have a form letter

Since my MO lately is kind of an imitation of a chicken with its head cut off, I thought I'd share this form letter created by the good folks heading up this bike ride I'm planning to go on.

Every time I think about this bike ride I am planning to go on, I think, man, you are insane.

Please look over it and if you feel like donating, please do!

Hello family and friends,

As you may or may not know, I will be participating in a charity fundraiser next week-end, May 19th and 20th.  Every year, the Oita prefecture JETs organize a charity bike ride. Cyclists from beginner to expert ride about 100km (60mi) a day for 2 to 3 days.  This year we'll be riding down the gorgeous east coast of Kyushu Island.  Although the ride is supposedly one of the best memories many hold about their time in Japan, it is also a challenge and for the purposes of raising money for a charity.

As teachers in Japan, we were quite shaken by the earthquake and tsunami last March in North Eastern Japan. Last year’s bike ride (which happened immediately after the earthquake and tsunami) was dedicated to the disaster. We were able to raise more than 1.6 million yen (over 20,000USD) which we donated to the Japanese Red Cross to help with re-building efforts in the affected areas. Though one year has passed since the earthquake and tsunami and rebuilding efforts are well underway, we still want to show our support for the affected area. Instead of donating to the Japanese Red Cross, certainly a worthy charity, we were looking for something with a bit more of a focused message.

If possible we also wanted to find a charity which dealt with issues we hold close to our hearts as teachers: education and children. This year we are riding to support “Ashinaga,” a Tokyo based nonprofit which provides education-focused financial and emotional support to children who have lost one or both parents due to a severe disability or death.  They are hard at work building “Rainbow Houses” to help children orphaned by the disaster. Furthermore, they have projects not only in Japan but abroad as well.

Please join us in supporting this very worthy charity by making an online donation to Ashinaga.

To donate, please go to their donation page by clicking on this link.  You will have an option of making a tax-deductible donation or a normal donation straight from your card.  In the portion where you can write a message to the orphans, please feel free to write anything you want, but also add that you are donating it via "The Oita Charity Bike Ride."  After you donate please e-mail me with the amount you donated so we can keep track of how much our efforts raise.

Thank you very much!