Today's activity of fund raising!! No.1

Hi there!!
Alright so I will talk about what the fundraising group on 18th of Mar.
Yup!! You guys are the main today told ya!!
There will be a lot of pictures so get ready for that!!
You like looking at the pictures right??

K, then this is the day before yesterday

↑This is the the desk for the donation. There is a board wth pictures of current conditions in Japan.

Here is the close up on the board!!↓



The island of Japan is made with the origami paper cut in maple shapes (MOMIJI in Japanese).

Isn't it looking amazing!?



These are the donation boxes that the group members made!!

It's got cranes and ninja stars on so that it looks more Japanese like and cute!!!

Yup, we made a lot of visuals for people to look at so that they will be more intserested in what we are doing and what the desaster really looks like...

Ok, so those are the things that we use to get people's attentions and ask for some help fro us!!

To Be Continued....

Total Donation Amount on Mar. 17

CAD$643.71!!!!!!!!

Good work!!
This is combined amount of country club donation and viu high school donation.
We still keep the donatio amount higher than $600 which is amazing!!
To be honest, the amount we can collect at country club is getting less day by day.
However, there is something important in fund-raising besides collectiong money.
It is important to communicate with local people and talk to them about our feelings toward this devastating situation in Japan and why we are doing this.
That way, we can keep local people's awareness on this earthquake disaster and our project.
So... we won't be dispressed just because dnation collected everyday is decreasing.
This happenes for sure because we are fundraising only at the mall.
Instead of being negative, we will keep smiling and appeal to the local people.

Message group created a photo album on the picasa!!

This is an important notification from message group!!

The messages and pictures collected will be uploaded on picasa from now on which is a web photo album.
Please enjoy the happy smiles!!

P.S. Good work message group!!

A week since the disaster happened...

First of all, we are so sorry for the people who lost and/or are still looking for their loved ones to this devastating disaster.

Today, I would like to introduce one of the messages that I recieved  from a student who supports our project.

I feel life is a bit unstable right now with the strike lasting for a week, Japan in disastrous conditions, people fighting for their survival and a potential nuclear warning for the West coast. I don't believe that the amount of radioactive air or water that eventually will come our direction will do us any harm..we are far away. I pray for the suffering people in Japan and for their loved ones who are in shock and fear. I have realized once again how fragile and precious our lives really are-this is why we got to cherish what we have and feel gratitude for our life as it is. 

Love, Nadine

Debuted on Local News TV Program!!

Hi Everyone!!
As the title says, our project team was featured in one of the TV program "CHECK News" ch6 yesterday at 5pm!!(just a little bit though...)

Of course you guys have checked it out right??
・・・・・・・・・・・・what? No?

Well, DON'T WORRY!!
I've recorded the TV so that I can share with you guys!!
BUT, the qulity is not THAT good cuz I recorded on my phone...
anyways better than nothing!!
By the way, the memebr feartured on in this interview is our donation group's leader born-to-be high spirit girl, Sachiko Ishibashi!! Good job Sachi!!

Well, I think I keep you waiting long, so... this is the video!!
Enjoy!!

How was it!??
It's too short...?? well... I told ya...
We make importance on quantity rather than quality just so you know.

...Did you notice something wrong in the video?

Yea her name!! Not Sachiko VASHI but Sachiko ISHIBASHI!!!!

somehow the reporter must've misheard Sachiko.
She became famous as Sachiko Vashi... well it can't be helped so admitt it Sachi.
You are Ms. Vashi from now on.

Sorry that I got sidetracked.
Even though the video was too short, I hope the viewers got our messeage.
We, as a relief project team for this disaster, want to tell you that we are doing this project because even if this is not gonna make the whole country change, we want to make some actions that can make our mother country Japan smile.

Today's Message Group's Activity

So, today’s blog focuses on the group collecting messages from local people at Country Club Mall. (Wait wait wait!! I know what you guys wanna say!! Don’t worry other groups will be focused on next I promise!!)

We got together and started asking for the cooperation from people at the mall form around 12pm to 2pm.

The group was so excited and passionate about this project and meeting with people and everything!!

But!! of course we wouldn’t’ forget the rule which is…. we have to be quiet and asking for a help from the people.  Awww… isn’t it hard to be quite for the group because they are always happy, energetic, and hyper!! Well… in this case, the group was able to handle themselves of course!! They sat at the table appealing for the customers of different stores with their killer smiles!!

And, it worked!!! People slowly started to come and give us messages for Japan. They came one after another until today’s activity has finished.

However…(what?) there is one thing we have to apologize to those who helped us with the messages….

We were staring so hard at them writing messages on a board!!!!!!

We were staring at them wondering what the messages are being provided.

We were staring at them being so touched by the fact that local people actually are willing to help us out.

We were staring at them just thinking that the girl who is writing the messages was super duper cutie!!!!!!!! etc…

ANYWAYS!!!!!! We stared at them so hard!! TOO HARD!!!!! they could’ve gotten burnt with all those eyes on them!!!!!

Well, next time, we will try to get eyes off of the supporters as much as we can and communicating more with them so that they can be more relaxed helping us out.  But if we can’t get eyes off of you just because you are too attractive not to look at, sorry about that!! We say sorry ahead of time!!

And, today’s final number of the pictures is…….17!!!!

17 pictures in 2hours!? Is it a lot? or NO? Well we have nothing to compare with, but let’s just pretend, it is a success!! Yay!! We all did a good job!!

Thank you so much for those who supported us at the mall including the staff of the mall, local people who gave us messages and the group of collecting donations sitting beside us!! That was a lot of help!!

And also I want to give you the magic number of today’s donation we could’ve collected today!!

It is……..

CAD$644.24!!!!!!!

in three hours!!

Wow… I can not say anything other than this…

It is amazing that local people are more than happy to cheer up Japan and that the group of collecting donation put so much effort on collecting this amount of donation in such a short time.  We really appreciate it.

So this is the wrap up of the day!!

Feel free to leave any comment on this entry. Thanks!!

First Day of the Project!!!

Today was the first day we took an action! And our day went pretty rough but productive.  The biggest news we have today is the amount of the donation we received from people in Nanaimo! The total amount of the very first day’s donation was……

CAD$1041.21!!!!!!!!!! (as of March 15th).

Regardless of the situation of our student group without official supports from any famous organizations, people in Nanaimo were very supportive for Japanese who are still suffering right now. They dropped some worm and caring words to all of us. All of the volunteers were very surprised with the incredible numbers of people supporting Japanese. We could not stop appreciating all the donors. Thank you. Thank you very much from bottom of our heart. This was the very motivating start for us as well to continue doing and helping Japanese from far west.

As we decided in the last meeting, the group has divided into major two groups: fundraising group and message group.

The fundraising group involves two parts

• Involving communities and setting up the donation boxes (Donation Box Team)
• Collecting donation by actively encouraging people in malls or on streets (Donation Team)

For the Donation Box team, the group had gathered and discussed about which restaurants they should approach and how they should approach. Because our university is currently on strike and we have not determined organization to work with such as Red Cross or World Vision, the team has struggling to exhibit our group’s credit or the process of money use.  Afterword, the group has directly contacted restaurants as many as they could think of. As a result, almost all Japanese restaurants in Nanaimo have approved to set up the donation boxes.  In addition, the Vietnamese restaurant “Huong Lan” and Dailey Queen indicated willingly supporting for the project. We really thank to all sponsors allowing us come in and set up the boxes with a short time notice today. With all sponsors’ permission, we would like to exhibit the list of our sponsors later on. Although some large scale companies asked about which NGO/NPO organizations we would be working with, the number of donation boxes was a great start.

With great effort from all groups of volunteer, Donation team carried out several activities in the day. We got a great support from the administration team at Countryclub Mall, and set up two donation tables inside the mall. There were many mall shoppers expressing their concern and making significant donation along with the best wishes for all the victims in Japan’s earthquake. Again, we will appreciate your continuous support!!

Besides monetary support, the message group tried to send supporting message to Japanese victims and to involve as many people as they can. With again the support from Country Club Mall, they are approved to set a spot and collect messages. The group has determined their goal as 1000 clicks of campaign on their Facebook fan page “VIU Message Project for Japan.” So far, we already have 118 LIKE!! If you check this website, please have a visit! Even though it has just been the second day of the project, we have already received 37 photos, yes, 37 photos!!!! And more importantly, these photo messages are written by friends from around the world, and definitely prove one commonality among all of us- WE ALL CARE NO MATTER WHERE ARE FROM. As you see the countless supports from all over the world, we say “it’s going to be fine! Japan!! So stay strong.” Ganbare Japan!