Calgary family forgoes kitchen renos to sponsor Syrian refugees

Neena Hardman has been looking forward to a brand new kitchen for a while now, but recently decided with her husband Kirk to put the roughly $5,000 they had allocated for the renos, towards the cost of sponsoring a family fleeing the violence and turmoil of Syria.

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"I just wanted to have a little space, right?" Hardman explained, looking at renovations planned for her northeast home.

"Replace the counters and cupboards. It's old, right?" she said.

But after conversations with her husband Kirk, the Hardmans decided to pool the new kitchen money with others, to fund the cost of bringing a Syrian refugee family to Calgary.

It's about $20,000 to $30,000 to bring and settle one family for a year.

The Hardmans $5,000 will be put with other sponsorship money under a federal government program called Groups of five.

Hardman's husband saidit's the right thing to do.

"To give somebody else an opportunity to come to Canada is important for us, you know it's just one of the things you sacrifice and go, 'Yeah, it's not a big deal,'" Kirk Hardman said.

For Neena though, it's about doing a reality check on what is important.

"These things don't matter. A granite top, it's just material, it doesn't really matter," she said.

"There's actual living beings that are suffering right now that don't have the bare necessities, they don't have food, they don't have water, they're living in tents. So, this is not important."

Nothing's carved in stone yet, but the Hardmans have a family they would like to sponsor already.

It's a couple, the man isan English-speaking professional and the woman is pregnant, andexpecting any day now.

"And to be able to give that child this beautiful country and not to have to worry about getting bombarded" Hardman said, pausing.

"It's a beautiful feeling. I can't wait."