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OKINAWA, Japan - Lance Cpl. Yamile Brito is proving the truth of former President John F. Kennedy’s statement that “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”
Brito, a Marine with Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, is the driving force behind a food drive at the Camp Courtney commissary for victims of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami which struck mainland Japan March 11.
Following the disaster, Brito said she knew she needed to help.
Reading the news reports of the devastation in mainland Japan affected her deeply, said Brito. One article she saw hit her particularly hard, she added. The article detailed the experience of a Japanese man who had been in the water for four days and saw his wife die in the tsunami.
“It made me feel horrible, terrible,” she said, admitting she’s come close to tears several times reading some of the articles and seeing the images of destruction.
The news stories and photographs burned into her memory also created in her a strong desire to provide some kind of aid to those in need, she said.
“Half the platoon left that weekend, and I was really frustrated because I wanted to go with them,” she said. “I kept thinking that there has to be something I can do, there has to be something I can do.”
Brito told her fiancé Lance Cpl. Cameron Perry, also with Headquarters Battalion, 3rd MarDiv., that she was disappointed at being on Okinawa and unable to help.
“He suggested I do a canned food drive,” said Brito, from New York City.
Perry, of Natchitoches, La., said he got the idea for a food drive based on what people in New Orleans needed following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While he wasn’t in Louisiana for the hurricane, he has clear memories of the devastation and the shortfalls following the natural disaster, he said.
“I knew Katrina victims, and I knew what they needed when they were in shelters,” he said.
Brito said she has never coordinated a food drive or done anything like this before, but she jumped on the idea and brought in Perry and another friend, Lance Cpl. Erin Hollingsworth, from New Virginia, Iowa, to help. By March 12, Brito had contacted the Camp Courtney commissary for approval to place donation boxes in the commissary entrance.
Michael E. Shannon, Camp Courtney commissary’s store administrator, said he gave the go-ahead and by the next day, she had donation boxes in place requesting canned food for mainland victims.
Shannon said he was surprised someone was willing to give time out of an already busy schedule to spearhead this effort but that he admires Brito and the Marines helping her for what they are doing.
Brito and Hollingsworth remind Shannon of his daughter who is about the same age, and he found it heartening to see them start this kind of effort to help others, he said.
Shannon said he was also amazed by the generosity of the people in Camp Courtney’s military community.
“We were overwhelmed at the response of our customers,” Shannon said.
More than 15 grocery carts of food and other items were donated by March 18, he said. That’s more than $4,000 worth of goods, and the donations are still coming in, he added.
The response has been unbelievable, Brito said. In addition to canned food, people have also donated diapers, hygiene items, boxes of rice and other foods, she said.
After the Kadena Youth Center announced March 15 it could no longer accept donations due to space issues, “people also began donating blankets and [other] stuff,” she added.
She and her assistants have been collecting the donations from the commissary and boxing them up for shipment to mainland.
The operational tempo of her unit has increased as Marines are being sent to mainland in support of the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts there. And the canned food drive is consuming more of Brito’s off duty hours. But, all the extra work is worth it for the peace of mind it has given her, she said.
“I needed – for me – to be OK with not being there. I needed to do something,” Brito said.
She said she thinks others felt that way as well, as evidenced by the donations she has received.
For some, “this is the only opportunity we have to make a difference. It could have been us but it wasn’t, and there are thousands of people that will really appreciate the help,” she said.
Brito said she hopes to continue the food drive throughout March and then reassess to see if there is still a need before continuing the food drive in April.
| Date Taken: | 03.25.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.25.2011 00:27 |
| Story ID: | 67691 |
| Location: | OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 164 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Marine creates opportunity to help tsunami victims, by GySgt Cindy Fisher, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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