BLACKSBURG (WSLS 10) - One Blacksburg organization was in the process of bringing a Syrian refugee family to the United States when President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration hit.
The Blacksburg Refugee Partnership says its not giving up hope that this family of seven, currently living in a refugee camp overseas, can find refuge in Southwest Virginia.
The Partnership has been working through the Commonwealth Catholic Charities, and has already re-settled one family in Blacksburg.
Now, members say they have more support than ever.
Scott Bailey says the Blacksburg Refugee Alliance was born out of people seeing the refugee crisis on the news.
"It started here at Glade Church with just a few of us getting together, saying this problem is too big, we need to do something," said Bailey.
The first meeting was held at the Blacksburg library in mid-July.
"We thought we'd call it a success if we could get 40 people there, and we sat out 40 chairs. That room had minimum 80 people, you couldn't have fit another human being in there," said Bailey.
Then, at the end of that month, the day finally came when a family of eight arrived in Blacksburg.
"When you meet the family. It's kids and it's a real face and they give you hugs and they smile and some of these kids have personalities it's just unbelievable," said Bailey.
"We found a place for them. We had all kinds of furnishings, furniture, lamps, beds, all donated," said Partnership member Jane Aronson.
"They're all in school, they're all getting educated. The school system here is phenomenal, the teachers take a great interest in the students," said Bailey.
The process worked so well, and the group had so much community support, they tried to house a second family.
"We had a date that they were supposed to come. That date was this past Thursday, but then as everybody knows, the executive orders hit, and that prohibited the family from coming, so they never boarded the plane," said Bailey.
Partnership member Janne Mathes says the executive order has caused their membership to skyrocket to more than 300 members.
"It's been a definite growth since that time. A jump, maybe I could say double. It used to be five a day, now it's 10 who request to be on our mailing list," said Mathes.
But for the family of seven, still in a Jordanian refugee camp, there is a time concern.
"They go through 18 months to two years of interviews, background checks, medical health check-ups, and all those things have dates on them for when they were completed, so if this family doesn't make it to the United States now, all of those checklists, they have to be done over again," said Aronson.
That's why Bailey says despite the executive order, he's not giving up.
"Somewhere, papers were created for that family that allowed them to travel. Those papers are sitting on someone's desk, and until we know they've been torn up, we think there's still hope," said Bailey.
The group says, even if it can't bring that family over right now, it's determined to help other refugee families that are currently here in the U.S.
The Partnership has set up a website and even a GoFundMe page for donations.