Bend woman organizes aid to typhoon-hit Philippines

A Bend business is joining the worldwide response to send help to the Philippines, where the suspected death toll left behind by Typhoon Haiyan is now around 10,000 people.

A Bend woman who grew up in the Philippines and has family there is putting together her own local effort to send help.

Kimberly Young said Monday she had to do something, and hopes others will feel the same.

“It’s hard being half a world away and wanting to do something,” she said.

Young says she cried when she saw the aftermath and suffering on the news, and wanted to help.

“It’s devastating,” Young said. “And you see on the news that they’re mobbing the Red Cross for food, stores are being looted and people are just trying to grab on to everything they can food-wise.”

So Young, who belongs to Crossfit Thrice in Bend, contacted a crossfit gym in Manila that she has visited in the past, to see how she could help.

As it turned out, they were putting together a fundraiser. So she’s organizing a local fundraiser to coincide with the one there.

“We don’t just want to randomly give our money to the government there and not know where its going,” she said.

The fundraiser will be next Tuesday – all day – at Crossfit Thrice. The gym is located at 2288 NE 2nd Street.

Anyone can go in and make a donation of any kind and get a free workout at the same time. Each workout lasts 15-20 minutes.

Donors do not need to be a member of the gym and there will be no cost.

Young says you can make a donation of money if you choose, adding that “one U.S. dollar is a lot of money in the Philippines, so even just $10 will go a long way.”

She plans to also have a laptop set up, connected to the Red Cross in the Philippines, so people can simply log on and make a direct donation, if that makes them more comfortable.

But they’re also hoping for donations of non-perishable food, clothes, bottled water and medicine, such as cough medicine.

She will then pack up all the donations in what Filipinos call a “balikbayng box,” or what we call a care package. It will be sent to the crossfit in Manila, which will then get it distributed to people in need.