By Jacquelyn Guillen
On Friday Nov. 8, 2013, a typhoon struck the central islands of the Philippines. Homes were destroyed, lives were taken, and the people of the islands were left without basic necessities.
In an effort to help aid the victims in the Philippines, Lane students and teachers helped in different ways to provide relief. Inside and outside of school, people did whatever they could to help aid the Philippines.
The Tri-M Music Honor Society held a relief concert called “LT Rhythms for the Philippines” on Thursday Nov. 21. Students could either pay $5 for the concert or they could also get in if they donated two cans of food. All of the money raised and the food collected went to the Philippines.
“There were a lot of people not only buying tickets, but who were just donating food or $20 or $50,” said Nayelli Duran, Div. 477. “It was really great, especially when people would come up and say ‘I can’t go to the concert, but I think what you guys are doing is really fantastic.’”
Duran, Tri-M’s secretary, said they knew from the start that they wanted to have a benefit concert. Originally, Tri-M was going to donate all the money to a local food pantry for the homeless. A week before the concert, Duran and the other officers got together to think of a name for the concert. They ended up changing the benefit for the Philippines victims.
“Once we had a purpose and a reason, it stopped being about publicity, and took on a deeper meaning. I’m okay that not a lot of people went. I’m just happy so many people wanted to be a part of it and helped out,” Duran said.
The concert Tri-M held was part of a group effort with Mr. Yadao and Filipino Club. They called it the Balikbayan Project. The project was created to help provide relief to the Philippines. Mr. Yadao and Filipino Club asked students and staff to donate canned foods, medical supplies, and batteries. They collected all the donated items on Nov. 26 to send overseas.
Outside of school, Jade Espina, Div. 563, was determined to help the typhoon victims. On her day off from school, Espina went to the Rizal Center, located at 1332 W. Irving Park, to volunteer for what she thought would be a couple of hours. The event grew bigger than what they expected once they took it public. Soon Espina started to work alongside the Organization Committee at the center, and she was put in charge of social media along with another woman.
“We were in charge of taking this cause and putting it out in the world for everyone to see,” Espina said. “We were in charge of updating people of what was going on in the center, such as things that we needed, the priority donations that we were shipping out, and most importantly trying to get as many volunteers as possible to help us out down at the center.”
Espina posted statuses on Facebook to try and get exposure to the center. She tried to recruit as many people as she could, and it worked. Espina said it grew “exponentially.”
Inside the center, volunteers were folding, sorting, and boxing clothes, toiletries, and medical supplies. Meanwhile, outside of the center, people worked in the cold weather picking up “drop-off” donations from cars or lifting heavy supply boxes into trucks. Off-duty police officers also came to help direct traffic for the cars that were dropping off donations.
“It was such a sight and I am thankful to be a part of it,” Espina said.
