By Whetstone Staff

Wesley students will be able to help the devastated parts of Japan – including the college’s sister school, Miyagi University, near the destruction’s epicenter –  recently hit by an earthquake and tsunami that left as many as 20,000 people dead.

“This would have been the fourth year in a row we’ve been hosting students,” said Dr. Bill Kroen, a member of the global initiatives committee that hosts the students.  “Students were supposed to come for two weeks right in this period of time.”

It didn’t happen this year because of the disaster, and now the college wants to raise money to help.

Student Life is organizing a donate-a-meal for Miyagi relief victims on March 30 and 31.

“We will have someone sitting in front of the area when they walk in the cafeteria,” said Ashley Travis, a residence director who is coordinating the event.

“There will be a board with pictures, a sign-up sheet and how many meals a student wants to donate,” she said. “Then Aramark will go through their swipes, and if they hadn’t eaten those meals, that money will go toward the donations.”

The donate-a-meal relief event from last semester for Haiti raised more than $1,000, she said. She is hoping for as much if not more.

Kroen was part of the team that helped set up the agreement in 2007.

“I just had absolutely out-of-body experiences seeing some of these pictures,” Kroen said of the devastation. “I can recognize places I’ve been.”

Kroen hopes to be able to return next summer.