As the Syrian Civil War raged half a world away, Betsy Ryan was sitting in Starbucks, reading the news and wondering what she could do.
Ryan felt overwhelmed at the scale and distance of the problem. And then she remembered something her mother was fond of saying: “Even the smallest of feet can make footprints in the sand.”
Today, the Hermosa Beach-resident is making her mark, selling sterling silver pendants to raise funds to help people rendered refugees in the conflict. The effort, known as Hermosa’s List, aims to inspire people to act in the face of tragedies that seem to overwhelm the efforts of just one person.
“On the one hand, Hermosa is so far away from all that is happening,” Ryan said. “But on the other hand, we are all so interconnected. We really have to take care of one another.”
Ryan’s connection to the project stems from personal experience. As a young girl, she was on a trip to Israel with her family during the outbreak of the Six Day War in June 1967. She recalls floating in the Dead Sea and being snatched up by her parents and rushed onto a plane.
“I was wet, I was covered in salt and I was still in my bathing suit when I was rushed onto the plane,” Ryan said. “When I saw what was happening, I realized, no one is snatching up kids over there and taking them to safety.”
The necklaces carry the so-called “Mark of the Nazarene,” a letter in the Arabic alphabet. After Islamic State began spray painting they symbol on homes to indicate that Christians resided there, various groups launched a social media campaign last year to reclaim the letter as a sign of struggle and resistance.
Ryan began by reaching out to jewelers in the Los Angeles area. But her story caused them to point her to the Bay Area, to a jeweler named Joseph Kadakian. Ryan went to San Francisco to meet with him. She provided the silver, and the jeweler agreed to donate his time.
The project struck a chord with Kadakian, who immigrated to the United States from Syria in 1983. Kadakian, who is of Armenian descent, does not speak English, so his daughter, Elizabeth Sharma, translated questions and answers. His roots in Armenia, where mass killings occurred 100 years ago, made the project even more resonant.
“This means so much to him,” Sharma said. “As an Armenian Christian born in Syria, this project really hits home.”
He still keeps in touch with his family there. The conflict has made life for his relatives difficult, but they continue to perservere.
“We have family in Damascus, the capital, and in Beirut,” Kadakian said through his daughter. “They’ve been holding up as best they can.”
Kadakian continues working late into the night to craft the pendants. Ryan bought enough silver for 1,000 pieces, and launched a GoFundMe for Hermosa’s list, with the goal of selling them for $100 a piece.
One of the first to buy a pendant was local real estate developer Raju Chhabria.
“I think it’s a very good cause,” Chhabria said. “[Ryan] is trying to make everyone aware, just to share the information and help.”
