The powerful earthquake that struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Feb. 22 took the lives of many people, including a group of Japanese students from Toyama College of Foreign Languages who were on a monthlong program studying overseas.

Seven months later, the students' host families in Christchurch still think of and care for their "family members" overseas.

On the morning of Sept. 10, Jenny Whitaker, 46, was excited to see the word Toyama in a headline on the front page of a local newspaper.