When Hazen High School senior Denisha Shrestha heard her aunt yelling on the phone to her grandfather about an earthquake in Nepal last month, she didn’t think much about it because the area is prone to quakes, she said. Shrestha is originally from Kathmandu and called magintude-5.9 quakes normal. But then an app on her cell phone started notifying her repeatedly about earthquakes in Nepal and the panic set in.
“It started blowing up,” Shrestha said of her cell phone, which started alerting her of the growing magnitude from 6.8 to 7.9 and up. “So, I got scared.”
After learning that the 8.1 magnitude earthquake took more than 6,300 people’s lives and left millions without food, shelter or medicine, Shrestha felt helpless.
Then she decided to act.
She contacted a teacher at Hazen and now intends to raise at least $1,000 to give to the Nepal Seattle Society for the relief effort. She’s organizing the fundraising through Hazen’s Key Club and with the help of teacher Brad Zylstra.
“Even though we are not physically there, we can at least send something to people over there and help them go through it,” she said.
Shrestha has grandparents and relatives in Nepal who live close to the epicenter. After the quake, her family and many in the community moved to government-provided tents because they didn’t feel safe in their houses with continuing aftershocks. Her family members are safe now and just recently returned to their homes May 1.
“At first I really felt helpless,” Shrestha said. “I didn’t know what to do because my grandmom and granddad are the only people there. I really felt scared after some time when they told me how the situation was and I saw all the pictures: the monuments falling, the people dying.”
Shrestha surveyed the damage via Facebook posts she saw from family and friends.
Since getting the word out, she feels encouraged when people donate, she said.
Last weekend she participated in a walk with the Nepal Seattle Society from the Space Needle to Century Link Field to raise awareness. On Thursday, her classmates were to participate in a “Miracle Minute” at school, in which students collect as much money as they can in one minute.
If you’d like to support the effort, checks made payable to Hazen High School (write, “Nepal Earthquake Relief” in the note) can be mailed, care of Sarah Viles, to 1101 Hoquiam Ave. N.E., Renton, WA 98059.
The deadline for donations is May 21.
