Husband-wife team work to give Nepal village a new bridge

Never underestimate the value of a well-placed bridge.

Hikers know this — and for that matter, so do the children in the small village of Chhanga in Nepal.

There’s a footbridge spanning both sides of the Chhanga Khola river, a useful, if not altogether memorable feat of architecture that played a pivotal role in the lives of the many young students who used it to journey to elementary school each day.

The bridge was one of the many man-made structures compromised during an earthquake that struck the region last spring.

There are a total of 35 houses within the village, many of which sustained damage. The local school lost a wall.

What chance did a rickety-looking wooden bridge stand?

That’s why State College native Tom Blackadar and his wife, Marcia Johnson, are looking to the future — and it looks a lot like concrete and steel.

The husband and wife duo are in the process of raising funds to build a new bridge over the Chhanga Khola, something more durable that can both stand the test of time and spare the local trees.

“We just want to do something,” Blackadar said.

Both Blackadar and Johnson are naturally active people — it’s part of what drew them together. Blackadar met Johnson when they were both living in San Francisco. They shared interests in hiking and exploring the remote corners of the world, and even celebrated their eventual nuptials with a one-month trip across Tibet.

Still, it’s Nepal that’s drawn them back four times in the past 20 years.

“We’re mountain people. We like the mountains. It’s extremely beautiful there,” Blackadar said.

They also like the people.

In 1999, Blackadar and Johnson were sitting in an airport coffee shop in the Mount Everest Region of Nepal. They were hikers, not mountain climbers, and had absolutely no intention of scaling the earth’s highest mountain.

Instead, they met a young trekking guide named Sange Sherpa, who led the couple on an 18-day trek through Nepal and the trio have remained in touch ever since.

After the earthquake last spring, Sherpa journeyed back to his home village of Chhanga, where some of his family and friends still reside, to help with the recovery efforts.

“He was spending his own money to buy tents for people,” Blackadar said.

Inspired, Blackadar and Johnson decided that the best way for them to lend a hand would be to come up with a simple goal, something tangible that could directly address one of the many problems facing the battered village.

“We wanted to do something in one focused area,” Blackadar said.

The prospect of a new bridge struck them as just the right project, something that could help maintain the access of several remote villages to the outside world.

Johnson spent part of her career working as a fundraising executive for universities and charitable organizations. A former colleague recommended that that they set up a crowdfunding page at generosity.com.

It was a good suggestion that’s yielded international results. So far, Blackadar and Johnson have received donations from 45 households in four different currencies — which has totaled at just less than $10,000.

“In some cases it’s people that we didn’t even know very well,” Blackadar said.

Later this month, husband and wife will travel to Nepal to get the ball rolling on the project, accumulating building materials and preparing for construction.

The couple is based in Shanghai, where Blackadar runs a small software consulting firm, and trying to supervise the project from afar would limit there ability to supervise the work.

“We’re going to be actively managing the project,” Blackadar said.

It’s important to both Blackadar and Johnson that the money is spent wisely — especially in light of the generosity they have witnessed so far.

“There are warmhearted people in all parts of the world,” Blackadar said

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 11:21 PM with the headline "Husband-wife team work to give Nepal village a new bridge."