In a quaint French restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, two Ojai Valley School
students, freshman Kanna Terunuma and sophomore Yui Kikuchi, held a charity lunch that raised $1,500 to help the fire relief around school.
When Kanna’s mother first heard the news that the Science and Tech buildings and the Grace Hobson Girl’s Dormitory burned down, she began planning ways to help the school. Her plans were realized when she proposed the charity lunch to Kanna, who was eager to help.
Kanna’s mother’s friend heard of the sad news and offered to host and cater the event at his restaurant, Trinite.
Around fifty people showed up, each paying $20 for curry and buying items at an auction that was compiled of donated items. Many contributed extra money after a nearly three hour presentation about the effects of the fire.
But, before the event began, Kanna called forth fellow student Yui and asked for her help.
“I [couldn’t] do it by myself,” Kanna explained. “I couldn’t explain all of what happened to the school to fifty people. She helped me a lot.”
Yui turned into Kanna’s wing woman on the day of the event, January 6th. The two of them met up at Trinite and decorated before the event began. Pictures showing the school before and after the fire were taped along the wall, cookies were baked, and the curry being sold was cooking.
They stuck by each other’s sides throughout the entire event, which lasted several hours. All of their hard work paid off and they were elated to discover how much they made at the end.
Photo by Yui Kikuchi
“It was kind of hard,” Yui said. “But, if I think about it, we helped our school. [It took] only three hours. It’s kind of cool.”
The $1,500 they helped raise will go into the school’s general fund, but most of it will
be divided up into separate fire relief efforts, like helping polish The Village, their new girl’s dorm.
Headmaster Craig Floyd was delighted when he heard about their hard work. So much so that he called them up during “Milk and Crackers, ” the school meeting, to tell the student body about the lunch.
“I’m very proud of them for taking initiative and doing something like that to help,” Mr. Floyd said about their efforts. “There’s never an expectation of anybody to do that, but they took it to heart, wanted to do something to help the school community. I think it’s fabulous.”