Cards and goodwill from Children of Roy Stibbs School BC, to Shizukawa Elementary School children

Shizukawa Elemetary School Principle Mr Kai-ichi Kato and James Buttenheim – AMDA giving cards written by children of a school in B.C, Canada

I hope this message finds you in good spirits and with weather much less humid than here in Japan. My name is James Buttenheim, and I am an American college student working as an intern for AMDA this summer. I had the honor and privilege to personally deliver the letters from Roy Stibbs elementary school to the principal of Shizukawa elementary school.

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I want to thank you for this kind, simple gesture to the Minamisanriku community. Since the school has just recently begun operating normally again and is now trying to make up for lost time, the principal, staff, and students find themselves extremely busy each day. Therefore, we were not able to see the cards distributed to the students. However, the principal was pleased to accept them, and I know these letters will brighten the students’ day when they receive them. Additionally, the sentiment will show the families of this community that the larger world community cares about and is with Japan during this trying time.

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As you may or may not know, one of our upcoming events in August will be a week of soccer matches. Middle school soccer clubs from various towns in Tohoku will get the chance to meet their peers in Okayama and build new friendships. During this past week, among other things, we met with some of the middle school soccer clubs that will be joining us in Okayama.

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After meeting Principal Kato, we traveled to Shizukawa middle school, and on Thursday we met the Otsuchi team. However, most of the week was dedicated to visiting various shelters and field hospitals and distributing medicine and new supplies. On Tuesday, while we were in Minamisanriku, Ms. Tae Namba, Ms. Tomoko Ohmasa and I met with doctors at the Shizukawa hospital.

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On Wednesday, our team traveled to Daitokuin Temple and Otsuchi High School which are now doubling as shelters. At Otsuchi High School, we also met with a newly formed branch, AMDA’s Otsuchi club. High school students from this club will visit Okayama this month to meet AMDA’s Okayama club. On Thursday morning, Ms. Ohmasa and I visited a nursing home in Otsuchi and several other shelters to deliver the remaining supplies.