UPDATE: White is now hoping to help seven families, as he's learned more are in need, and he's now raising $35,000. Click here to donate.
Like anyone half-a-world away, the first thing Eoin White thought of when the Nepal earthquake struck was his friends and family.
But the family members White worried about weren’t from typical bloodlines. They were the people he’s grown to know over the years while running Sherpa Encounters, a trekking company that takes people to base camp on Mount Everest – the same base camp that was buried in an avalanche of snow when the 7.8 magnitude quake hit on April 25.
When White heard the news, he tried to get through to Nepal, but the phone lines were down, email was down – there was just no way to communicate. Four days later, he found out that Dolma, a woman in charge of his operations in Kathmandu, had lost her family home in and everything in it.
“Not only have they lost everything, but they’ve lost all sources of immediate income, because with the earthquake, everybody left, all the tourists left,” White said. “It’s so impoverished, but the people are so nice, so kind. They’re so generous and will share with you what they have.”
Dolma’s plight is just one example. White is now hoping to help with a fundraising drive for his families. White, a retired captain from the Burnaby fire department, started Sherpa Encounters in 2005, and since then he’s taken more than 220 people to Everest, including some of the Burnaby firefighters who recently returned from the quake zone, where they helped with search and rescue efforts. (See related story on page 1.)
White’s Nepalese network includes many Sherpas, an ethnic group from the highest regions of Nepal. White’s families help organize guides, porters and people to host guests in tea houses. White boasts of sons, daughters and grandchildren in Nepal. Many are Buddhist, and some who’ve lost their fathers believe White is their reincarnated father.
“They believe in reincarnation. They won’t kill a bug or a fly, and they believe I’m somehow related to them,” he said. “I do feel they’re family.”
With the death toll climbing to 7,000, and many buildings destroyed, White is trying to help anyway he can.
That’s why White is hosting a fundraising party at his New Westminster home on May 24. He’s hoping to raise $20,000 by then. He’s already raised $11,000 (pledges) in one day, just by emailing the people he’s taken to Everest. White plans to serve traditional Nepalese food at the May 24 event and asks that people bring clothing donations for his contacts in Nepal. The idea is nothing new. Every year, White hosts a party for Everest “alumni” and collects clothes, but this is the first time he’s asked for money. The funds will go to the five main families he works with.
“It’s such a huge, huge problem there right now, the disaster and the people without homes and money,” White said. “The small amount of money I would make would only be a small drop in the bucket for Nepal, but for my own families, it will be life-changing.”
