Edmonton schools put Japan travel plans on hold
A school forced to cancel a student trip to Egypt has now put Japan travel plans on hold after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the island nation.
Six teachers and 43 students from Strathcona Composite high school in south Edmonton were scheduled to leave for Japan in two weeks for a 12-day trip through south and west Japan.
Travel club leader Les Farrar said trip organizers are “in a holding pattern” after the earthquake that struck the northeastern side of Japan.
“The earthquake was centred approximately 500 kilometres northeast of Tokyo,” Farrar told The Journal Friday in an e-mail. “Our tour does not take us any closer to (the affected) area than Tokyo.”
Farrar said organizers will monitor and assess the situation over the next week and hope to decide at a parent meeting Wednesday if the trip will go ahead.
The travel club decided to send students to Japan in January, their second choice after Egypt. The trip to Egypt was cancelled because of safety concerns during huge protests there.
Having both trips affected by world events is an “unfortunate coincidence,” Farrar said.
A spokeswoman for Edmonton Public Schools said Strathcona Composite is one of two schools that have put trips to Japan on hold. The other is Harry Ainlay high school, which also cancelled an Egypt trip earlier this year.
T.D. Baker junior high in Mill Woods has cancelled its Japan trip scheduled to leave Monday.
Principal Darren Fox said two staff members were supposed to fly into Tokyo Monday with 12 students in Grades 8 and 9. The junior high school in Mill Woods has been running an exchange program with a school in Japan for about 10 years now, he said. Each year, Edmonton students either go to Japan or host Japanese students in their homes here, Fox said.
Exchange organizers met this morning with students and parents and decided the trip won’t go ahead for now.
“When they received the initial news from me this morning, they were disappointed,” Fox said. “We are hoping the trip can go at a later date.”
However, students and parents understand the decision, he said. “I just think it’s the right decision to make given the situation. There’s no way we would want to put anyone’s safety at risk.”
Students are now focusing their energy on raising money to help people in Japan, “so they’re feeling a little more upbeat,” Fox said.
The teens were meeting in a conference room Friday to develop fundraising ideas.
No Catholic school trips have been affected by the earthquake.
Edmonton resident Mari Sasano, 38, said her whole extended family lives in Japan, mostly in the Tokyo area. Sasano said her parents are trying to contact numerous siblings and their families to make sure no one was injured.
“From what I understand, there’s no power and the phone lines are down (in Tokyo),” Sasano said. “Hopefully everyone is OK. We haven’t heard back. It’s worrisome. The pictures (of the earthquake’s aftermath) are really scary.”
Sasano said she is hopeful her relatives are fine because Tokyo is about 500 kilometres from the earthquake’s epicentre.
“I feel terrible for everyone that’s affected,” she said. “I’m thinking about them too.”
The Canadian Red Cross in Alberta is accepting donations to the Canadian Red Cross Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund, said the agency’s Alberta spokeswoman Leila Daoud.
The Japanese Red Cross responded immediately to the disaster providing search and rescue and evacuation help as well as first-aid for injured earthquake survivors, Daoud said.
“They have deployed tent clinics and 15 medical teams to the affected area,” she said.
“The Canadian Red Cross is on standby to deploy should the Japanese Red Cross send a request. We do have supplies on standby as well as delegates, mostly with medical and logistics skills.”
Canadians seeking information on Canadian citizens believed to be in Japan should contact the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Emergency Operations Centre.
