommodate a refugee family.

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"I'm paying for all the renovations to the house and then we're going to the community for the support for the family so I'm taking care of the basement apartment," McClellan told Central Morning Thursday.

"It's a little bit more than I expected," she said, but she doesn't plan to charge rent.

"I just really think this is what I'm supposed to do with this beautiful building that I was given to live in." 

McClellan, the officiating clergy at St. Matthew's, said a family is expected to arrive as early mid-March.

"We're hoping for a family of three or four, so we have bedrooms down there and big open space for children to play, and the new kitchen is going in so that they'll have a complete apartment to themselves."

She's asking people to donate furniture, appliances and money to help out. 

"It's going to be a wonderful opportunity for everybody I believe," she said.

"I have a wonderful group of people who came onboard the moment I decided that it might be something that I'd like to do with my house and they have been helping to get the town ready."

A committee of volunteers will have to raise $15,000 to support the refugees for a year.

"We just don't have an understanding of what they've had to live with, and when we can do something as simple as give space for their lives to get settled... I'm expecting to be changed as much as they are," said McClellan.

She said five or six refugee families may be coming to nearby Gander, so the two communities will work together.