This Day in History (2005): Dhahran students donate a wave of relief

From the March 9, 2005, edition of The Arabian Sun

If it were possible to see a community smile, one could have seen the biggest grin in Dhahran on March 6. That's when students of the Dhahran School and Dhahran Hills School celebrated their success in raising a combined SAR 91,700.45 for the survivors of the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami and presented symbolic checks to president and CEO Abdallah S. Jum'ah for the Saudi Aramco Tsunami Disaster Fund.

Jum'ah and other members of management visited both schools to meet and thank the hundreds of children who took part in the fund-raiser.

The atmosphere was electric at the Third Street Gymnasium, as 410 sixth- to ninth-graders greeted the executives with cheers.

Toufic Adlouni, vice president of Publicity for the Student Council, welcomed the guests and thanked Jum'ah for accepting the check for SAR 80,385.

"This amount of money is the most any Saudi Aramco school has raised in the history of all Saudi Aramco schools," he said. This shows that not only are Saudi Aramcons ready to give to the needy, but that we can participate in world affairs."

By their quick action, Jum'ah said, the students gave him some solace that people still have the ability to love, share, and make a difference.

"This is not something that is done today and forgotten tomorrow. This must be a way of life," Jum'ah said.

Caption for top photo: The Dhahran Hills School Student Council presents Aramco president and CEO Abdallah Jum'ah with a check on behalf of the student body.

Also on this day

2011 — The Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights

1997 — The Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles after attending the Soul Train Music Awards

1987 — Chrysler announces its acquisition of American Motors Corporation

1974 — The Mars 7 Flyby bus releases the descent module too early, missing Mars

1961 — Sputnik 9 is launched, carrying a dog and a human dummy, demonstrating the U.S.S.R. was preparing to send a human into space

1959 — The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York

1954 — CBS broadcasts the See It Now episode "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy"

1933 — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies

1916 — Pancho Villa leads about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town Columbus, New Mexico

1842 — The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush

1796 — Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais