Omocha Express Earthquake Relief Update

Just thought i would update folks on the Omocha Express charity drive for earthquake relief for Kids in japan. things are going well and we are getting ready to do the first disbursement of funds to japan to buy toys, books and art supplies. our sister club in Iwate is working on identifying day care centers and determining what would be the most useful items for the centers. Also in another around the world theme of this effort, an artists' collective in the Netherlands is having an art auction and have selected Omocha Express as a benificary as they wanted to target their efforts on kids as well.

Also once the tomytec santetsu commemorative rail cars come out this fall ill do a raffle on jns to benefit omocha express.

more information on omocha express here: http://www.omohcaexpress.org

News summaries:

Three Daycare Centers Selected to Receive Gifts

IRC and the Sanriku Railway have been busy planning our first distribution of gifts. They found a whopping 47 kindergartens and daycare centers in the affected area! So far, we have selected three daycare centers to receive gifts: Tsugaruishi Hoikujo, Taro Hoikujo, and Omoto Hoikuen. All three were heavily damaged in the disasters, and have been displaced to temporary buildings. Most of the upper grade schools are being pretty well taken care of so IRC decided to focus on the day care and kindergarden facilities that were badly effected.

Netherlands Art Auction to support Omocha Express

A group of artists related to CBKU, a non-profit print shop in Utrecht, the Netherlands, is having an art auction to support Japanese relief efforts. Their goal is to help schools in the devastated region, and they have selected Omocha Express as their beneficiary! The auction will be held on November 13th. The web site is in Dutch, but you can see the artwork even if you don't speak the language. Matthew Davis, President of JRM has also donated one of his hand made pendants to the auction.

http://hart4japan.blogspot.com/

or try the google translation of the website

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&u

=http%3A%2F%2Fhart4japan.blogspot.com%2F

yell if anyone has any comments or fund raising ideas or want to participate in some way, please yell -- we are still working on this!

cheers,

jeff

Good thing huh, that hart4japan action in the Netherlands. I was the one who notified them of the Omocha Express charity ;) I'll be at the auction to act as a direct intermediate between the Japanese guests and others. The auction will also be opened by the Queen's Commissioner of Utrecht I heard. A few years ago I organised an exhibition on Dutch manga with Mangafique! (of which I'm now PR-manager and board-member) http://www.utrecht.nl/smartsite.dws?id=90318 and attended several other exhibitions like this one: http://www.utrecht.nl/smartsite.dws?id=315310 Next to that, I assisted with accompanying Japanese guests in 2007 for the large exhibition there.

Below is an official release mail from the Cabinet of extern relations city council Utrecht I received a few days ago. Underneath that is a translation.

H-Art voor Japan: Utrechtse kunst voor Japans goed doel

In oktober exposeren Utrechtse kunstenaars in het stadhuis met de tentoonstelling 'H-Art voor Japan'. Bijzonder is dat het tentoongestelde werk tijdens de Culturele Zondag ‘Klaas en Maarten pakken uit’ op 13 november 2011, per opbod wordt geveild. De opbrengst van deze veiling gaat naar een goed doel in Japan.

Het initiatief van deze veiling komt van Utrechtse kunstenaars en het Grafisch Atelier/Centrum Beeldende Kunst Utrecht. Kunstenaars van het Grafisch Atelier zijn al langer bij Japan betrokken, vanwege een grote uitwisseling tussen Utrecht, Japan en Canada die van 2005 t/m 2007 plaatsvond en naar aanleiding waarvan in 2007 een tentoonstelling was te zien in het Stadhuis. Nu, vier jaar later, horen deze kunstenaars van hun Japanse collega’s uit eerste hand over de ramp die Japan heeft getroffen en nog steeds treft. Kunstenaars uit Utrecht en daarbuiten hebben zich verenigd om Japan te helpen. De te veilen werken zijn in oktober te zien in het stadhuis.

De opbrengst van deze spannende veiling komt geheel ten goede aan Omocha Express, een charitatieve instelling met het oogmerk kinderen in Japan van speelgoed, tekenmateriaal en ander plezier te voorzien. ( http://www.omochaexpress.org )

De tentoonstelling is te zien van donderdag 6 tot en met vrijdag 28 oktober 2011.

H-Art voor Japan: Urecht art for Japanese charity.

In October artists from Utrecht will have an exhibiton in the city hall with 'H-Art voor Japan'. It's to note that on this special occasion, the 13th of November 2011, on the Cultural Sunday 'Klaas en Maarten pakken uit' (a festival about the city's patrons), an auction will be held. The yields will be sent to a good cause in Japan.

The initiative for this auction comes from artists from Utrecht and the Grafisch Atelier/Centrum Beeldende Kunst Utrecht (Graphic Studio/Visual Art Centre Utrecht). Artists from the Grafisch Atelier are already involved for a long time with Japan. This because of a large exchange between Utrecht, Japan and Canada held from 2005 to 2007 where the last exhibition was held in the Utrecht city hall. Now, four years later, the artists from Utrecht have heard firsthand from the disaster that struck Japan, and is still striking the country. Artists from Utrecht and beyond have united to help Japan. The items that are up for auction are exhibited in October in the city hall.

The yields of this exiting auction will go 100% to the Omocha Express, a charitable organisation that focusses on providing children in Japan with toys, drawing supplies and other fun stuff. (http://www.omochaexpress.org)

The exhibition will take place from Thursday 6 until friday 28 October.

I'm also very exited on how it will turn out to be. I'm sure it will be of great interest with the public! Too bad I couldn't be of much help before the organising of this, since I was, and still am, very busy with other (also important) cultural projects and starting a firm.

Toni,

thanks soooo very much for doing that! it was wonderful for you to do that! its so great how this is all working out that folks all over are chipping in at various points in the whole chain where they can do the best work to make the whole thing work! this is why we partnered with iwc as we wanted to do something simple on the ground for kids and not just dump monies into the big relief efforts where who knows where it will go, but not being in japan we had no idea of where/who to go to. Santetsu also coming in wanting to help with distribution and identification there also was perfect! Omocha Express is basically being run by a couple of us from jrm so its been a lot of work for us to get all the logistics up to be an official charity and such, just to get started.

We are really excited by the auction, not for just the money, but for the fact that it has really widened the support base to being even more global and unique (folks doing art to auction off really is something cool) and part of the aim of omocha express was not just the money/objects, but the basic show of human support from folks a world a way. I think kids seeing that is a great life lesson. when matthew was teaching english in iwate a few years back he had a retired gentleman in one of his classes who was much older than any of his other students. one day he asked him why he was learning english at this point (he was a retired farmer) and he said that he was a kid in wwII and they had basically nothing. but at the end of the war the US GIs were always handing out food and candy to the kids. he remembered this and always wanted to just learn english as a gesture in return.

thanks again for the connection here, the kids will really appreciate it!

jeff

Toni, nice one ;)

Tomorrow is the auction for Japan in the local city hall. I'll try and take some pictures if it's allowed and try and make up a very small report as soon as I get back. I'm really pumped about this event, since I also attributed a very small part to the whole project. Although I was only one small cog in the whole operation, it really feels like you're part of something big. Something that's a real morale booster for me and all those involved.

I hope I'm not totally wasted (be it the triumphant boozing or the sheer exhaustion) tomorrow to update a.s.a.p., but stay tuned!

Now at the auction. Things just got started and looking good. I'll keep you guys and gals up to date if something special occurs in this post!

There are quite some interesting works being offered, including a few prints from Dick Bruna (the artist who invented Miffy). There are 90 pieces in total.

All Dick Bruna works have been sold at much higher prices than all other works. As expected.

Now around 9000€ in the pocket for omocha express. Let's see if we can hit 10k!

Congratulations Omocha Express! Roughly around 12k€ was reeled in for the good cause! Awesome!

Matthew and i just got home from the lions club train show that jrm was at this weekend to a fantastic email from the organizers with the mind blowing result of 12K euros! we are still a bit stunned by this! its really going to put the effort in japan into another level or two! It was so amazing and wonderful that the links in the chain thru jns to toni to HArt4Japan linked us all up. I think both our sister club in iwate and Sansetsu will be bowled over when they hear the news! the have selected three daycare centers to start with and hopefully here in the next few weeks we will get some of our starter money there to get the whole system worked out and when the auction money comes through we should have the system worked out to scale it up to more places then!

Again its so wonderful that this all worked out! Matthew's pendant he sent over (hes doing some silversmithing now) sold well as well, so he was happy to have been able to contribute something from here to the auction as well.

Thank you so much again Toni for being that "cog" as you put it (a very critical one!), to make this connection happen. Toni, ill contact you about pictures of the event as it would be great to have some on a page on omocha we want to do about the event and thanking them profusely! Also thanks JNS staff for promoting Omocha Express so well so that something so wonderful could happen like this!

Ill keep folks posted here as this all pulls together. Now i have to file more paperwork as we have gone past the small first level for charity status and spend money on filing more paperwork, as we didnt want to spend more money until we reached the limit if we did not have to. But now its worth it as we are in the bigger leagues! luckily we have a donor who offered to pay for the paperwork so that all other donations would go completely to buying stuff.

cheers

Jeff

That is great news to hear and congratulations Toni for being involved (love reading Miffy when I was young). On something totally different but still helping out to the Japanese Community. Wadaiko Rindo are having their Annual Drumming Concert on Dec 10th and 11th with all profit going to Michinoku-Mirai Kikin (Michinoku Future Foundation) which is looking after the North-East coastal area of Japan.

Meanwhile the Australian Japanese Model Railway Group (AJMRG) have agreed and has placed the logo and connecting link at the front of their homepage to help out with JRM and the Omocha Express.

Freaking amazing, is what this is. Congratulations to all involved! And a special congratulations to Toni for pulling this all together like this!

12k euros? That's amazing!

There'll be some happy kids in Japan soon :)

Easy on the personal congratulations guys and gals. The only thing I did was reccomend Omocha Express to H-Art 4 Japan. I'm already happy enough to see this work out altogether. It's the people who made it possible who need all the credit.

Toni,

yes the H-Art 4 Japan are really the heros here. they really took this to such a level that we never imagined we could get to. The fact that so many artists donated items was astounding! the really gratifying thing about all this is that we really wanted omocha express to be something that was a communal effort with partnerships to also show japan that there was strong support for them and that it would not be anyone's own show. we realized it would not be a huge effort for rebuilding, but more symbolic. also wanted it to be very international but were not sure if we could achieve that either and its turned out to really be that, truly international.

I am still so thankful to you Toni for being that link that put omocha express in front of them. sometimes it takes those little actions that can really snowball! we hope that our connections in japan with the train club and Santetsu RR will be a good way to make sure the money goes to good places that really need it and also get the best bang for the buck on the toys and art supplies there w/in the japanese economy as well (good to use local sources to get their businesses going).

the folks in japan have already determined that the higher level schools have gotten a lot of support, but its the facilities with younger kids with smaller day care centers and nursery schools/kindergardens that are still struggling, many still in temporary facilities, so thats where they are focusing on first.

also thanks to all the folks that have donated money directly to the effort. That too has been slowly growing!

cheers

jeff

Just an update to everyone on the Omocha Express efforts. we have been proceeding to getting the first distribution of toys and art supplies out to 3 schools we are using as a test bed for the next, larger rounds of distributions to more schools. Here is the recent news

Three Daycare Centers Selected to Receive Gifts

IRC and the Sanriku Railway have been busy planning our first distribution of gifts. They found a whopping 47 kindergartens and daycare centers in the affected area! So far, we have selected three daycare centers to receive gifts:

- Raga Children's House in Shimohei-gun

- Omoto Kindergarten in Omoto

- Kamaishi Kindergarten in Kamaishi

Shimohei-gun and Omoto are located on the coast of Iwate along the Sanriku Railway's North Rias Line, and Kamaishi is the northern terminus of the South Rias Line. We are trying to focus on centers and schools that have not received large amounts of relief efforts from other agecies or the government.

First Round of Toys and Art Supplies are Purchased

The first round of over $1000 of toys and art supplies have been purchased for the first three day care centers selected. We found wonderful wooden Japanese train sets and have purchased multiple sets for each center. Art paper and crayons have also been purchased for the Centers. This first round of distribution is being used as a test run to work out the details of purchasing the goods in japan and getting them delivered. We will then assess the items and process after the items are at the Centers for a while and we get some feedback on them. we ended up using some shops thru Amazon.jp as their prices were good and low or free shipping and we could support some businesses in Japan. It also allowed us to use a credit card to purchase things and avoid bank transfer fees. Luckily our Capital One cc does not charge international fees and we even got some cash back to throw in the next round!

H-ART VOOR JAPAN Donation Received

The first donation of $6,800 from the H-ART VOOR Japan auction was just transferred to Omocha Express! This very successful auction in the Netherlands has raised a significant amount of funds for relief efforts for Japanese kids. They have selected Omocha Express as a primary recipient of the funds they raised. These funds will be used soon for our second, larger round of toy and art supply purchases and distributions. H-ART's efforts have been wonderful and the donation is a huge boost to Omocha Express and is allowing us to fun distributions to a lot more schools that we would have been able to! It was great to have a video conference with about a dozen of the H-ART crew just before the new year. So nice to see the faces to the folks we have been corresponding with across the pond via email. Was even able to see a bit of their great print cooperative's facility there via the camera. Again its so great being able to be a link in the chain between them and the folks on the ground in Japan with IRC and Santetsu who are doing the distributions.

First Round of Distributions are Scheduled!

We are excited to announce the first round of distributions of the toys and art supplies purchased by Omocha Express and donated books is scheduled for February 21st to three schools and daycare centers in Iwate. After we get a little feedback from these first three Centers we will be doing larger purchases and selecting more kindergartens and day care centers to receive these materials. We plan to continue this process until all our funding is exhausted. JRM president Matthew Davis and his wife have decided to fly over (on his own nickel of course!) for a visit with their friends in Iwate and help with the first distribution. It will be wonderful to have a representative there for this first distribution.

Ill post more about the distribution as it happens.

Please, if you feel so inclined think about making a small donation to omocha express (http://www.omochaexpress.org) as we will be continuing the effort until all the funds are exhausted. 100% of your donation goes to purchasing the materials in Japan as we have a donation that covers the paypal fees and other expenses!

cheers

jeff

Just had a chance to catch up with Matthew last night over dinner. They were in Iwate for three weeks to visit friends there (they lived there 2007-9) and participate in the first Omocha Express distribution of toys and art supplies. this first one was a test run with 4 nursery schools and soon we should be ramping up do do a couple of dozen more with our great funding from H4Art Japan in the Netherlands. we are still taking donations here as things keep chugging along, so if you feel inclined you can do donations online and small ones are as appreciated (http://omochaexpress.org)

there is a short article on the first distribution up on the web site:

http://www.omochaexpress.org/firstdistribution.html

ill post the text below the web page has pictures as well.

Editor's note: Omocha Express President Matthew Davis and his wife Stefanie traveled to Iwate last month on vacation to visit friends in the area and participate in the first round of distributions of toys, art supplies and other items from Omocha Express. Matthew and Stefanie lived in Iwate for 2 years in 2007-2009 and developed the sister club relationship between Japan Rail Modelers of Washington DC and the Iwate Rail Modelers' Circle (IRC).

This first distribution was a test to work out the logistics of purchasing and delivering the goods to the schools as well as finding and selecting schools that could use the materials. We hope to replicate this process in over 20 more schools once we have gotten feedback on the materials from the schools. Omocha Express is focusing on the smaller nursery schools and day care centers hard hit by the disaster that don't receive the same government support the public schools do. It's thanks to the support of our donors and H-Art 4 Japan's generous donation that this was possible.

Matthew's correspondence:

On Monday, February 20th, we met with Naoto Kodama (IRC executive officer), Norishiro Sato (IRC president), and Daiki Nasu (IRC member) to sort and bundle the deliveries to the schools. They had decided to include a fourth school, and since we had only ordered items for three schools, we divided one bundle of items into two schools (the "missing" items for each school will be sent later, after I get back to the US).

On our way to the coast that afternoon, we stopped into the Morioka freight terminal, where JR Freight donated a few additional items (puzzles and tote bags) for our efforts. Then we proceeded to the Sanriku Railway office in Miyako, on the coast, where we met up with Atsushi Tomite (IRC member and Sanriku Railway employee) and Katsuhiro Oikawa (IRC member). Together we visited the Sanriku Railway Miyako Station, which is decorated inside with the many messages of support gathered by IRC.

On Feb 21, we took the Santetsu North Rias Line train as far as we could, then went by car to our first destination, Tanohata Hoikuen in Tanohata Village. They were operating in a temporary building, and most of the kids are living in temporary housing. Kodama-san explained our purpose there, where we were from, and about the auction. The kids were very excited - if smiles were our objective, we sure succeeded! One of the kids had lost his father in the tsunami.

The next school, Wakagiri Hoikuen in Iwaizumi, was a bit smaller. After they lost their own school building, they were able to move into part of an apparently unused middle school. Many of their students had lost one or both parents in the tsunami. They were a very active group of kids, and they were every bit as excited as the first school's students. One boy was also a complete train maniac, so he really went wild.

Our third school was Omoto Hoikuen in Omoto. On our way, we stopped at the remains of the original school building, then arrived at the school right during nap time. All the sleeping children were so cute! We formally presented the gifts to the staff in the hallway so as not to disturb the children, then visited the different age group rooms to see the sleeping kids. A newspaper reporter-photographer was there, so we posed for some photos with the sleeping children.

We then drove down the coast - which was an unbelievable experience - to Kamaishi. The school was in a new building built by volunteers. If I understood the school director properly, this school lost a number of students in the tsunami. A nearby school had lost most of its students, so they took in the remaining students from that school as well. Press from Kyodo news service and a Kamaishi newspaper were there to take photos and interview us.

The gifts given to each school were:

2 large wooden train sets

6 packs of 16 crayons

a pack of large drawing paper

a pack of medium drawing paper

a pack of assorted colors of paper

several picture books (donated by the author and illustrator)

some items donated by JR Freight

Guys, this brings tears to my eyes.

Thanks for the effort.

Absolutely great stuff.

toni,

sorry to make you cry, but its for a good cause.

Matthew and his wife were so glad to be there for this. it was super cute with the kids, they were just ecstatic over the trains and art supplies. one little boy was a super train freak and just about went out of his head when he saw the train boxs! even though its just a total drop in the bucket in the big picture its making a bunch of little kids a bit happier. these schools are more out of the way and dont get the attention of the bigger town and higher grade schools, so having folks from all over the world find them and do something ever so small like this was really great for them and was greatly appreciated. Being back in Iwate was very touching and emotional for Matthew and his wife. while they did not loose any of their friends in the disaster, they saw miles after miles of cleared areas that was just astounding.

we will keep it up here for as long as our momentum holds up and that also requires donations hold up for that!

Thanks again to all that have given generously and the fantastic effort of H4Art Japan in the Netherlands!

cheers

jeff

Jeff,

Matthew and the members of the JRM, the IRC members are doing a great job for a great cause. Ian (from South Australia) and myself (From Victoria) are still promoting as much as we can from the Australian side to help out with donations (via Yahoo Forums and via website eg. AJMRG website). The AJMRG (Australian Japanese Model Railway Group) have got the Japan Festival on 20th May, is there a way we can get something that would be A5 side that we can hand out to people at our stall? This would be good for Ian too as they have the Japanese Children's Festival on the 1st May and we can do some more promotions. As we all say every coin helps those who are in need.

Thanks for the update too :) brings that nice warm feeling to your heart helping out others.

Linkey,

thanks its a world wide effort. H4Art Japan has been the big hero, launching the effort to a whole nother level with their support!

Thanks very much for getting the news out down under! Ian has been great as well plugging us when ever he gets the opening!

PM me your email address and i can get you a pdf of our mini flyer. its a two sided quarter page card about omocha. its us letter, but scales well to A4 just needs a little trimmed off the ends and the two cross cuts. I can also see if matthew can relay them out for proper A4 cut up as well.

cheers

jeff