Breaking the piggy bank and lemonade for tsunami aid

BY LOKUBANDA Tillakaratne

THE envelopes unassuming colour was sticking out of the heap of junk mail clippings from the advertisers, credit card companies and coupon publishers. Ven. Walpola Piyananda of the Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles caught a glimpse of its return address: State Correctional Institution, Dallas, Pennsylvania.

He did not remember anyone known to him in prison recently. He opened the envelope with apprehension. A yellow cheque for $15 popped out. It was written to the order of Dharma Vijaya Vihara Tsunami Relief Fund. Signed in non-Sri Lankan name, it had the prisoner number below it.

During the darkest hour of South East Asian history, when the pictures of the fuming sea monster unleashing its tentacles snatching families from their homes flashed across television screens and radio waves, in the remotest corners of the world, human hearts opened up their never seen depths in resolve and kindness.

Human generosity took to higher standards to help. In the wake of the tsunami disaster, people around the globe had one thought in common: To help the victims of the disaster.

This is the story how most Americans, specially children, responded in their own ways to help the tsunami affected Sri Lankans and how Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles did its work to raise funds and essential items to be sent to Sri Lanka.

Within minutes and hours of waves coming ashore, the Sri Lankan Diaspora in the United States began to inquire about their relatives and friends.

After absorbing the initial shock of the remarkable events, they immediately set out to mobilize their friends and approached strangers to collect essential items and raise funds to help those in need.

Our committee of volunteers hastily converted the cramped library of the temple to an office, making it the nerve center of our operations.

We called Sri Lankans and friends and notified them of the religious activities scheduled that evening. We gave them an overview of what was happening and how each of them can help. The evenings service was attended by nearly two hundred people.

Madusha, a 5th grader and her brother Deshan who came to the temple with their parents set up a folding table at the back of the long temple hall.

They had a small box and an exercise book to record names and addresses. At the end of the service, people stood in line to drop checks, dollar notes and coins. No one had asked them to donate. They just knew what to do next.

They stood in line subdued and in perfect calm, no doubt solemnly thinking of the tragedies unfolding back home. They must have been frustrated unable to do more than just standing on a line and handing over a cheque.

How this money would be spent was not the question in their minds. How soon this money could get to Sri Lanka was their concern. Their hope was that someway their small contribution will help soothe the heartbreaks and bleakness hovering across a land on the other side of the globe.

Like the story we heard of the teacher in a village near Mihintale who called and offered his three-wheeler to a team of doctors heading to Hambantota for relief work on the night of the December 27, distance didn't stand in the way of these good folks.

Children, moving around in the temple premises in subdued demeanour were not unaware of the significance of the situation. In order to get them involved, we distributed half sheets to them to write their thoughts to Sri Lankan children caught up in the tsunami.

They wrote moving letters. Nilu, a 5 year old attending Castaic Elementary school scribbled: Dear friends in Sri Lanka I am verx verx sorx that a big big big wave cam to Sri Lanka. I fell sad for Sri Lanka of that big wave. I fell sad. From Nilu for Sri Lanka January 1, 2005 Niluka Karunasiri Castic (Castaic elementary school).

Next week, Walpola Piyananda Thera will present these letters to a few schools in Southern Province to be displayed on school notice boards.

Around 11 p.m., the first night of fund-raising was over. The donation totalled $6,243.

Thus started our weeks of fund-raising. It was completely an un-chartered territory for us. We were not experienced fund-raisers as the mega charities like UNICEF or the Red Cross. But our instincts guided us to believe that most people did care and would heed to our call.

Next day, as CNN showed footage of overturned buses in vortexing currents in Galle bus stand and murky waves running amok along the Galle road, the phones rang in the temple non stop.

Americans walked in from the street to write checks. None of them would ask a question. They just wrote a check. Or pulled out the wallet and deposited dollar bills in a glass box in the middle of the temple lobby and walked away.

The condolence book in the lobby of the temple ran out of pages by the end of the second day. Companies called in from all over the country offering water, medicine and water purifying tablets. A New Zealand retire mailed offering his 30-foot yacht.

The fund-raising committee gathered everyday, working long hours, upgrading our internet connections, and other resources. It was a daunting task. None of us had done any fund-raising of this magnitude before.

On 4th day after the tsunami, a Vietnamese-American 7th grader walked in to the temple and handed a brown envelope.

In it was $1,200. She told us that the day before she and her friends went from door to door in the neighbourhood collecting donations for Sri Lankan tsunami victims. Among the strangers who donated money to them was the postman who crossed their path. He pulled out a wad of notes and dropped it in their collection box.

The wad had three dollars. Some students mobilized their athletic teams like the Hettigoda kids whose schools swimming team near Torrance, California collected over $3,000.

A Thai student at Harvard University who is a member of the temple began directing donors to the temple website. Friends of the temple took the word out to their neighbours, friends and even to their childrens schools.

Within days, envelops began to arrive from schools. Parents dropped into hand-over envelopes with their class name on it. On the back of one such envelope containing coins was a note written in neat cursive hand writing: Coins from Micheles piggy bank Mihiri, starting undergraduate studies at Stanford University this September is also a member of the fund-raising committee.

She called her favorite teacher at the Connie E. Seeds Elementary School in Los Angeles where she volunteered in the summer, to discuss the tsunami. Mr. Raul Alacorn, her teacher said they could have a bake sale to raise funds for the tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.

On the following Friday, the two lower classes at the elementary school collected over $5,000 in two hours of bake sale. Some parents also came to help. Mihiri spoke to the kindergarteners. She showed pictures of Sri Lanka to them. They asked the sweetest of questions. Seated in a circle on the floor with the kids, Mihiri told them how tsunami waves washed out some schools to sea and how children lost their toys, books, brothers and sisters and parents.

Then one kindergartner with a pony tail knotted with red ribbons earnestly raised her hand and asked: Mihiri! Can we bring them here? Innocence and friendship know no boundaries.

While the bake sale was in progress, one parent was talking to Mihiri about his concerns who to give a donation as he was not sure whether it would get to the people in need. Then a little girl who was playing in the play yard saw Mihiri's and came running to her with outstretched hands.

She jumped and hugged Mihiri like finding a long lost friend. Mihiri had volunteered in the school last summer teaching her how to make puppets.

The happy parent said: Do I need any proof? He pulled out the cheque book and wrote a cheque for $1000 and handed it to Mihiri. The little girl, still clinging to Mihiris hand, was his daughter.

The teachers are mulling over a proposal to start a sister school in Sri Lanka in the Tsunami belt and Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara is planning to build 50 houses for tsunami victims.

Parents at the Seeds Elementary School dropped off envelope into a cardboard box placed by the door of the classroom. When Mihiri and her mother brought the box of envelopes to the Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara, there was an envelope with a handwritten message from a girl named Lia.

The writings shined with vitality and youth. It said:. Dear friends, we sold lemaned thes week end. This is we receved. We love you. A red heart in thick lines was drawn at the end of the sentence.

The envelope contained 11 dollars and 53 cents!