Cans for Japan

No one needs to be told how devastating the earthquake and tsunami has hit Japan. We all saw it and continue to see it daily on the news and in the newspapers. My heart aches watching a nation try to rebuild. Hearing how during the worst time of their lives the people of Japan still have great respect for one another. Hearing reports of riots being non-existent. Family members walking hours to stores and gas stations to stand in line patiently waiting their turn. Our family instantly donated money to the American Red Cross but I wanted to make sure my children understood what was going on.  And I want to teach them how important charity is.  I want them to grow up learning to be compassionate and kind to others especially those in need.  Someday we might be the ones who need the help.

A typical trip to the store always involves this question “mom, can I get this?”  And the answer is always “no!”  So, taking the opportunity to always teach my children life lessons I proposed we save cans toward a certain goal.  After a little discussion and a little coercion off the original goal to buy a Transformer toy to the current goal to save for Harry Potter World we started our search for cans.  We save and recycle everything and ask neighbors, family & friends if we can have any.  They’re really into it and don’t mind the grossness of actually redeeming them. The best is, they get to keep a dollar for whatever and then the rest gets put into their ‘Harry Potter World’ account.

So, when we heard about Japan I had the whole family sit and watch what was going on.  The boys were confused a little because on TV the water seemed to be slowly approaching.  But they realized it was bad.  We decided to donate all the money we get from now until the end of April to Japan relief efforts.  After that we’ll donate 20% of each trip to Japan.  So, if you live on Oahu and want to donate a few cans to my boys let me know.  I’ll gladly send my boys your way.

Thank you to Kathe James and Darrah Marie Ishizaki for being our first people to donate their cans to my boys.  Just from their cans alone we got $18.70..YAY!  Kathe and Darrah let me know if you have a preference to where we should donate the money.

Our prayers are with the people of Japan.