Students from the Municipality of Jasper’s Out of School Care program presented “Grandpa” Dong and “Grandma” Doris Han with a check for more than $500 March 9, after putting on an art show to raise money for the couple.
The Hans lost their home Feb. 3 when a massive fire erupted in the garage of their property at 801 Geikie St. No one was injured in the blaze, but the Han’s house—and most of the belongings inside it—was almost completely destroyed.
March 9 Grandpa and Grandma smiled warmly as the students crowded around them in the couple’s Connaught Drive ice cream shop. When the students handed over the envelope with their donation, those smiles widened even further.
“Wow!” Grandpa exclaimed, as the children jumped with excitement, “how can I ever thank you guys?”
“You can give us a hug,” one student shouted, and he wrapped several of them in his arms.
After posing for a picture, Grandma handed out “special Korean candy” to all the students, and offered them free ice cream if they came back in the summer.
According to Cathy Stonehouse, one of the leaders of the Out of School Care program, it was Psalm Sulat who inspired her peers to raise money for the Hans.
At the art show Feb. 27, Psalm showed off the peace flag she had made to auction off in support of the Hans.
When she sat down to talk about the art show, she said she still remembered seeing smoke billow into the sky the day the Han's house caught fire. The next day she saw the shell of their half-burned house, and knew that she needed to do something.
“I saw their house and I saw half of it burned and I really felt sad for them,” she said.
So she told her teachers at the Out of School Care program, and together the group decided they were going to raise money to support the Hans.
The group brainstormed how to help, and eventually landed on the idea of an art show. Each of the 43 students in the program created a work of art, and Feb. 27 they put on a silent auction in the elementary school library.
Bids on the artwork brought in the $517 the students donated to the Hans March 9.
That donation is just a small slice of the community support that poured in for the Hans since the Feb. 3 fire.
Immediately after the disaster St. Mary and St. George Anglican Parish set up a table for donations at Super A Foods, and several other community organizations have held fundraisers. Last week the Fitzhugh also presented a check to the Hans for more than $4,700—the result of community donations to a trust fund set up in their name.
When the Fitzhugh last spoke with the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade, Don Smith, the deputy fire chief, said the cause of the fire wasn’t 100 per cent confirmed. He said that it had started in the garage, where a car had been plugged in just 20 minutes before the fire was spotted.
At that time the fire department was working with a team of investigators hired by an insurance company to figure out exactly what happened.
The department hasn’t provided any updates since that time, however on March 9 Grandpa said that he and Grandma plan to rebuild their house on the same lot, providing they get approval from Parks Canada to do so.
In the interim, they have been staying with family in Jasper, and enjoy continued support from Jasperites.
“We thank the whole community [for everything they’ve done] for us,” Grandpa said.
Trevor Nichols
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