Today I'm going to show you the last thank-you letters we received in Aug.
Following is the letters from kids who held charity bazaar on Aug. 6th. to which we sent many goods.
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～ Thank you for supporting our Summer Festival. Thanks to your help we were able to make donations to 4 elementary schools! ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
Left ↓ ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～ Thank you very much for sending us many goods. Your goods proved to be very helpful to our daily lives and I don't know how to thank you for that. We planned the charity bazaar and we solicited contributions whenever people got things from the goods we displayed. And we collected more than 100,000 yen! Thank you very much!
○○○ 6th grade, Yamoto-Higashi Elementary School ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
Right ↓ ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～ Thank you very much for sending us many goods. Thanks to your support many local folks including us volunteered to make contribution. Without your help we could never have succeeded. We are hoping that you would keep supporting us to make people smile broadly.
○○○ 6th grade, Yamoto-Higashi Elementary School ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
Bottom ↓ ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～ To Ms. ○○○ & Ms. XXX
Thank you very much for sending us very cute hand-made goods. They were so lovely that I bought one for myself! Thanks to you we collected more than 100,000 yen of donations. Thank you thank you thank you!
After the earthquake many local events of children's associations were called off. Nonetheless, Green Leaves Children's Association in Kami-Kawato Ward 2 in Higashi-Matsushima City decided to hold Summer Festival on Aug. 6th and children and parents are busy preparing for it. They plan to hold a charity bazaar in which they intend to distribute relief goods donated from all over Japan and ask for the cash contribution instead. The money they raised will be given to other Children's Associations which couldn't hold their own Summer Festivals through the city government.
Since late July about 10 local children and parents have been working hard to sort out goods to be distributed at the bazaar. Children decorated the collection box with colored papers. Cardboard boxes are all over the living room. Inside the boxes stationary, clothes, shoes and miscellaneous daily goods are fully packed. Parents asked for support from their acquaintances, and many relief goods were sent from Tokyo, Mie, etc. Natsuki Abe(6th grade of Yamoto-Higashi Elementary School) wrote an e-mail that's been sent out to many people said, " I am very happy that many people helped us and we can hold a Summer Festival" and she believes that holding a Summer Festival can help people in the affected areas. The Summer Festival will be held on Aug. 6th, starting from 6 p.m. at City Health Center. There will be vending stalls and the games like ringtoss and yo-yo fishing. ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
Hello everyone. Again, I'm going to show you what we delivered in Aug. and Sep. (strange... don't you think? we are supposed to have closed down our operation.. well, there were many things we had to do before that, sorry!)
Anyway, here we go !
Delivery ① → digital TV to Ms. S in Watari-cho ↓
This TV was donated by Mr. I in Tokyo in June. Do you remember Mr. I? He is the one who donated Benz the other day! Thanks Mr. I for your donation!
Delivery ② → Note PC to Ms. W in Yuriage ↓
This PC was donated by a foreign company in Tokyo and re-configured by 2 IT specialists in July like this ↓
Thank you guys for your effort!!
Delivery ③ → electrical appliances & furniture to Ms. N in Kesennuma ↓
This delivery was made by a rented 2-ton truck for there were many goods to be delivered ↓
First, large electrical appliances such as fridge & washer were unloaded to her father's house ↓
They were donated in June by Ms. C who works for a moving company for foreigners in Sagamihara, Kanagawa.
Gorgeous dining set was donated by Mr. & Mrs. G in Tokyo. Other goods were donated by many people from many places...
The man in red is her husband ↓
Then the truck drove to a temporary house where her family now lives in ↓
Although the kitchen cabinet and chest of drawers were very large, as she wanted to use them right away we carried them into her small temporary house.
I was skeptical if they'd fit in or not... But look at the happy faces of a family! ↓
One more ! ↓
They beautifully fit in a temporary house! Good job everybody!!
BTW, kitchen cabinet and chest of drawers were donated by Ms. S in Adachi-ku, Tokyo. Thank you very much Ms. S! Your furniture will watch over their lives for a long time from now!
Well, that's about it today. Thanks everyone for your donation and cooperation!
Hi there, Following is the Thank-you letters/cards we received in Aug.
First letter, from Ms. S in Watari-cho ↓
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Dear Give Your Hand staffs
Thank you very much for your support by sending us bicycle, digital camera, PC, TV, TV board, DVD player and Nintendo DS. The Tsunami inundated our house above floor level. We went back to our house 3 days after the disaster. When we saw our house flooded with sea water and covered with mud we just stood there stupefied. When we were overwhelmed by work and cleaning of our house someone introduced us Give-Your-Hand, and we were very much moved as well as delighted to know that there was such a wonderful organization helping people out. Every time we touch the things you sent us we feel the warmness of donors' hearts and our minds would be filled with gratitude. We don't know how to thank you, really. Thank you very much for your kindness and many goods.
from ○○○ Watari-cho, Miyagi-ken
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
2nd letter, from Ms. S in Wakuya-cho ↓
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
Thank you very much for your support to our family. Today, we received iron, iron board and other goods again from you and we don't know how to thank you for your kindness. Every time we receive goods from you we are encouraged, and brace ourselves to stand up again. What we can do now is try hard, do our best to keep healthy, and we believe one day we can return the courtesy you showed us to you. It's still hot every day, please take care of yourself.
Million thanks from ○○○
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
3rd letter, from Ms. H in Ishinomaki ↓
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
I am ○○○ writing you from Ishinomaki. Thank you very much for the vacuum cleaner and other useful goods like pasta and detergent. They are very helpful and we'll use them with care. Since the hot summer doesn't seem to go away soon, please take care of yourself. Thanks again for your kindness,
Aug. 25th. ○○○ in Ishinomaki
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
4th letter, Ms. S in Ishinomaki ↓
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
Hello. I am ○○○ who lives in Ishinomaki city. Thank you very much the other day for sending us Note PC, DS and dishes. The disaster destroyed our house completely and kids' goods were all washed away. So my kids' pleasure to see the DS was so great.
(in kids' writing)
Thank you for the DS from Yuuna
THANK YOU from Shu
We really appreciate your kindness, Thank you again,
Hi there, Today I'll show you what we delivered to the individuals in Aug.
First delivery, to Ms. H in Natori ↓
She received iron, iron board, hot plate and stand fan. She gave us a message to say, "Thank you very much for sending me a lot of goods for free. I will make sure to use them with good care."
2nd delivery, to Ms. O in Natori as well ↓
Lovely kids!!
They received iron, iron board, hot plate, futon dryer, mixer, stand fan, DS2 x 2 and soft wares.
Their message was as follows,
Kids are very pleased with DS2 which they always wanted. Thank you very much for the soft wares, too. They were able to start playing right away. I will make sure they won't break them.
Since you gave us a stand fan we were able to sleep well at night, for it had been very hot during the night as we didn't have an air-conditioner in our bedroom.
Good to hear that, Ms. O!!
3rd delivery, to Mr. S in Iwanuma city ↓
We delivered a vacuum cleaner Mr. & Mrs. G in Hiroo donated. Hope it is useful to his newly-renovated house.
Well, thanks everyone for waiting! (--> no one's waiting???) The final, and the greatest delivery of GYH...
Here we go, 4th delivery, to Mr. I !! ↓
Be, be be be, Beeenz!!
This great Benz was donated by Mr. I in Tokyo. He, with his family, drove it to Miyagi, met Mr. I's family at a gas station, and
'HANDED'
it to them!!
Mr. I did all the paperwork necessary to give it to them(ownership change, etc.) and all the way from Tokyo drove it to Miyagi. Well, I don't know what to say....
You are just GREAT! Mr. I!! (BTW, Mr. I is the same person who donated digital TV and baby bouncer in June)
And this is Mr. I ↓
Which is Mr. I is up to your imagination...
For your information, the recipient, Mr. I's family which includes grandchildren lives in a temporary house. Kindergarten and nursery are operated inside temporary housing. Everything is tough, but Mr. I is full of energy willing to rebuild his new life from a scratch.
Hope the gift of Benz from Mr. I proves useful to Mr. I's new life. (same I, but different I, you know)
Anyway, those were the individual deliveries we made in Aug. Thanks everyone for your cooperation!!
On Aug. 30, we made a final delivery to Ishinomaki City Primary School. This school has been used as an evacuation center since the disaster, and it still provides roof for 94 people.
First, a truck arrived at our Miyagi storage early in a morning↓
Checking the goods in wine-red sweater is the Mysterious Volunteer S, Meeee!! Man in Black is Mr. K of Akabo, of course!
We carried down some goods which were to be delivered to Kesennuma, loaded the rest of the goods we still had in our storage, and we were ready to go! ↓
We drove for 2 hours and arrived at the evacuation center↓
We were ushered to the back side of the school which was the carry-in entrance↓
And goods were loaded down, down, down, one after another ↓
The massage chair below was donated by Mr. & Mrs. S in Tokyo, and guess what? Mr. K of Akabo WASHED the cover for the occasion!! Wow!
He also washed/cleaned other innumerable electrical appliances. Thank you always for your kindness, Mr. K !!
And the goods were carried to the back room with LOCK to avoid robbery ↓
And Presto! The truck was empty!
Lastly, Mr. K of Akabo gave them the kids toys he'd bought in Tokyo for the occasion. Mr. A, the volunteer student there received them on behalf of the evacuees ↓
We handed the goods list to Mr. S, the representative of the center, He thanked us for our donation/effort very politely ↓
He said he would hold a lottery to decide who gets what before the evacuees leave the center.
Well, that's how we delivered our last goods.
Oh, I almost forgot, take a look ↓
You see the roof of something is tumbled down? This is the cemetery located beside the school. Although many of the wreckage were taken away from the area, there are still tumbled down things like cars, roofs, etc. throughout the affected places. How sad....
We do hope they would regain their beautiful sea-side town in a near future.
Hi there, We made a final delivery to Ishinomaki in late Aug. Before reporting on that, I'd like to show you what we delivered.
Here we go, picked up goods in Aug. !
First pick-up, donation from Ms. S in Adachi-ku, Tokyo, on Aug. 6th. ↓
Her condo is under renovation, and she offered to donate chest of drawers and kitchen cabinet she won't need anymore. They are to be delivered to Kesennuma later.
2nd pick-up, donation from Mr. & Mrs. S in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Aug. 12th. ↓
Their goods include chairs, tables, massage chair, stand fan, etc. They attached a heart-warming message to the people in Tohoku like this ↓
It says, "we sincerely hope that Tohoku will be recovered soon". How kind they are! You wanna know how they look like???
Well, this is the special service for you...↓
What a charming couple they are! Taking pictures of donors is Mr. K of Akabo's idea. He said the recipients would be pleased to know who donated the goods, and offered to take pictures of them upon pick-up. Thanks Mr. Ken for your fabulous idea!
O.K., the 3rd pick-up, Mr. & Mrs. G in Hiroo, Tokyo, on Aug. 19th. ↓
They donated the gorgeous dining table set, enumerable electrical appliances, and this↓
Panasonic 46inch digital TV, play station 3, blue-ray DVD recorder/player!! The TV board was donated by Mr. K of Akabo to accompany the digital TV. Thanks!!
Are you curious how they look like?? Here! Mr. & Mrs. G ↓
Wooooo, one more time ↓
What a lovely couple!! Thank you very much for your donation, Mr. & Mrs. G!!
Well, sorry, I was too carried away. The 4th pick-up, Mr. O in Suginami, Tokyo, on Aug. 25th. ↓
He donated washer, fridge, etc. As only his son was there to watch the pickup, he declined to be taken a picture. What a shame!
Well, the 5th, and our final pick-up, Mr. H in Sibaura, Tokyo, on Aug. 27th. ↓
He donated many electric appliances as well as the cash which bought many goods to be distributed at our Final Sale in Miyagi. He'd donated his goods, climbed Mt. Fuji for the last time before he left Japan. Thank you Mr. H for your farewell gifts to Japan!
These goods were to be delivered to Ishinomaki, Kesennuma and other people who requested them.
Hi, it's been a while. I'd been to Sendai to finish our job and am back. Although I'd like to report on my days in Sendai, I got to write about our Final Sale again.
Because.... We still had visitors AFTER the final sale...
Well, they were the VERY LAST visitors to our sale.
On Aug. 28, a day after the last day of it.
First visitor, Mr. S ↓
He had visited us on 26th, and was back to get the new color box and other stuffs. We had a very fine cashmere long coat which had been left alone due to the large size of it. His size happened to be large, he tried it on, liked it and brought it with him.↓
We were very happy that the coat found a new owner!
2nd visitor, Ms. S ↓
They brought back home the dishes, iron board and underwear.
3rd visitor, Mr. S ↓
They got iron and work-wear.
4th visitor, Ms. K ↓
They came to fetch our last large item, study desk!
5th visitor, Ms. M ↓
She got dishes and color box.
6th visitor, Ms. M ↓
They got toaster, dish dryer, dishes and work-wear.
The very last visitor, Ms. Y ↓
She came to fetch iron and color box she had reserved the other day.
Well, this looks like the real end to our final sale. I'm glad that we still had something to give away. In total, 94 families visited our final sale.
As you can imagine, although we added some goods by donation, our stock was sparse...
Then we got the aid of Heaven!
Mr. & Mrs. H, our contacts in Natori city, visited us yesterday with donation of iron, iron board and oven toaster. They assumed our stock should be sparse and brought us gifts! ↓
They also gave us a gift of cakes for tea time break. Thank you very much Mr. & Mrs. H!!
Well, following is the visitors we received on the final day of our bazaar.
Visitor 1, Ms. S ↓
They brought home the iron, clothes, dishes, etc.
Visitor 2, Ms. S ↓
This was her 3rd visit to our sale, she came to take the stand fan she'd reserved the other day.
Visitor 3, Ms. K ↓
She brought home the iron, clothes, underwear, etc. And finally....↓
Our last large item, a study desk was sold!! (←for free) This desk was without a chair, so it had been in our storage till the last moment. We were very glad that she took it!
Visitor 4, Ms. S ↓
She took dishes, clothes and foods.
Visitor 5, Ms. K ↓
She took underwear and foods. Sorry Ms. K that we didn't have much to give.
Visitor 6, Ms. H ↓
She took brand-new iron, work clothes and foods.
Visitor 7, Ms. S ↓
She brought home only foods.... Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!
Visitor 8 to 10, Mr. Y/G/S ↓
They were friends and colleagues. One of them left his PC in his office, which was washed away by Tsunami. As his house was not affected, he had never been given anything as a victim before. They were thrilled to hear we had Note PCs to give away. They thanked us again and again as they left our storage with broad smile!
Visitor 11, Mr. K and grandson ↓
He is a husband of Ms. K who visited us the day before. They brought home clothes, underwear, foods and a DS software for a grandson.
Visitor 12, Ms. I ↓
She took iron and underwear for kids.
The final visitor of our Final Sale, Ms. S ↓
She brought home the iron and foods.
What an anticlimax for a large-scale?! bazaar! Seems like she was given leftovers... so sorry!
Anyway, we have received 87 families through 6 days of our final sale. Almost everything in our storage was "Sold Out"!! Thank you everybody for coming, and thank you donors and coordinators who helped us do this!!
Next will be a report on the delivery to Ishinomaki. Don't miss it!!
The 5th Day of the Final Sale. Visitors are still coming in... Yet we don't have much goods left...
So, We decided to buy another goods by the last donation we EXPECT to receive. Following is the goods we bought anew↓
9 color boxes. 5 irons. 4 vacuum cleaners. ↓
Well, I wonder if we can meet their expectation with those goods???
Here we go,
1st visitor, Ms. K ↓
She brought home humidifier, new stand fan, etc.
2nd visitor, Ms. S ↓
Her husband came the other day, and today the wife came to pick up kids' chair & table, TV board, heater, etc. Wow!! she took the baby bouncer!! this was donated by Mr. I in Tokyo.
3rd visitor, Ms. I ↓
She brought home the last fridge we had, and the stylish round chair a foreigner donated long time ago. As it was so stylish, it had been in our storage for a long time waiting to be picked up by someone.
4th visitor, Mr. O ↓
He'd reserved a book shelf, and one of our staffs came to pick it up for him.
5th visitor, Ms. I ↓
This was the last large item we had, which had been waiting to be picked up by somebody↓
You see? this was donated by Mr. A in Tokyo. As you can see it was too stylish for country folks in Miyagi, thus, a long-time stock to our dismay. One of our staffs was so excited and happy to hear it was SOLD(for free, of course), he injured his elbow when he was moving it out!!
Well, anyways, we are very happy it found a new owner at last!
6th visitor, Ms. Y ↓
They took a brown book shelf and dishes. Although they were able to load it in their car, she found out that there was no space she could sit in... The solution she devised was ↓
Sitting on a folded seat with her book shelf!!
That gave us a big laugh and revived us very much!
7th visitor, Mr. S ↓
He took clothes, etc.
8th visitor, Ms. Y ↓
She brought home the bed-side lamps, etc.
9th visitor, Ms. T ↓
She brought back the brand new stand fan.
10th visitor, Mr. O ↓
He came back to pick up the white sofa donated by Mr. A in Singapore that he had reserved before,
loaded it onto his K-truck. Good work, Mr. O!!
11th visitor, Ms. N ↓
She brought home the brand new color box we added to our stocks, and the stove burner donated by Ms. S in Nagoya.
12th visitor, Ms. K ↓
She brought home the kids' blue table donated by Ms. A in Tokyo, clothes, dishes and color box.
13 / 14th visitor, Ms. A and K ↓
They took dishes and color boxes each.
15th visitor, Mr. I ↓
He brought home the dishes and a roller skating doll. I wonder he took it for his grand-daughter?
16th visitor, Ms. I ↓
She took dishes, vacuum cleaner and kids' toys, of course!
The last visitor of the day, Ms. S ↓
They brought home the dishes, brand new vacuum cleaner and the work clothes donated by Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.
17 families visited us on the 5th day. Thanks everybody for coming!
