From the OC Register:
At first, he shrugged it off. "Yohei, I heard there's been an earthquake." That was Takuro on the phone, in Japanese, telling Shimanuki about events back home. "Maybe you should call your family." But Japan, in general, is prone to quakes. And Shimanuki's home stomping ground, Sendai, in the north of Japan, has more than its share. News of a quake, on its own, wasn't enough to move him. "Yeah, Maybe," Shimanuki said, sitting in his dorm at UCI's International Village. But when he hung up, he kept talking with friends about a trip for spring break. Then came a knock on the door. "Yohei, you need to watch the news." So he did. And what he saw changed his world.... Yohei Shimanuki organized several of his friends at UCI including Takuro Sugita and Yuki Matsui to run in the Orange County Marathon this Sunday to raise money for The American Red Cross for relief to victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

For the full story, please visit http://www.ocregister.com/articles/shimanuki-298556-run-marathon.html.  Photo courtesy of OC Register.