Vernon’s cultural heritage will be celebrated as a way of helping victims of Japan’s earthquake.
The City of Vernon, the Vernon Arts Centre and the Vernon Japanese Cultural Society are hosting two events April 21 for earthquake and tsunami relief.
“The level of devastation and the impact of the earthquake and the tsunami has affected all of us, especially because we have a sister city there,” said Coun. Buffy Baumbrough of Tome, Japan.
“A lot of people have visited there and want to help.”
The Vernon Arts Centre will have a table at Earth Day celebrations at Spirit Square, by city hall, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“For a loonie, students can make an origami crane,” said Baumbrough.
“We hope that there will be 1,000 cranes.”
An evening of entertainment will be held at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre (tentatively from 6 to 9 p.m.).
The event will also include an auction with items donated by local artists.
“There will be a display with information about our sister city,” said Baumbrough.
Anyone wanting to participate in the fundraising can contact Coun. Jack Gilroy at 250-542-6477.
The city and the Vernon Japanese Cultural Society recently launched a campaign for Tome.
Residents wanting to donate funds to assist Tome can drop cheques off at Vernon city hall or mail them to 3400 30th St., Vernon, V1T 5E6.
For those wanting to provide immediate assistance to earthquake and tsunami victims, they should contact the Salvation Army, the Red Cross or other humanitarian agencies.
“We want to help them,” said Gilroy, chairperson of the sister city committee.
“We’ve had a relationship with Tome since the early 1980s and they send students over here to our schools.”
Mayor Wayne Lippert has recently had contact with officials in Tome, where some buildings were destroyed by the earthquake.
“They are high enough on land not to be affected by the tsunami but they were cut off because of fissures in the road for a week,” he said.
However, nearby seaside communities weren’t as fortunate.
“Everything was wiped out,” Lippert said of the tsunami.
