After the earthquake in Japan on March 11th, Tufts’ Japanese Culture Club immediately took action and began fundraising to support current recovery efforts. Her Campus sat down to talk with Reza Bloomer, a member of JCC, about their work.
So I know JCC stands for Japanese Culture Club. What events do you usually do during the year?
Towards the end of the year we have Obake Yashiki – it’s a haunted house. We do that every year, it’s not so cultural, but it is a tradition in Japan. They have an Obake Yashiki at the school events once a year and a lot of the amusement parks have them. It’s a mix between tradition and fun on Tufts Campus. And then we also have movie screenings and sushi nights and Matsuri.
I was just wondering if there were any other fundraisers that you normally do? Or if this is the first fundraiser?
We don’t normally do fundraisers. It’s more of the cultural aspect.
But being the only Japanese club on campus, we assumed the responsibility of taking donations. Many of us have lived in Japan, or have family in Japan, or have friends in Japan, so we obviously have an emotional connection to Japan. We’re all really passionate about helping out and raising money and raising funds. Right now we’re going through Red Cross but we’re also researching more local NGO’s that may be able to help.
We have this blog we started on Sunday and we’ve just been adding articles on to it, we have a donate link, it has the information where we’ll be taking donations and where we’ll be presenting the information on the earthquake. It’s updated by all of our members – there’s 19 of us total. So it has updated maybe like two or three times a day with a new article or a new video or a series of pictures. Our goal is to raise $5,000 by the end of the semester, so it has been 4 or 5 days since the earthquake and we already have almost 15 percent. [Since the time of this interview, the percentage has increased to 27%]
Do you guys have any other plans for fundraising after break?
Yeah, once we come back from break, we’re going to have buttons that we’ll be giving out when we take donations. The Fletcher school is selling t-shirts so we’re going to help them with promoting that. I think it’s a heart with a red cross inside it and “Japan.” We’re going to continue doing this and we’re talking about maybe one big fundraising event where we’ll have a presentation about the earthquake and its aftermath and then maybe a panel with professors talking about it, maybe show some video clips. But we haven’t really made any solid plans yet. That would be coming back from Spring Break if we do that. Right now it’s just the basic donating and spreading awareness, trying to get people to follow the issue. Oh, and we painted the canon last night.
[According to a recent post on their website, JCC will be selling snack packs for $5 this week as well.]
Are there any other groups that you plan on collaborating with?
CSA and one other club has been helping us promote this. They’ve been giving reminders and sending out emails about donations. The Fletcher school has their own program and we’re collaborating with them as well.
Do you know of anyone who has been directly affected by the earthquake?
A lot of our family is near or in the Tokyo area, so that’s not so much physically or structurally damaged, but emotionally it’s really tough, it was really scary. A lot of our friends have left the country because of the nuclear issues that have arisen. I don’t think any of us personally know anyone in the northern areas along the coast.
I think on our blog, there’s a post from a friend of a friend who gave their personal account of what happened.
Speaking for myself, but I’m pretty sure everyone else agrees with me, we kind of feel guilty about not being there, because it’s our home and as much as it’s not safe, we kind of feel we should be a part of it. It seems so unreal to us now and we have all of our families and friends there, but we feel like we should’ve been a part of it.
Once you reach $5,000 will you keep fundraising?
Yeah, for sure. It’s not an ending goal.
If people who are abroad or who don’t run into JCC on campus want to donate, how should they go about that?
There’s the link on the blog that goes straight through our Paypal account. And if they just, through a credit card or debit card, donate to that, that will go to our big Red Cross fund. And as of now it’s Red Cross, but we’re still trying to figure out what’s best.
VISIT JCC’s website TUFTS FOR JAPAN to keep updated on information in Japan, efforts around campus, and information on how to donate.
JCC will be tabling during this week on:
Wednesday: Campus Center 12:00 – 2:00pm
Thursday: Dewick 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Photo Credits:
Tufts Canon – courtesy of JCC’s website: http://tuftsforjapan.blogspot.com