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When a 2011 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, West Side fifth-grader Gabriel Parker led a letter drive to tell students in a hard-hit area of that nation, “We’re with you’’ — and now, he’s envisioning a high-tech way to keep in touch.
“They still have to wake up and see destroyed houses,’’ said the now-seventh-grader. “We want to tell them there’s hope, you’re not alone.’’
Gabriel, 12, reached out right after the disaster, and encouraged fellow students at The Calhoun School to write letters to kids in Kesennuma.
The school and several of his classmates take an active part in his ongoing project, Hand Delivery of LOVE.
Gabriel and his mom, Heather, who is Japanese, went to Kesennuma in 2011 to bring 500 letters and knapsacks to kids at two schools with the help of a grant from DoSomething.org, a nonprofit that helps young people take action on causes they care about.
Students at Calhoun put together an art show in March 2012, to raise funds. They bought an iPad for Japanese students to use and e-mails fly back and forth.
Gabriel wants to create an instantly translating social network to connect “students from Calhoun and students in Kesennuma’’ where they can “share ideas and our dreams instantly in our own languages.’’
He was nominated for a New York Post Liberty Medal in the Young Heart category by DoSomething.org,