Get ready to rock out as Canadian music legends Chilliwack and Juno Award winner Sue Medley take the stage at the Sooke Community Theatre on Aug. 26.
The concert begins at 7:30 pm and is being held to support the Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees which provides counselling and services to women and men who suffer from the emotional trauma and loss of being survivors of war, displacement or migration.
Phil Rossner, organizer of the event and director of communications at VICCIR, said right now the organization is not receiving any government funding, so the funds from the concert will be a great help to the organization.
“We hear all about immigrants and refugees all the time and certainly we bring them in to our country but what one thing that is missing in the puzzle, which this organization is looking after is the extreme trauma that a lot of these people have been through,” said Rossner. “Some of the stories you hear are devastating, what these families have been through.”
VICCIR is a unique organization operating in Greater Victoria and South Vancouver Island, as all the counsellors and interpretors, and volunteers involved in the organization work free of charge.
“Our future hope is to be able to hire a few counsellors and interpretors,” said Adriene Carter, director of services at VICCIR.
Carter said the VICCIR has already helped over 150 families and individual refugees by giving them access to support groups, and therapy groups and counselling sessions offered through the organization.
“It will be huge if Sooke comes out to support this,” said Rossner. “Right now we have very limited funding, so I thought this was an opportunity to put together this show in order to get some much needed funds happening for the organization.”
Tickets are $40 and can be purchased in Sooke at The Stick and Sooke Shoppers Drug Mart or online at chilliwack.bpt.me. For more information on VICCIR, visit VICCIR.org.
“I think people who come to the concert will really enjoy the music, and at the same time they will be helping us remain open and provide very much needed help for both refugees and immigrants who live on the Island,” said Carter.
