By Darcie Hambleton
Contributing Writer

WEARE – The American flag flies at half staff outside John Stark Regional High School in honor of the 150,000 victims of the recent tsunami that occurred thousands of miles away.

Inside the school, every day during break and lunch, a plastic container with a square hole cut out of the lid sits on table in the cafeteria, with the crumpled dollar bills and coins Stark students could spare as they passed. Seated beside it is Supma Indah, an exchange student from Indonesia. Her home, and her family, remain on one of the few islands that wasn’t devastated by the horrors of the flooding. The container bears the symbol of the American Red Cross and the slogan “Together we can save a life,” and above and behind her on the wall poster hand drawn by the John Stark Leo’s Club encouraging people to donate to the Manchester chapter of the Red Cross.

The tsunami that devastated Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka was a shock to Supma.

“I just couldn’t say anything the first day with the earth- quake,” Supma said. “My friend called me and told me to call my parents.”

Fortunately, her family was fine. Even though the island she’s from was very near the epicenter of the earthquake, it was blocked from the tsunami by another island. She has talked to her family and knows they’re in the center of a disaster.

“I hope it’s going better,” she said.

Supma doesn’t know how much life will be changed once she returns home.

“I mean, you look on TV and where there used to be these big places, everything’s just gone. It’s just so sad.” she said. “And I was reading in the newspaper, the New York Times, and it was saying that most Indonesian wounded need amputations. And there was a lady who had been cut on the right leg and died because they couldn’t help her.”

“It’s just so sad,” she said. “I always said to myself, ‘I’m going to be a doctor.’And now (because of this) I am going to be a doctor, and I’m going to help people.”

Supma is one of many stu- dents and staff members at JSRHS who are watching the devastation and digging deep to help.

If one person would give up buying one bottle of water or a cup of coffee for one week and donate the money to a tsunami relief fund, said Amanda Hart, a Spanish teacher at John Stark, they could make a tremendous difference.

Jess Williams, a Stark senior, tells others that as little as 10 cents can buy toothpaste, and a dollar can buy Advil. Hart adds that as little as $2,000 will build a new house in Sri Lanka.

The disaster so far away resulted in so much damage and so many losses that it’s hard to imagine, Supma said.

After the ravages of nature, what remains are the thousands of people out there working night and day to restore broken communities. Even if it is impossible to hop on a plane and fly across the ocean to offer aid, you can still drop a couple bucks into a plastic container somewhere and help the many others who can, she said.