Contacts & Publisher

Subscription Form

Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  7-year-old insists her birthday party help China's earthquake victims

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 15, 2008

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Victoria Thor shows a poster she and her friends made for victims of the May 12 earthquake in China. At her seventh birthday party, June 27, she had guests contribute money to the victims instead of give her presents. In the background: Parents Jennifer and Michael, and Victoria's 16-month-old brother Jacob, who was adopted and whose birth mother is Chinese.

Westland — When 7-year-old Victoria Thor planned her birthday party in June, she wasn't thinking about presents. Her mind, instead, was occupied with the victims of the May 12 earthquake in China, where thousands were killed and even more were left homeless by the natural disaster.

"I wanted to help people," says Victoria, who's younger brother was adopted from Korea — his birth mother was Chinese. "A lot of people lost their homes and got really sick and hurt."

Victoria asked the guests to her party, in lieu of giving gifts, to contribute money to a relief fund for earthquake victims. At her June 27 birthday party, she collected $150 for the cause.

That money was part of nearly $4,000 raised for earthquake victims in China through the Archdiocese of Detroit. And although the disaster took place in May, tremors following the earthquake have occurred as recently as last week — and thousands of Chinese in the Sichuan province still are in great need. Deaths resulting from the earthquake are estimated to be anywhere from 50,000 to 160,000 people.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Vicoria Thor, 7, a student at St. Damian School in Westland, holds her younger brother Jacob.

"As the winter months come, my fear is — with close to 2 million who are homeless — what are they going to do in the winter?" says Francis King, who's organizing fundraising locally for the Chinese earthquake victims through the Chinese Catholic Society of Michigan and the Archdiocese of Detroit. "They can't build houses fast enough. We're still looking, sometime in the fall, to do more fundraising for these people."

While response worldwide to the earthquake has been impressive, King said he hopes more people from the Detroit area will consider giving financial relief to the earthquake victims as they put their lives back together.

"The response in China itself was better than the response of the Chinese here," said King, noting that some people in Beijing and Shanghai gave as much as a month of their salaries to the victims. "There has been a lot of help from governments and people all over the world."

Contributions to the cause can be made through the Chinese Catholic Society of Michigan. The CCSM also is connected with Our Lady of China Chinese Catholic Community, which at 6 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month has a Mass for Chinese Catholics at Divine Savior Parish in Westland.

One challenge King faced in getting relief from the Detroit area to the needy in China was finding the right channels. Eventually, he was able to connect with Caritas in Hong Kong.

King says he's still looking for a way to deliver a colorful poster that Victoria and her friends made at her birthday party for the earthquake victims.

"We made a poster for them so they knew who we are and can know our names," says Victoria, who attends St. Damian School in Westland.

Her parents, Michael and Jennifer, parishioners of St. Theodore Parish in Westland, beam with pride at their daughter's charity.

"I'm very proud of her," says Jennifer. "It's good to know that she's taking in some of the values we're trying to teach her and that she's gotten through her schooling — especially knowing that we may be helping an unknown family member."

Asked whether she was sad that she missed out on birthday gifts, Victoria says she wasn't. "It made me feel happy," she says. "It's really helping people. God wants us to do it."