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Hitting close to home
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While the effects of the recent South Asian tsunami have made an impact on the minds of many local residents, the disaster hit even closer to home for a group of Indonesian exchange students. Made Arsa Wijaya, Gede Dharma Saputra and Gede Agung Adnyana, from left, are three of 16 Indonesian hotel and restaurant management students currently working at High Hampton Inn and taking courses at Southwestern Community College. They joined up this past week with 30 other Indonesian hospitality workers in Cherokee to distribute donation cans for the American Red Cross at Jackson County businesses. While none of the students pictured above had family directly affected by the tsunami, all said they've been watching the television for news from home. "It's very horrible. All Indonesians are our family," said Wijaya, who will return to his native country once his studies are complete this coming fall. Current estimates put the number of Indonesian dead at 100,000, about two-thirds of the entire disaster tally. "(The students) saw how much the world was helping their country and they wanted to help, too," said High Hampton general manager Mark Jones, right, after making the first dollar donation to the fund-raising effort. Jackson County Chamber of Commerce director Julie Spiro worked with the students to make sure they placed cans at businesses geographically convenient to all county residents. The campaign will continue through Saturday, Jan. 15, with the chambers in Sylva and Cashiers hosting two of the cans, Spiro said. For more information, call the Red Cross at 586-2019. – Herald photo by Carey King
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