Pittsburgh North Allegheny Senior High School Students Raise Money for Charitable Donation to “Rebuild-A-School Campaign” for China Earthquake Children

A powerful 8.0-magnitude earthquake jolted southwestern China on Monday, May 12, 2008. This devastating earthquake claimed, so far, more than 65,080 deaths with 23,150 people still missing.  Many schools were destroyed, trapping and burying hundreds of students inside collapsed schoolhouses. Such horrendous disaster struck the consciousness of people around the world including that of North Allegheny Senior High (NASH) School Students in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Binghui Zhang, Sea Dong, Jeff Lin, Ian Preston, and Dana Preston are 11th grade students in the NASH School. Inundated with horrific news from the epicenter in China, they decided to raise funds for charitable donation to victims of the earthquake through a carwash.

They coordinated the carwash fund-raising activity at McDonald’s, 10529 Perry Hwy, Wexford, PA this past Sunday, May 25. Joined by a group of 22 classmates, they voluntarily washed one car after another in the heat of the sun. Although it was a “Free Carwash for China Earthquake relief” as indicated by their posters, all car owners made generous donations.  After five hours of hard work, the students raised a total of $806.00.

They will give the full amount to the "Rebuild-A-School Campaign” (RASC), organized by the Pittsburgh Chinese School (PCS) and joined with Chinese Faculty Association in Pittsburgh (CFAP), Chinese Association of Science and Technology Pittsburgh Chapter (CAST-P) and Greater Pittsburgh Area Sichuan and Chongqing Association (GPSCA) .  As part of their fundraising efforts, Binghui Zhang and Sea Dong have also sent out hundreds of letters to their neighbors and local companies around the Pittsburgh area.  They stated in their letter: “Although we here in the United States are not able to directly help with the relief efforts in China, donations can greatly benefit the reconstruction efforts…with the collapse of many school buildings in that region, many students are now unable to continue their education. As high school students here in the United States, we strongly believe that education is a vital step for the future of the region.  Therefore, our objective is to raise funds for the Rebuild-A-School Campaign”. 

Although the amount of money they raised from carwash is just a small fraction of the amount needed to rebuild a school, it demonstrates the compassion of our students and their dedication to charity and humanitarian contributions to earthquake victims in China.

In addition to these students from North Allegheny Senior High (NASH) School, students from other schools such as North Allegheny intermediate School, Marshall Middle School, Evergreen Elementary School, Shady Side Academy Middle School, O’hara Elementary School and Lincoln Elementary School are also in the process of fundraising for earthquake children to support ‘Rebuild-A-School Campaign’. 

“Free Car Wash” for China Earthquake Relief from NASH Students

Front row, from left to right: Angela Turo, Courtney Quisenberry, Cherry Bharati, Dana Preston, Brittany Sturgess, Rachel Simeone Back row, from left to right: Kelly Gilmour, Natalie Masters, Bill Lenart, Kevin Liu, Chen Zhao, Sea Dong, Jeff Lin, Binghui Zhang, Peter Wu, Stephen Gou (Students Ian Preston, Li Xu, Michael Park, Andy Fishell, Genny Luo, Andrew Wu are not shown in the above picture)