Peninsula High Raises More Than $12,000 for Japan Relief Efforts

Palos Verdes Peninsula's high school campus was transformed Thursday as the school paid tribute to a country ravaged by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Many dressed in traditional Japanese garb, the Peninsula community geared up to present a check for more than $12,000 to the Japan Business Association of Southern California, or JBA, after less than five days of fundraising.

A group of Japanese mothers organized at the front of the school's outdoor stage to sell homemade food to students. And before the check was presented, students performed onstage.

Peninsula High's Japanese National Honor Society, in addition to other students on campus, worked to collect money in the past days. Funds presented to the JBA will be used to help victims of Japan's quake-tsunami that hit the country just weeks ago.

Peninsula's efforts culminated in the presentation of a $12,500 check to the JBA.

Koichi Uchiyama, one of the organization's representatives at the school Thursday, expressed his gratitude to the entire community. Uchiyama's cousin died in the tsunami and he said seeing the student effort was uplifting.

"I'm really encouraged," he said.

And at a school where many of the students and teachers have friends and family in Japan, the cause hit close to home.

"I'm helping the country my parents are from," sophomore Justyne Hiji said.

Hiji said she'll probably never entirely understand what the country is going through, but she did the best she could to help through fundraising efforts.

"I can't really imagine it, it's really horrible. ... I'm probably never going to know how they feel," she said. 

Nicole Kawakami, junior, said she's been telling her friends in Japan about raising money at Peninsula High.

"It feels really good," she said. "It's a lot of fun actually."

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