Posted on: Saturday, January 29, 2005
Small donations make for a big pot
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i has shown its compassion for the survivors of the December tsunami with monetary gifts large and small, everything from checks with lots of zeros from those who can afford such donations, to the spare change a college student can toss into a collection jug.
Add them all up, however, and the various fund drives around the Islands have reached roughly a half-million dollars so far, judging by progress reports issued in the past several days.
An especially large-scale campaign, the East-West Center Tsunami Relief Fund, has raised nearly $340,000 statewide in the month since it was launched, and money is already earmarked for specific projects.
Myriad smaller fund-raisers have taken place throughout the state, including:
• Aloha Medical Mission, the volunteer group whose first team of doctors left Thursday for Banda Aceh, has collected more than $40,000 in less than three weeks, said spokesman Reynold Feldman. • The Sri Lankan community has united in various efforts, drawing in about $28,000 to an account, managed by the Rotary Club of Windward Oahu, that eventually will be transferred to grassroots relief efforts by Sri Lankan Rotary clubs, said Bede Cooray, president of the Windward club. Additionally, the Hawai'i Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief Fund, gathered separately along with donated clothes and other goods, now totals about $10,000. This money is bound for a Sri Lanka-based charity to be determined later, said spokesman Dayan Vithanage.
A large cut of that fund came following a drive sponsored by Chan Khong Monastery Vietnamese Buddhist monastery in Niu Valley.
• A "bottle bill" recycling redemption drive headed by Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter, yielded almost 150,000 bottles and cans, equalling $7,500 for UNICEF's tsunami fund, enough to immunize 7,500 children, or to provide 860 families with water purification kits, according to UNICEF. • Hawai'i Pacific University kicked off its own Tsunami Relief Fund drive with a spare-change collection during a bungee run on Wednesday. Part of the university's ongoing collection is happening online (www.hpu.edu/tsunamifund). HPU officials plan to release the results of the drive in March. The single biggest drive remains the East-West Center campaign. Its officials announced this week plans for grants to various charity organizations, including groups providing emergency supplies and aid for orphaned children.
But the impulse to help the suffering survivors, who face unprecedented risks of disease due to destruction of basic sanitation, has drawn a wide range of responses. "Punk Rock for a Cause," a Jan. 13 event at Kainoa's Sports Bar in Hale'iwa, raised $1,188, said organizer Heather Bach.
"Every dollar that was donated bought you a raffle ticket, and people had ticket stub strips 40 and 50 long," she said. "There was chaos and confusion, yet it only added to the fun. No one walked away empty-handed.
"You at least knew you had given to help people that right now are suffering beyond belief."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
