Luckily, none of 24-year-old Nao Chikama’s friends and family in Tokyo were harmed by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. However, one of her friends in Bellevue College’s International Business Professions Program (IBPP) is mourning the loss of her grandmother in the aftermath of the natural disasters.
“You Can Save Japan” was the name of the March 17 fundraising event, when Chikama and nine other international students sat behind booths in the bustling BC cafeteria, in an effort to send hope to victims and contribute to the relief effort.
The international students were joined by a dozen other campus clubs and members of the student body, including the Jibsheet student newspaper, El Centro Latino and the Gay Straight Alliance. Different groups asked for donations of money or new socks for displaced victims.
Together, the students were able to raise more than $5,100 for the Japanese Red Cross.
At Chikama’s table, passersby could fold origami paper cranes and write messages of hope and peace on their wings for a $1 donation. The purchased cranes were then strung up, one on top of the other, to be sent to a university in one of the affected areas in the near future.
With tears in her eyes, Chikama said she wished she had been there to support her community and country when the disaster happened. But now, she said she realizes there are helpful things she can do even while studying abroad.
“I want people to know what happened to Japan. It’s so easy for people to forget,” she said.
Out of BC’s 850 international students, 130 are Japanese. Luckily, most of them did not have family members who were affected by the natural disasters, said Kazumi Hada-Chan, IBPP director.
Still, even in parts of Japan that were unaffected by the tremors or tsunami, people are shaken and emotionally rattled, a fact that Norihiro Akasaka, a 21-year-old Nagoya native, has been able to pick up on just through phone calls and online correspondence with family and friends, who were roughly 300 miles away from where the earthquake struck Sendai.
As he handed out fliers and encouraged other students to buy a crane, Akasaka, who’s been studying at Bellevue College for the past six months, wore a single, silver origami crane pinned to his red vest.
Among the crowds in the cafeteria mingling around the origami creations and various groups’ tables, was an emotional BC President B. Jean Floten. She said she was impressed by the students’ immediate call to action and compassion.
“Japanese people and Japanese Americans have always been such an important part of the campus and greater-Bellevue community,” she said. “… Right now, our neighbors are in a desperate situation.”
Help Bellevue College: “You Can Save Japan” ongoing fundraising:
Chikama’s origami cranes:
http://on.fb.me/BCJapanRelief
Socks for Tsunami and earthquake victims:
http://on.fb.me/SocksForJapan
Gabrielle Nomura be reached at 425-453-4602.
