ELK GROVE—

Clutched to her phone, Vernet Flores shows us the only contact she’s had with her family since Typhoon Haiyan swept the Philippines.

The tears are hard to hold in.

“We’re waiting for them to tell us what they need […] We didn’t know how to help them,” Flores said.

Flores is trying to help, but says she doesn’t know how. What she does know is, 7,000 miles away, her two aunts on Magallanes Street in Tacloban are dead.

“They are elderly. With our culture, they are pretty stubborn. They don’t want to leave the place. If we were born here, we will die here,” Flores said.

Back at home, family and friends of people in need teamed together for a fundraising run at Elk Grove Regional Park.

Each runner paid $10 to participate. In total, the group raised about $10,000 in relief efforts.

Now, it’s time to get that money to the people who need it.

“I know there’s a lot of people who probably think the money won’t go to the places where they’re supposed to.”

But, the Elk Grove chapter of the Alay Lakad foundation is donating 100% of today’s proceeds to a local Philippine television station called ABS-CBN.

The company’s website confirms it is accepting disaster relief funds – however, the homepage does not say 100% of the money donated will go towards relief efforts.

“We’re just trying to do what we can here, raise funds,” Flores said.