WAIMEA — Waimea Canyon Middle School seventh-grade student Melia Okura quoted from a Japanese saying when she said even dust piled up makes a mountain. Okura was joined by fellow students Julia Hirano, Samantha Nichols, and Maia Young in presenting
WAIMEA — Waimea Canyon Middle School seventh-grade student Melia Okura quoted from a Japanese saying when she said even dust piled up makes a mountain.
Okura was joined by fellow students Julia Hirano, Samantha Nichols, and Maia Young in presenting the American Red Cross with a check for $642 at a special assembly Thursday in the WCMS cafeteria.
“This $642 is not enough to recover Japan from the disaster,” Okura said. “But Waimea Canyon Middle School students are proud to be the dust to form a mountain.”
The students said even if they are just kids, they can help too.
Almost all of the nearly 150 seventh-grade students contributed to the disaster relief fund which was turned over to the American Red Cross.
“Five dollars may not sound like a whole lot to us,” the students said. “But in Japan, it’s a lot, and we want the people in Japan to know that we do care.”
The students said they learned of the disaster by watching television, and on the night they were hosting a dance, learned of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami which wrought havoc.
Team Hui Nalu decided then to give the money raised to the American Red Cross, the students said.
Laura Burman, the American Red Cross Kaua‘i director, said the American Red Cross has contributed about $100 million toward relief efforts in Japan.
“There are about 125,000 people living in shelters,” she said. “What this money goes toward is food through the United Nations World Food Program which helps in times of disaster.”
She said there are 2 million Red Cross volunteers in Japan, and like the volunteers on Kaua‘i, had relief supplies ready to help.
Brian Godsill, an English teacher at WCMS, said the students, over the course of the third quarter covering January through March, worked on a service-learning project focusing on the importance of giving to others who are in need.
“Our seventh-grade students were deeply inspired after watching a character education video which spotlighted Craig Kielburger’s efforts with ‘Free the Children,’” he said in a letter to Burman. “After witnessing how many children in the world are truly in need of assistance, our students wanted to help and named our unit, ‘Kids Helping Kids.’”
During the course, the students learned of ways kids from across the nation are making a difference by helping other kids in need.
“After brainstorming various ways to raise money, we decided to have a fundraiser dance on the last day of school before Spring Break,” Godsill said. “The proceeds from the dance were to go to a charitable organization of the students’ choice to be decided after the break.”
After hearing of the earthquake and the devastating tsunami, the students overwhelmingly wanted to donate the money they raised to the Red Cross Japan tsunami relief fund, he said.
“I’m so glad they found the American Red Cross,” said Glenda Miyazaki, the WCMS principal. “They worked so hard, and this is a valuable lesson for them. They all deserve a lot of praise for what they are doing.”
Godsill said after all the weeks spent learning about how other kids are making a difference, today they are the difference.
