20th anniversary of Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami
26th December 2024
It is important that we remember this date as it was when one of our former students Piers Simon was a fatality resulting from the wave that devastated the island of Phi-Phi Don in Thailand, an enormous wave generated by an undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on Boxing Day 2004. From a magnitude of over 9 on the Richter scale, the impact was severe, as about 230,000 people died in a dozen countries, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, and parts of Africa.
Quoting from the obituary published in Landscape Issues, Piers’ passion for nature and a keen artistic streak combined to produce an imaginative and successful garden designer. Qualifying from the Cheltenham landscape architecture course in 1993 Piers went on to work extensively in Britain and America. Although he lived near his parents’ farm in Yeovil, Somerset, he was conspicuous by his frequent absences, often competing in triathlons or just travelling abroad. He cycled around India to raise money for deaf children. December 2004 found him on holiday on Phi-Phi Don island, Thailand, with four others including his younger brother Luke. Then the tsunami struck which wreaked so much damage and caused countless fatalities, including his, in its wake. A promising career cut short.
Raising £10,000 at Piers’ memorial, the family set up a disaster-relief charity in his name: the Piers Simon Appeal. Because of unstable conditions globally, including natural disasters, child marriage and child labour, it is a fact that many children stop attending school. In 2019, they refocused the charity towards education and the rebranded School in a Bag became a global charity in its own right, distributing SchoolBags to children around the world who are deprived of an education. Children are supported regardless of race, politics or religion.
The tsunami event figured in many news broadcasts today, Boxing Day 2024, and prompted me to post this notice after listening to Piers’ brother Luke describing the gratitude he and others owed the local Thai people who helped unselfishly the foreign survivors in that place in 2004. School in a Bag distributes rucksacks full of stationery and learning materials, eating utensils and a hygiene bag to children disadvantaged or displaced by natural disasters worldwide. He also reminded us of the annual Boxing Day walk which is intended to celebrate the lives of those lost to such disasters.
see https://www.schoolinabag.org/about_us/history/
see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami