Thursday night at the Gathering Place in Humboldt the Humboldt and Area Refugee Coalition held an information night as they continue to work towards sponsoring one or possibly more refugee families.

Government appointed refugees don't get settled in centres such as Humboldt but private sponsorship is an option so during the meeting Anglican Church Diocese Refugee Coordinator Klaus Gruber spoke to the crowd answering their questions and giving tips on how to proceed.

Gruber said he is happy to hear about this group in the city.

"I am excited, I am not surprised. Rural communities have often been very welcoming but overlooked partly because they don't have any formal settlement services and there are no government assisted refugees that get destined to places like Humboldt but there are often privately sponsored refugees in the community. People have been here and communities are caring and supportive and they want to help."

That's the goal of the coalition and the purpose of the meeting. They want to know what's next in the process to help as 25,000 Syrians begin to make their way to our nation fleeing their own war ravaged nation. Contrary to popular belief, a large portion of these people, that include mothers and children either aren't ready to come to Canada or they don't want to at all.

"Most of these people were successful living a reasonable life," Gruber explained. "About five years ago things started to come apart for them, they were attacked by the government, they were attacked by anti-government forces. There are numerous rebel groups and terrorists groups then ISIS got involved."

About 40 people attended the meeting, the Coalition will continue to drum up support for the possible placement of a family or two. There is plenty of support around the community, including from churches, the Good Neighbour Store is hoping to be involved and is open to providing goods for the families. The Humboldt Regional Newcomers Centre has had representation at the pair of meetings the coalition has help including Thursday's.

"This is a crisis that has gone beyond almost every crisis," Klaus, an immigrant himself continued. "Certainly since the Second World War and even including the Second World War, that's why the refugees have been so desperate to leave that they have risked their lives to get to Europe because that's a place they can get to."

Gruber himself has been sponsoring and working with refugees since 1979 and he will continue to do so for a long time.

"A lot of the hate is based on complete misinformation, refugees are not terrorist, refugees are the victims of terrorists. Refugees are the most vulnerable people on earth."

You can hear more from Gruber in his interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork below.