By Andy Anderson | Project Leader
Ishinomaki HS Students August Homestays in Richmond and Washington, DC.
Six Ishinomaki High School Students spent a week in the US with both Richmond and Washington, DC families. The first full day was highlighted by a Richmond Historic Canal boat ride followed by the families taking their Ishinomaki HS students to Richmond landmarks such as Shockoe bottom, Church Hill, Libby Hill, the Tyler Potterfield Bridge and then on to shopping! The next day was Kings Dominion Day in Ashland, VA! Rides, water park, games food and fun together! We had a Richmond farewell dinner for the students where they performed the Soran Bushi and Kazuya played the guitar, sang, and did "beatbox". Thank you to the Harris-Evans family for organizing the Richmond portion of the trip! It was nice to have everyone together before the students started the second part of their journey in the Washington, DC area.
After a farewell to the home stay families in Richmond, including renewing a bond from Richmond students visiting Ishinomaki in 2014, it was on to Lake Fairfax Park to meet the DC host families for an ice cream party. Thank you to Akane Shirata of Camp O-en and the Keisho Japanese Heritage Center for arranging the home stays and activities in the Washington, DC area.
Washington, DC included visits to the Air and Space Center, Tyson's Corner, many DC landmarks, and making Somen no Nori at Camp O-en. The students were seen off at Dulles and met by Takanaria-san at Narita before they took their flight to Sendai and home to Ishinomaki! The friends and memories made were truly special!
12th Taylor Bunko Installation
Endo-san completed the 12th Taylor Bunko and it was installed at Inai elementary school on back-to-school day. The school held a ceremony for the installation which included a book certificate for the school to purchase books for the bunko.
Ishinomaki Junior High Schools Speech Contest
The champion won the speech contest and the Taylor award trophy. The Taylor trophy is made by Endo-san. The winner talked about social media's merits and demerits. She introduced a story from March 11, 2011 when a mother was on the roof and surrounded by fire. She texted to her son in England, and he gave her the advice to tweet where she was. The Tokyo Fire Department sent a helicopter immediately and saved her and her neighbors.
Her JET teacher Nicolas was overjoyed when his student's name was called as the champion. Ms. Ogurasawa, her English teacher helped them like she did when she worked with Taylor at Mangokuura JH six years ago.
Thank you for your support which helps us continue programs like these to help Ishinomaki students affected by the disaster to continue to learn and expand their horizons!
Links:
By Andy Anderson | Project Leader
By Andy Anderson | Project Leader
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
