Victorville students raise $1,500 to help earthquake victims in Turkey, Syria

Students at Victorville's Lomitas Elementary School Tuesday raised nearly $1,500 to aid victims of the Turkey and Syria earthquakes.

Considered the deadliest earthquake disaster to strike the region in centuries, the February earthquakes rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria.

Melissa Edwards' sixth-grade leadership class decided to start a penny drive after seeing online images of the devastation the earthquakes caused in both countries. The three-month fundraising effort will benefit the nonprofit Direct Relief, based in Santa Barbara.

"There was no definite goal, it was just t raise the most money per class," Edwards said. "It's important that the kids see the fruits of their labor."

Celebrating a job well done

After turning the money over to Direct Relief on Tuesday, students celebrated with an outdoor party that included pies in the face of school staff.

"The class that raised the most money in each grade got to pie their teacher," Edwards said.

Students not involved in the fundraising efforts also heard about the project from Edwards, her leadership students, Principal Crystal Kerns, and Samir Rai, Direct Relief manager of partnership and philanthropy.

Several students shared how they were impacted by the images of devastation and how they decided to take action to assist those in need.

Sounds of jubilation sprang up among the students as they were thanked for their fundraising efforts and hearts of generosity.

“We’re really grateful for the outpouring of support from many schools, but the excitement that we’ve seen here at Lomitas is definitely exceptional,” Rai, 33, said. “The spirit from which they started this fundraising was also about students learning about the people that were affected and seeing what optimistic approach they could take to make a difference, which was something really unique.”

Direct Relief

The February earthquakes killed more than 55,000 people, injured more than 100,000, left hundreds of thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed, and left millions of people displaced across the region, the nonprofit reported.

On May 9, nearly 70 tons of requested medicine and medical supplies arrived in Adana, Turkey, for distribution to Syria in response to February’s earthquakes, according to the nonprofit.

The shipment arrived via a Direct Relief-chartered 747 cargo plane and was received by three on-the-ground organizations in Syria, including the Syrian American Medical Society, Independent Doctors Association, and Syria Relief and Development.

It was the third fully loaded charter flight of medical aid Direct Relief has sent to Syria and Turkey since the earthquakes struck.

During a 10-day period earlier this month, Direct Relief delivered nearly 425 shipments of requested medical aid to 39 U.S. states and territories and 13 countries worldwide. The shipments contained 18.5 million defined daily doses of medication, including antibiotics, personal care products, surgical supplies, and more.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Victorville students raise over $1,500 to aid earthquake victims