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Ko Lanta The saying goes, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Well, my friend Susanna must love her neighbors MORE than herself. Susanna and I worked together at West Marine as graphic artists. She moved to Thailand about 3 years ago to pursue her fine arts career in watercolor landscapes, teach English, and live on the beautiful island of Ko Lanta in the old town district on the coast among the beautiful natives of the land. KO Lanta is a very small island off the coast of Thailand. Susanna loves boating, in fact she was out to sea on her longtail motor boat at the time the tsunami hit. Feeling only an unusually large swell as the boat shifted, upon her return found the pier gone, and then found 70% of her house gone and most of her neighbors houses gone. But, Susanna says she faired well compared to her neighbors. Most of them depend on fishing for their livelihood but most all of their boats have vanished along with their homes. They are staying in camps. Assessing the immediate needs of her neighbors, Susanna asked some of her friends back in Santa Cruz for some aid. She arranged for a way we can deposit money right into her checking account that she has immediate access to over there. She (on a borrowed computer) set up a Web page with pictures of her neighbors showing where the money is going and what it is being spent on. You can track everything on Susanna's web log and photos below. http://homepage.mac.com/susannabachman/Tsunami/PhotoAlbum23.html http://www.worldwatercolors.com/cgi-bin/weblog/weblog.cgi?mode=display Much more is needed and a little money goes a long way over there. Susanna tells of buying such practical things as shovels to get the mud out of the houses that are standing and tools to work on the few boats that were spared. Money through the big organizations will get there eventually, but more than likely in the form of grants and loans and red tape. But much is needed more immediately and we don't want these people to fall through the cracks of a red tape system. They know what they need more than the government. I trust Susanna completely in her selfless endeavor to help out her community. I call on the skateboard community to help them out too. Eventually we will identify the skaters there and make sure they all get boards replaced that were lost, once they have a place to live again. We hope you will join with Real Skate and adopt Ko Lanta. If you would like to donate you may use our Pay Pal account or send checks or money orders made out to "Cash" to:
Real Skate Thank you all in advance. If you are able to help out, may your donation come back to you threefold and your karma bank be plentiful. Clarkie Children's books and computers/peripheral's needed! If you are in the Santa Cruz area we are collecting children's books, and Encyclopedias that got wiped out at the schools on KO Lanta. If you can help out, please e-mail me clarkie(at)realskate.com and I will pick them up. Thank you! (posted 2/3/05) |
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