Family Night for Japan

Recently when reading a friend's blog about a project that she was involved in for children in Japan. The Sleepy Time Gal has a friend in Ishinomaki, Japan. This friend is an elementary school teacher there, and on the day of the earthquake many of her students' parents never came to pick them up.  (You can read more about the project on her blog.) These children have many needs right now and it is something we can do to help. Simple things that I have around the house would mean so much to them.

I explained to my kids about what had happened in Japan and how there were children there who didn't have houses and some didn't have families. For family night we went through our closets and pantry and found things that the kids might enjoy. Most of these items I got cheaply (and some for free) using coupons and hitting sales.

Here are some the things that Sleepy Time Gal suggested:

• erasers
• crayons
• pencils
• hand sanitizer
• paper/supplies
• shippable foods
• children's clothing and shoes
• toiletries

The most cost-effective way to ship things to Japan is ship in a priority mail box. From what I have read on the internet, a small box cost $14 to ship to Japan and a medium box costs $44.  I grabbed one of each. I discovered that the small box was too small to effectively send much of anything, so I decided to cram whatever I could in a medium box.

I included 6 packs of tuna, 5 packs of instant potatoes, had to incorporate some food storage into this project somehow ;) a notebook, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 boxes of crayons, 2 small bottles of hand sanitizer, a box of instant hot chocolate packets, 6 small sheets of stickers, a box of cereal bars, 2 bags of cough drops (I read that there is a flu-like disease running around there) and a whole bunch of organic fruit suckers. I was pretty impressed that we managed to fit all of that in this box.

Now I don't share this because I want to say, oh look at me, but because I want people to see this and think 'Hey there is something that I can do to help'. And it was something that I could do with my kids, so I am teaching them that it is important that we help others.