RYAN GARDNER/Gazette-Times More than 100 Oregon State University students, staff and community members gathered at the steps of the Memorial Union on Wednesday evening for a quiet candlelight vigil for the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami. Attendees offered words of support, prayers in several languages and set up a donation box that will remain on campus.

United in the light

Students, community, gather for candlelight vigil for tsunami victims

By Theresa Hogue
Gazette-Times reporter

As a crowd gathered near the Memorial Union steps Wednesday evening, Oregon State University President Ed Ray quietly slipped a donation into a tall plexiglass tower at the foot of the stairs. It was just a small green splash in what seems like an ocean of need, but every drop was building toward a better tomorrow for the people living along the Indian Ocean.

The Asian and Pacific Cultural Center sponsored a candlelight vigil Wednesday to honor those who died in the Dec. 26 tsunami. It was attended by students and staff who have family ties to the countries hit by the tsunami, and university and community members who were compelled to reach out after hearing of the horrific events and their devastating aftermath.

The plexiglass donation tower had a donation hole so high that some of the more diminutive students weren't able to reach it. At one point, Ray and student leader Jarvez Hall tipped the box down to help a struggling student plunk her dollar into the box. It was becoming a community effort.

In front of the steps, the Indian Student Association was giving out chai tea to warm students in the cold night air. Students were also collecting donations for the OSU tsunami fund, while on the steps, a variety of speakers talked about the impact of the disaster and prayed in many languages for the lost and the survivors.

External Coordinator for the APCC Shaun Palakiko said the tsunami taught the community many things.

"The loss of life is the same in every culture," he said. "…We all take it the same way."

Isabel Sanchez Santos, a graduate student working with the Diversity Development Office, agreed that such a tragedy can be a lesson to those who survive.

"This has taught us a lot about how vulnerable we can be," Sanchez Santos said, before asking vigil attendees to pick up and light candles and maintain a moment of silence in respect for the fallen.

As students, staff and community members stared at the flickering flames — the only source of heat on a very cold night — Gideon Alegado, the Memorial Union building manager, began a prayer in Cebuano Visayan, a language of the Phillipines. He then translated it into English.

"We come from diverse backgrounds, but we are one," he told the crowd. Some have come to the vigil out of curiosity, others out of a deep need to help. He thanked God for keeping the local community safe so that they might become instruments of peace and compassion.

"Bless the students, faculty, staff and administration of OSU and the wider community as they seek more effective ways of channeling their concern," he asked.

More prayers followed from audience members in Spanish, English and Telugu, a language of India. Jarvez Hall asked God to send angels of protection to the survivors of the tsunami, before he and Sandra Macias of the International Students of Oregon State University explained that the night's vigil was the first step in raising funds to help those countries hit by the tsunami.

"This is the kickoff event, the first out of many," Macias said, and she said the hope is to continue the fundraising for years to come, because it will take years to recover from the tsunami.

""We want to fill up (the donation box) three to four times over," Hall said. "I don't want to limit us to a number. No amount of money could pay for the things lost in this tragedy."

The donation box will be set up daily in the Memorial Union and will also be present at a dozen upcoming ISOSU events.

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