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Navy wife seeks aid for Japanese orphans

School was letting out at Naval Air Facility Misawa, Japan, when the ground started shaking March 11. Like many parents there, Gemini Sanford wasted little time finding her kids amid the ensuing chaos.

While those on base escaped harm, countless families along the coast — just 30 miles away — weren’t so lucky. Few places is that more evident than at the nearby Biko-en Children’s Care House, where young survivors struggle to come to terms with life without a mother or father.

While the military has begun voluntary evacuations of troops and dependents from the area amid radiation concerns, Sanford is staying behind to help those kids.

The wife of Navy Chief Mass Communications Specialist Daniel Sanford, she’s organized a local food drive and mobilized help from people who are 5,500 miles away.

“My husband came back from a trip on Friday to serve them a hot meal, and he said they only have four days of dry food left,” Sandford said in a call to the Seattle-area “Ron and Don” radio show March 24. “They normally have between 40 to 50 orphans, but because of what has happened, they’ve taken in over 20 more.”

As more than 5,000 service members and their families have decided to leave the country, Sanford says, “I’m kind of swooping in like a vulture and saying, ‘Hey, since you’re leaving, can we have this food to feed these orphans who so desperately need it?’” Good thing — the number of orphans in the area has now swelled to more than 400, she reports.

“We are going to bombard you with stuff for these kids,” disc jockey Don O’Neill promised. “We can’t help all 529,000 people right now that are living in shelters — we can’t — but we can adopt these children and help them over the next six months.”

So far, the show has collected enough food, clothes and other supplies to fill more than two 55-foot trailers. The only problem is finding a way to get it all to Japan.

“The Navy has 140 aircraft assigned to ‘Operation Tomodachi.’ We only need ONE!” O’Neill tweeted March 27.