At 11 p.m. Thursday, a second family of refugees from Syria stepped off the plane at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport ready to begin a new life in Canada.

The family of five – three pre-teen children, a mother and father – came to Whitehorse via Turkey, sponsored by the Riverdale Baptist Church and the federal government.

“It was a really beautiful moment,” Hillary Gladish, who organized the sponsorship on behalf of the Riverdale Baptist Church, told the Star this morning.

“The mom especially, she just expressed so much joy for being here, and she was so thankful, and just really glad that she could meet and see all of us there.

“It was really meaningful for both the family and the community.”

Gladish and her church secured this family’s arrival to Whitehorse through the federal government’s Blended Visa Office-Reffered program. It connects private sponsors with families who have been pre-selected by the United Nations Refugee Agency.

The families have already gone through security screenings and are virtually ready to board a plane by the time they are matched with Canadian sponsors. Both parties split the family’s cost of living in Canada for a year.

This allows for the application to be processed relatively quickly, said Gladish. It was only a couple of months after mailing in the paperwork that the new family arrived.

“It feels wonderful,” she added. “It’s really incredible to see the hard work actually come to fruition and put faces to names and finally meet the family ... there’s a real hope for the future.”

A group of just under 20 people, including translators, the Riverdale church pastor, congregants, and members of Whitehorse’s first family of Syrian refugees came out to greet the newcomers despite the late hour.

Kids from the church had made welcome signs with the family members’ names written in Arabic.

Raquel De Queiroz is the founder of Yukon Cares, a volunteer organization that raises funds to bring Syrian refugees to the Yukon and support them upon arrival.

Yukon Cares was responsible for bringing the first family, the Aarafats, to Whitehorse last January.

De Queiroz was also at the airport to greet the new family, and described the emotional scene.

“The mom started to cry, I started to cry, I think quite of a few of the volunteers crying,” she said.

“It was very positive overall, you could feel the love in the room. (Whitehorse) is a very loving community.”

Also at the arrivals gate were members of the Aarafat family, who are coming up on a year of being in the territory.

De Queiroz said it was a benefit to have people present who could communicate with the family at the end of their lengthy journey to the Yukon.

“For anyone for whom English isn’t your first language, it’s a comfort,” she said.

“I know myself – my first language is Portuguese – I know it’s a comfort to speak your mother tongue. They were happy.”

Of course, the family faces a new set of challenges now that they’ve landed in this unfamiliar, and sometimes punishing, northern clime.

The church group brought warm clothes and coats for the family to the airport, but, admits Gladish, sizing was “a bit of a guessing game.”

Before the family arrived, the group met with the Arafat family to ask about their initial experiences in Whitehorse, and about what could be done to make the transition as smooth as possible for the new family.

The Aarafats prepared a grocery list of food the family might enjoy and find familiar.

“They were able to provide good insight,” Gladish said of Whitehorse’s first family of refugees from Syria. “The Arafat family was really helpful.”

It’s September now, and Gladish hopes the three children, two girls and a boy, will get into classrooms soon, but they need to find a school with space and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) resources.

Learning foundational English is the primary focus for the whole family right now, said Gladish, and the Multicultural Centre of Fourth Avenue will help with that.

The Riverdale Baptist Church also sponsored a Syrian family in Iraq, but that group’s application has been on hold for several months.

The Canadian government doesn’t have an interview team in Iraq, said Gladish.

Nor does it have an official setup of any kind, so the application process out of that country moves at a snail’s pace.

“Because they’re Syrian living in Iraq, they are top priority,” said Gladish.

The church remains firm in its commitment to bring this family to Canada.

“We’ve established the beginning of a relationship, and we felt very strongly that we continue to support them,” said Gladish.

Last she heard, the Canadian government was planning to send officials into Iraq to do interviews for refugee applications this fall.

The government is aware of the family, and that they’ve been sponsored by the Riverdale Baptist Church.

As for the Aarafats, they’re doing well and their English is coming along nicely, said De Queiroz.

The school-aged kids are back in class and the eldest, Hassan, who is 22, has dreams of becoming a pharmacist. Ismael, 20 is training to become a barber and does volunteer work.

The youngest, Mohammad, is only four but is eager to go to school too, said De Queiroz.

“He kept asking us to ‘please, please, please’ go to school,” she said, adding he was “over the moon” when he began programming at the Canada Games Centre.

Yukon Cares is still trying to find a job for the father, Hussein. It’s difficult because his English is still “quite basic,” said De Queiroz.

That’s expected with an older ESL student, the language doesn’t come as easy.

The mother, Fatima, is working on opening her own clothing alteration business. De Queiroz said she’s an “excellent seamstress.”

Right now, Fatima is doing knitting and crocheting, and she hopes to sell her projects at the upcoming Christmas fair.

The family is growing vegetables in their garden, too.

“It is really amazing to see everything that they’ve been able to do here in their home,” said De Queiroz.

“They’re flourishing.”

Yukon Cares continues to raise funds to bring more refugees from Syria to the Yukon.

They want to bring Fatima’s brother and Hussein’s brother and his family here as soon as they can. Anyone interested in donating can do so at the groups website: yukoncares.ca

“It’s just such an incredible experience to see people being rescued from such a broken and war-torn environment, and to arrive into something so beautiful like Whitehorse,” De Queiroz said.

“You can’t describe it; it’s a wonderful thing to watch.”