The Socks I Sent to Japan Arrived!

I spotted two pairs of socks I sent in this photo: the hot-pink stripe and the light pink socks!

As you all probably know, besides donating money for tsunami relief efforts in Japan, I also sent 38 pairs of socks for men, women, and children, along with some handwritten letters and toiletry items, to a newly-formed organization that aims to distribute these items to the displaced victims housed in temporary shelters in the northern parts of Japan.

This morning, Socks for Japan shared their first experience making a delivery to a couple shelters located in Ibaraki, who had cited an urgent need for socks and specially requested them.  The group also shared the photos they took of the destroyed towns and homes, damaged personal items, and the isolated survivors in the various shelters they visited.

From their account of the day:

Three ladies sat together on a blanket after receiving their socks, all three engrossed in reading the letters. They looked so happy and kept turning to each other to share what their letters said. They noticed us noticing them, and the eldest among them held her letter up and told us, “This is wonderful.”

Hand-writing 14 copies of this long letter took an awful long time…

But for the look on this woman’s face I would write 10,000 more.

It’s so amazing to be involved with a charity that actually does what it sets out to do, wholly and caringly – and provides an actual account of their work so there can be no misunderstandings about it.  Perhaps I shall never learn the names of these people…but I am so glad to have brightened their day in even the smallest way.

The write-up is incredibly moving, and hopefully puts to rest any criticisms that socks are neither needed nor wanted.

Read the Full Account of the Socks Delivery Here

 

Thank you to Socks for Japan, who have allowed me to help in such a tiny way!

xoxox
Carly

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Socks for Japan Featured in the Tualatin / Tigard / Beaverton Valley Times

Locals Jump to Japans Aid {link url="http://www.tualatintimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=130037863131055800" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"}Read More...{/link}

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In today’s local newspaper here in the suburbs outside of Portland (circ. 26,000) they ran an article about local people and their efforts for disaster relief in the wake of last Friday’s events in Japan.  A small photo of me happened to land on the front page – and hopefully this will be able to attract more attention to everyone’s efforts and encourage people in their support for Japan during this dark time.

Read the Full Article “Locals Jump to Japan’s Aid”

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Thanks so much to Angela, Jaime, and the whole team over there for making the effort to get the word out about this!  I am so indebted to all of you.

Additionally, I emailed the head of my son’s school on Sunday and let him know about Socks for Japan, and he decided to share it with the entire community of parents, staff, and students, asking for monetary donations to be collected and given to Mercy Corps, and collecting a pair of new socks and a care note from each child if people wished to donate that as well.  Sock Dreams, a local Portland retailer of socks and legwear, set up a table selling socks (really nice ones, too) for $2 a pair in front of the school for parents who hadn’t had time to go out and buy a pair…and then donated all the money received to Mercy Corps.  This morning as I came into school and bought another pair to send with a care letter from my son, I saw people buying 4 and 5 pairs of socks at a time, and all of them being sorted into boxes ready to ship out for tomorrow.

Despite the obnoxious, petty, and ill-informed voices of critics that have brought so much sorrow to my heart since last week, the events of today brought tears to my eyes when I saw the goodwill and good intentions of so many people manifest.

xoxox
Carly

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