for my entire life, i’ve always been a tight ass when it comes to donating money. yes, i’ve donated clothes and lots of things over the years to the Big Brothers and Sisters Program, and to the Hawaii Cerebral Palsy. but when it comes to money, i’m pretty careful unless i know it will go in the right hands. that said, check out this story. i got an email from Morikawa-san from a website called Free Tohoku. she commented on my blog and left her link. i never click on links but this one was a Free Tohoku link. exactly what i’ve been feeling. i found out that this is a website set up to help the kids in tohoku. to put smiles on their faces. to put life back into tohoku. honestly, i was teary eyes when going through all the photos of the happy kids. i know first hand how it is up there, and i know what a smile can do to a kids life at times like this.
now, they are trying to raise money for something special. Free Tohoku wants to buy christmas cakes for the kids. it’s the first christmas since the tsunami and it’s going to be a different one for many. a cake surely can light up a kids christmas. here’s the blog post on this topic in both english and japanese. please read it:
This time of year is really busy with Japanese traditional end-of-year parties, not to mention Christmas for the kids. Before the year is out, there is one more thing we must to do… At the kid’s festival at the end of the summer, one of the kids asked me, “When are you coming back?” we didn’t know, but I promised we would be back.
So I need to keep my promise.
About this time, children are starting to wonder if Santa is coming, and if they will get whipped cream or chocolate cake for Christmas (a Japanese Christmas ritual). I wonder what the kids in Ishinomaki are thinking? We want to send Christmas cake to children – of course one cake each. These children, who are trying their best to live after such horrible experiences, deserve to receive a good present from Santa Claus.
Also, the mummies and daddies who are trying so hard, I want to tell them: “Good job, we are with you.” I want to pass this message along in person.
I have learnt from mothers in Ishinomaki and many others on Twitter that two popular cake shops have re-opened – Arpajon and Kazamidori. So I rang both, and they said they could prepare any number of cakes if we order them. It was a warm reply from them.
These cakes benefit the kids and two local businesses to get back on their feet after the tsunami. Great.
I went to the bank today and opened an account as an official volunteer group. We have never asked for any money before, but this time, we want to ask you to support us for this mission.
Here’s the plan: We want to send Christmas cake and cookies to children on Christmas Eve, and also we want to provide Quo pre-paid shopping tokens to mummies and daddies. Here’s a rough calculation at the moment:
100 Christmas cakes = ¥340,000
100 Assorted cookies = ¥100,000
100 Quo cards = ¥200,000
Total: ¥640,000
We will try our best to raise this amount. If we get more, we will send more cakes to more kids.
We hope you like this plan as much as I’m sure the kids of Ishinomaki will, and back us. Let’s give these kids some nice memories at the end of the year.
If you’d like to donate you can either transfer directly to Chiba Bank Ltd, Tennoudai branch, SWIFT code CHBAJPJT, account number 3380190, account name Free Tohoku Abiko Kotobukikai.
Or just pay by credit card via paypal (our email address is our account number – freetohoku@gmail.com).
Thank you.
この時期の日本は、クリスマスパーティーや忘年会の予約で忙しくなる。
一年を締めくくる前に、あともう一つだけやりたい事がある。やらないと自分たちのクリスマスパーティーも快く出来ない気がする。
９月の子供まつりで「今度はいつくるの？」って子どもに聞かれたとき、
「また来るね。」って約束したから、その約束は守らないといけない。
子どもたちは「サンタは来るかな？クリスマスケーキは生にする？チョコにする？」って
いろいろ考え始める時期。石巻の子どもたちはどう思っているんだろう？
子どもたちにクリスマスケーキを贈りたい。もちろん一人にケーキ丸ごとをね。
頑張って必死で生きている子どもたちに、サンタクロースからプレゼントをもらって欲しい。
そしてがんばっている石巻のママさんやパパさんたちにも
「お疲れさま。これからも一緒にがんばっていきましょうね。これからもずっと応援しています。｣ってちゃんと会ってその気持ちを伝えたい。
ツイッターと石巻ママさんたちからの情報のおかげで、人気のお菓子屋さん、『アルパジョン』さんと『かざみどり』さんが再開したと聞いてさっそく電話してみた。
「何百個でもご注文いただけたら用意できます。お待ちしています。」
と２件とも温かいご回答をいただく。どうしても現地で調達したいという希望も叶う事になった。
今日銀行へ行き、正式に『freetohoku我孫子寿会』のボランティア団体として銀行口座を開設してきた。
Freetohokuとして今まで寄付金をお願いした事はないが、今回は心より心よりお願いしたい。
＜これが現時点の企画＞
１２月２４日、石巻にて子どもたちにクリスマスケーキと焼き菓子、ママさんパパさんたちにquoカードをプレゼント。
クリスマスケーキ １００個＝￥３４０，０００
サンタからの焼き菓子プレゼント １００個＝￥１００，０００
ママさんパパさんへのQuoカード １００枚＝￥２００，０００
合計￥６４０，０００の資金調達に全力を尽くしたいです。
もしもっと集まれば、もっともっと多くの子どもたちへ贈ることができます。
世界中の皆さんの温かいご支援をお待ちしております。
今年最後、子どもたちに良い思い出を作ってあげましょう。
千葉銀行 天王台支店 （テンノウダイ）
口座名義：freetohoku 我孫子寿会（フリートーホク アビココトブキカイ）
口座番号：３３８０１９０
又は
PayPal アカウント
freetohoku@gmail.com
Like I said before, i’m really picky when it comes to donating money. and i never ask for donations, except for projects that will help the victims. but this site is legit. i used PayPal to donate my share already and i hope you can help out. one cake is 3,400 yen or about $30. even the small donation will help these wonderful people do their wonderful thing. last checked, they are at 517,213 yen and their goal is 640,000. almost there! this christmas, i don’t want any christmas presents, the best christmas present you could give to me is to buy a cake for a tohoku kid. that would be cool.
**CLICK HERE TO DONATE A CAKE TO FREE TOHOKU!
