Japanese-language students at Renton High School help relief effort

Published 10:34 am Thursday, April 14, 2011

Those with connections and those who don’t have any personal ties to the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan are raising money for the Red Cross at Renton High School.

Led by their teacher or sensei, as she’s known to her students, Kati Peters was motivated to do something about the destruction she heard about in Japan and decided to host fundraising efforts and enlist the help of her Japanese language students.

Having lived in Japan a total of eight years off and on, Peters was devastated when she learned the news back in early March.

“I mean obviously a traumatic thing like this happening anywhere in the world is just awful; but because I lived there and have relatives there – my children’s grandmother and aunts and uncles and cousins – are in Japan,” Peters said.

It took awhile for her to get a hold of relatives and friends, but all are safe.

She said when she brought up the subject with students in her Japanese classes, they actually clapped at the suggestion of hosting a snack sale during lunches to raise money for relief efforts.

So she went about Sammamish, where she lives, and Renton, where she works, procuring donations for the sale.

They held the fundraising event during the students lunch periods on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Last Friday, April 8, a collection was taken up at the school’s multicultural show and more than $550 was collected.

“I think everybody wants to do something and feels kind of – some people just don’t know what to do, so this is just a great opportunity,” Peters said.

Renton High senior Boa Ling got involved by donating money and helping man the snack table during the lunches. He doesn’t know anyone personally effected by the disaster.

“It’s important to me because it’s my second year of Japanese and I really like Japan’s culture,” he said. “The first time when I saw the news about how the Japan disaster happened, I felt like I should do something for it.”

Several of the students were dressed in traditional yukatas supplied by Peters. Freshman and third-year Japanese student Annie Kwan was one of them.

“I just feel like all of us make up this world and we should just help each other out, instead of just ignoring them when they’re in trouble,” she said.

Peters said the students have plans to sell t-shirts that say “Hope for Japan.” One student’s mother has a factory in China that has made the t-shirts and they are enroute to the school for continued fundraising efforts.