Dance for Tsunami Relief!

As you may have heard if you are following relief efforts in Sendai, Mr. Julian Crocker of the Carl's Eikaiwa chain is organizing a series of charity social events in Sendai for this fall, the first of which will be a dance/techno party featuring guest DJs from Tokyo to be held this upcoming Friday, April 26th, at the Shaft nightclub in Kokubuncho, Sendai.  The owners of Shaft have been kind enough to grant free use of their space and all proceeds will go to four different charities working toward the cause of tsunami relief efforts, one of which is Teachers For Japan.  In addition, Teachers For Japan members will be in attendance, selling items to raise additional funds. The price of entry is 2000 yen for men, with ladies admitted for free:

Additional events, including live shows by local bands, are planned, and details will be forthcoming as they are nailed down.  But for now, if you are in or around Sendai and up for having a fun night out while contributing a few thousand yen toward assisting needy students and other worthy causes, please come by this Friday!

Thanks, everyone!

Just a quick note to thank the people of Vancouver, British Columbia, who at a club fundraiser yesterday raised several hundred dollars for earthquake relief charities.  Well done, everyone, and special thanks to Ms. June Fukumura for her role in organizing the event and distributing the money!

Fundraising/Initial Project Update

Tonight, Kyle and I met with the Japanese members of MEESA for our weekly meeting.  A number of things were discussed, but here's a rundown on points of interest for people who have contributed or donated:

1.)The Teachers For Japan initiative has just in the past day or so cleared US$10,000 in donations collected, which has come from small individual donations from people in five different countries.  About US$1500 worth has already been spent on our initial project.  We hope in the near future to be able to increase this amount via greater exposure.

2.)Said $1500 has been used to purchase 350 sets of basic school supplies for elementary school students in Miyagi.  The sets were purchased at discounted prices from local suppliers and also include some donated items.  We would like to thank the following companies/individuals for their generous assistance in helping to obtain these supplies:

iropen.com　http://iropen.com/
Daiichi Progress Inc.　http://www.ichipro.co.jp/
Seisa Kokusai High School　http://www.seisa.ed.jp/
Ms. Eri Osada

The sets comprise rulers, pencils, pens, erasers, notebooks, pencil leads, and protractors, all of which are necessary items for elementary school students to have.  We hope to donate them shortly to needy students at an elementary school in one of the tsunami-stricken areas of Miyagi, and to tell you more about the specific students your donation has helped when we do so.

3.)We have also accepted donations of some additional school supplies/educational items including pencil cases and three boxes of books.  These will also be donated to local schools.

4.)We have set out several additional projects on which to spend the remainder of the money, including earmarking donations to schools to fix particular problems the government reconstruction effort may not cover and identifying and assisting needy kindergarten students with tuition costs.  More information will be forthcoming on these projects as they develop.

I will post more updates, including photos and videos, to the blog, Facebook page, YouTube channel, etc. over the next few days.  Please keep checking in!

-Greg