Centreville Lends a Helping Hand to Japan

Almost immediately after the massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked havoc on Japan last month, community groups and individuals across Centreville sprang up, wanting to extend a hand to the troubled island nation a half-world away.

The efforts were largely ad-hoc, as residents tried to digest the immensity of the March 11 disaster that Japanese citizens were having to cope with. Some were small, individual on-line donations. Others were more widespread, like efforts at where students gave up lunch money for donations and organized a t-shirt drive. At , students raised $750 for the Red Cross and Save the Children.

And then others were much larger, involving neighbors and community groups who all wanted to pitch in. Although diverse, they all shared a single goal: they wanted to help.

“At first it was just fear, we wanted to make sure everyone was safe,” said Chris Gehring, of Centreville, whose wife is from Japan. “After we found out that everyone was OK, we looked at ourselves and said that we had do something. We started asking our friends.”

The initial urge to do something grew into a massive community wide yard sale on April 3 in front of Gehring home on Cedar Knoll Drive. Friends, family and neighbors all donated items and people lined up hours early. The crowds were so thick that four friends worked all day to coordinate parking from the yard sale as shoppers crowded down Gehring’s cul-de-sac.

Shoppers were not disappointed. They went through about 100 boxes of clothing, assorted furniture, televisions, microwave ovens and even some handmade artwork. The yard sale generated $4,700 in cash that they donated to the Japanese efforts, via the American Red Cross and Japanese Red Cross.

The yard sale even featured bakery items donated by the Jireh Bakery Café on Lee Highway near Route 28.

“My wife went to all the businesses in town and asked to put up flyers,” Gehring said. “When she went into Jireh, they wanted to do more. They asked what they could do for us. On the night before the garage sale, we went into the bakery and cleaned off the shelves.”

Café Manager Sean Na, 23, said that helping the relief effort was a no-brainer.

“As soon as it happened, we wanted to help and when they asked, it provided us a way to show our support,” Na said. “In times like these, every penny counts and helping the yard sale was the very least that we could do.”

At Centreville High School, they are tabulating the proceeds from their t-shirt sale. However, they did collect $2,500 in a separate effort, mostly through spare change in the cafeteria. And the Gehrings aren’t done yet. They held another yard sale with friends in Bristow this past weekend, raising $1,600 and plan for a final yard sale in Bethesda (4800 Sangamore Road) on April 23.

 “I think the biggest thing is not just the money, but also kind of spreading the word and building awareness,” Gehring said. “The early (victim) numbers were very low, but there are a half-million people who are still displaced. When we started, we didn’t know that we would raise thousands of dollars for them, but we did want to get the word out there that Japan needs help.”