Project to help disaster victims proves elementary

Dave Brooks

Braving wind and rain and the loss of their favorite Teddy bears,

about a dozen Costa Mesa students from Kaiser Elementary teamed up

Friday to bring some relief to the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in

Sri Lanka.

Utilizing an assembly line system, the students -- mostly fifth-

and sixth-graders -- loaded dozens of bags of donated clothes, toys,

blankets and games onto a flatbed truck on loan from Wright Hardware.

“That’s better than playing video games,” said 12-year-old Pete Jensen, who along with his twin brother Phil Jensen helped out during

the relief effort.

The items will be temporarily stored at the home of Jo Miller

before being shipped off this weekend to benefit families of a Sri

Lankan security firm, which lost loved ones in the deadly disaster

responsible for killing as many as 160,000 people throughout South

Asia.

“When I saw what happened on the news, I thought about how bad it

would be to lose all your stuff and maybe your family and friends,”

10-year-old Marcos Piazza said.

“You really don’t know what something means until you lose it.”

This is the second time this school year students at Kaiser were

asked to help young people on the other side of the world.

A few months prior, students helped donate playground equipment to

a school in Ghana.

“It’s pretty cool to help someone in need,” 10-year-old Austin

Smith said.

Students at Woodland Elementary also donated items to the relief

effort, and Miller said she’s overwhelmed by the response of the

community.

“I have a living room full, a garage full and big white van full

of stuff,” she gleefully said.

Personnel firm AVL Staffing will repackage the donated items

before shipping them off this weekend. The items will go to the

families of a security firm owned by Sri Lankan entrepreneur Vigitha

Welikala. The firm lost 20 men in the tsunami, and 40 other employees

lost their homes.

“When I saw that on TV, I just thought to myself, ‘What if that

was me? What would I do if this happened, and I didn’t know where my

family was?’” said fifth-grader Reann Nathan, who gave away some of

her favorite clothes to help tsunami victims.

The catastrophe resonated with others, too.

“When I saw what happened, I was shocked and thought it was

practically surreal,” 12-year-old Emily Horrell said. “Now, I just

want to try and make a difference in their lives. My message to them

is to have faith and hold on. Things will get better.”

Sharon Lynggard, a business partner of Welikala, said the items

will be earmarked for individual families in Sri Lanka. She said the

victims plan to take pictures with the donated items and even send

letters of thanks.

“They feel obligated that someone cared enough to do something for

them,” Lynggard said.

Parent Bev Ann Nathan, one of the relief drive’s main organizers,

said she hopes Friday’s effort teaches the children about the

importance of helping those in need.

“I want them to know that they can help the rest of the world and

make a difference,” she said.

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall for the Huntington Beach

Independent, a sister paper of the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at

(714) 966-4609 or by e-mail at [email protected].