A student sorts through donations for orphans outside Yokota High School at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. (Theron Godbold/Stars and Stripes)
A student sorts through donations for orphans outside Yokota High School at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. (Theron Godbold/Stars and Stripes)
Volunteers and students sort donations bound for orphans outside Yokota High School at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Thursday Dec. 13, 2018. (Theron Godbold/Stars and Stripes)
Students from Yokota Air Base, Japan, load donations for an orphanage onto trucks outside Yokota High School, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. (Theron Godbold/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Students at Yokota recently loaded three trucks with food, clothing, cleaning supplies and gifts for Japanese orphans near the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.
Over the previous two weeks, three of the four schools at the air base gathered more than 1,000 pounds of donations for the 36 children at Aijinoie, an orphanage in Tokyo.
The students, many from the National Honor Society and the Japanese National Honor Society, came in force late last week to load the trucks.
“It was amazing to see how the entire community of Yokota Air Base were so willing to give,” said Hannah Swygert, vice president of the Japanese National Honor Society and a junior at Yokota High School.
The tradition of giving to the orphanage by Yokota’s Department of Defense Education Activity schools started more than three decades ago with Joan K. Mendel, who taught at the east-side elementary school that’s now named in her honor.
Originally, Mendel gathered a few donations with help from her students and their families, according to the school’s website. The tradition grew to include nearly all the schools on base.
“We want to make the kids a little more comfortable at Christmas,” said John Thek, a Yokota High teacher and one of the organizers for this year’s donation drive.
Faculty at Yokota said the donations are expected to last the orphans the next four to six months.
