Roswell Students Reach Out To Japan During Country's Darkest Days

Students at three Roswell schools – , Elkins Pointe Middle and  – recently participated in activities on behalf of the victims of Japan’s devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters. 

Just over two months ago, on Friday, March 11 at 2:46 p.m., a terrible 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan. 

Some local students are far too young to grasp the scope and seriousness of the three recent tragedies that have befallen Japanese citizens. Most of them have never visited Japan. Several had planned a 10-day trip to the Pacific island nation over spring break. And one of them was actually living just outside of Toyko when the unthinkable happened.

Now, all of the students are learning to share a bit of their hearts with others struggling through unfathomable suffering half a world away.

Following what many now call the worst humanitarian disaster in Japan since the end of World War II, these schools collected and delivered monetary donations to international organizations, as did countless schools around the U.S.

However, the money collected at , EPMS and is not what makes their Japan disaster relief efforts noteworthy; rather, it was the effort to connect on a more personal level via separate projects on which teachers and students at these North Fulton schools collaborated.

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Roswell High School

The high school started the chain of kindness, after the school’s Japanese language teacher and Japan native, Tomomi Davis, learned about a letter-writing effort,  “Words of Hope for Japan” - a project spearheaded by former CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch - that had kicked off at elementary schools in Maryland. Davis felt that participating in the project would be a good way to connect her students with people desperate to hear messages of encouragement.

CNN heard about the letter-writing campaign Davis and her students were engaged in and included them in a news segment that appeared on CNN International.

Soon, students in other classes at Roswell, as well as members of the Roswell High Orchestra, were writing their own notes of encouragement to Japanese residents affected by the earthquake, tsunami or nuclear power plant situation.

A couple of weeks after Davis and her students completed their participation in the project, more than 130 additional students from Roswell High School penned letters of hope and support. 

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Elkins Pointe Middle School

At Elkins Pointe Middle School, Miyuki Johnson teaches Japanese to students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Johnson was also born in Japan and at the time of the earthquake, she and several of her students were anticipating an upcoming trip to her native country – a tour that she and Davis organize and oversee every other year. Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty revolving around the safety of the crippled nuclear power plant, this year’s trip had to be postponed until 2012.

The students took the bad news about their exciting trip in stride and though many of them were disappointed about the postponement, the overwhelming attitude of Johnson’s Japanese students, as well as members of the after-school origami club that she sponsored, was simple: What could they do to help the people of Japan?

In addition to the post-disaster fundraising Elkins Pointe had planned to kick off after spring break, Johnson, origami club members and her students settled on two ideas for their relief efforts. The first idea was to sell red wristbands before school with “Hope for Japan” written on them in English and Japanese. The bracelets were sold to students for $1 each before school, in an effort to raise and maintain awareness of the ongoing struggles in Japan.

The second idea turned out to be not only a feast for the eyes, but also an incredibly successful project created by clothing manufacturer OshKosh B’Gosh. For every origami crane OshKosh received, the company pledged to donate one article of children’s clothing that would be sent to Japan’s youngest disaster victims.

Quickly, Johnson’s classroom turned into a festive, multi-colored celebration of all things Origami, thanks to the prolific crane-making abilities of Elkins Pointe students. After a couple of weeks of pinpoint paper folding and origami-stringing, Johnson and a few Elkins Pointe origami club members delivered a remarkable 4,500 cranes to a nearby OshKosh outlet.

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Hembree Springs Elementary

Taking a cue from the high school, Hembree Springs Elementary media center paraprofessional Bev Shiotelis thought that participation in the “Words of Hope for Japan” letter campaign would be a great way for students to do something meaningful for the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster victims – and learn the fine art of compassion, in the process.

Like Elkins Pointe and Roswell, Hembree Springs raised money that would eventually be donated to international relief organizations which had "boots on the ground" in Japan. They also had students write letters that expressed comfort, solace, sorrow, support and love. Additionally, the student council donated $358 after its "Coins for Japan" fundraiser.

After obtaining approval from Principal Kali Raju, Shiotelis sent an e-mail to Hembree Springs teachers that described the letter-writing project, and included the CNN International video clip featuring the Roswell High students.

It did not take long for Hembree Springs educators to see the teachable moment that could come from getting their students involved with the letter project. Within days, kids as young as 1st grade were cutting out shapes from construction paper and pasting them onto colorful cards that they hoped would find their way into the hands of people in Japan who needed cheering up.

In Diane Williams’ fourth grade class, one student in particular provided perhaps the most compelling back-story and unique perspective of all students who participated in a Japan relief project.

Prior to her Roswell relocation a few weeks after the disaster, she was living in Japan. 

Michaela “Mika” Taylor, along with her little sister and parents, was located near a U.S. Air Force Base just outside of Tokyo when the first waves of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake rumbled across Japan. What started out as a routine Friday for the fourth grader turned into a scary waiting game in the minutes and hours after the earthquake and as the minutes passed, she became more worried about whether or not the rest of her family was all right.

It turned out that her family was okay, but her mother remembers the poignancy in being reunited with her daughter.

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To send your own “Words of Hope for Japan” letter to the still devastated nation, write:

Words of Hope for Japan
P.O. Box 636
Fulton, MD 20759

(Use domestic postage; the recipient will provide overseas postage.)