Sixty young Afghan women have been waiting nine months for the Canadian government to process their applications for settlement in Saskatoon as privately sponsored refugees. Three who successfully made the transition worry about the fate of those left behind.
As Summer Schofield sat in the back seat of a car, waving to supporters gathered on the sidewalk, her mother Karen felt all the love around her become tangible.
Summer’s friends and family, neighbours and former teachers spent Saturday afternoon honouring her and celebrating her high school graduation with a surprise parade in City Park.
Schofield, who is Metis, graduated from Nutana Collegiate this year. An avid lover of vintage cars, she sat in a rented 1963 Cadillac convertible as about 30 people hollered and set off noisemakers.
“But we made the noise of probably 100,” Karen Schofield recalled.
And it really felt like 100 people, or more, were gathered there, she said all of the interconnected circles of support that propped Summer and her family up as she worked toward graduation.