The Power of Giving a Little to Make a BIG Difference

This month DRCS is collecting canned food to donate to the San Bernardino City Mission.  The S.B. City Mission daily serves meals to the homeless of our community, but they also serve many of our communities senoir citizens.  Without the help they recieve they would be in dire need.

If you haven’t already looked through your shelves and pulled out  5 to 10 cans of food that have been sitting there for over a month, here is your chance.

Thank You!

Click here to find out more about how you can help at the City Mission

Discovering Manzanar!

Last Thursday and Friday the sixth grade class, parents and all, headed up to the Owens Valley to first hand see and discover what took place to over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

The drive there took over three hours and brought us to the middle of nowhere to a deserted landscape with only a few buildings that remained.  It was easy to see that this wasn’t a Holiday Inn experience for the Japanese Americans who were interned there.

We were also able to explore and see what was provided for Japanese Americans when they first arrived to Manzanar and what they were able to make it.  It is always eye-opening to hear stories and see how so many were missed treated and belittled by man’s fear and actions of injustice.  From crammed, dirty apartments, poor food, and terrible sanitary conditions those that inhabited Manzanar endured much.  At the same time we discovered man-made ponds and gardens, learned of schools, and baseball leagues, that showed a resolve in them to make the most of what they had.

Our Park Ranger Carrie was an excellent teacher for our students as she possessed many insights.  She shared many first hand stories she has heard of what life was like for internees who were brought to Manzanar.  It was a great blessing to see her heart for the history of the place and for the lives that were trapped there.  She had a real desire to impress upon the students that this could happen again at a larger scale or even smaller one and they have the responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

We ended our trip looking at a list of over 10,000 names of people, grandparents, kids, teenagers, infants, and adults who had thier lives turned upside down by being relocated to a camp that was more like a prison.  There we took time to write down and remember names of real people, that had to call Manzanar their home for many years, all because of the way they looked and man’s ability to treat others as less.

Luke 6:23 reads,

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

If man would have obeyed the words of Christ over their fears and prejudice, none of this would have taken place and this stain on our country would not exist.  May we learn from what we saw and learn so that we may love others in time of difficulty and not react in fear.

Click here to see Miss Beyer’s page about our experience!

Click here to see Video’s and More Pictures on Pastor’s Steve page!

Manzanar Overnight Field Trip

Thursday, October 20th -8am through Friday, October 21st – 5pm

This week we will be taking our first overnight field trip to the Owens Valley to tour and experience Manzanar.  Manzanar was one of ten Japanese American relocation centers where over 10,000 out of 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II.  There we will see and learn how fear and discrimination wrongly affected the life of Japanese Americans as they were torn from their communities and forced to live in cramped, makeshift barracks.  We will get to walk the grounds, see where and how the people lived, and get a first hand feel of what life was like in Manzanar.

I need all permission slips turned in ASAP so I can make driving and room arrangements.  If you have any questions please give Mr. Thompson a call.

 

When Fear was Stronger than Justice: Japanese American Relocation During WWII

It all happened so quickly. The Japanese on the West Coast of the United States had made lives for themselves in spite of   discrimination, but on December 7, 1941, everything changed. To panicked people after the attack on Pearl Harbor, every Japanese could be a potential spy, ready and willing to assist in an invasion that was expected at any moment. Many political leaders, army officers, newspaper reporters, and ordinary people came to believe that everyone of Japanese ancestry, including American citizens born in the United States, needed to be removed from the West Coast.

 In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an  executive order that moved nearly 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans into 10 isolated relocation centers in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. The temporary, tar paper-covered barracks, the guard towers, and most of the barbed-wire fences are gone now, but the people who spent years of their lives in the centers will never forget them.

In class we have been studying this injustice of the Japanese American People during WWII.  It is amazing how fear and prejudice can cause us to make such costly decisions about people based on their appearance and heritage.  As we were discussing a film, “Farewell to Manzanar”, one student simply said, “they were treated like dirt”.  He was right.  What was done was inexcusable.  Through this we are learning how we must be carefull not to allow this to happen again, not just during a war, but in our everyday action to others.

 

Car Wash Success!

 At this past Saturday’s car wash we earned over $1,400.  Thank you to all students and parents who worked so hard wasing all the cars to earn.  Also thank you to all who stopped in for a wash or bought one of our tickets.  The funds raised will really help us in covering the expenses of our trips.

It was great seeing all the students and their families pitching in.  It wasn’t just a finacially beneficial day, but also a good time getting to better know everyone.  I can’t believe I am saying this, but I am already looking forward to nexts springs car wash.

A special thanks goes out to Mr. Mellor for landing us our location and a big thanks also to the Highland Tire and Service store for hosting us.  Thank you Jesus for such a perfect day for our event.

Again, thank you all for your hard work.