Hands On Tokyo Youth Impact Project

On July 4^th, we went back to the Chofu Gakuen Children’s home to build and place the new metal shelves into the pool lockers we recently painted in April. I gathered six students from ASIJ and SMIS to carry out the project. The new shelves were assembled to replace the deteriorating wooden shelves that were used by the children before. Hironori Kuo and James Newton found and ordered these stainless steel shelves with the help of the Hands On Tokyo office, our adult supervisor, Aya Higa, and your generous donations. We knew that it would be a more sustainable material since the shelves will have to endure the water from the pool and the extremely humid Japanese summers.

We were also asked to move heavy 20 kg boxes of chlorine from the pool locker rooms to the shed. It was a beautiful sunny day and all the teens worked extremely hard to complete the project efficiently and with great enthusiasm.

It was great to come back to Chofu Gakuen Children’s Home and build on the relationship we started with them in the spring. We hope to continue doing more projects with them as the new school year approaches and the new Teen Advisory Board takes action.

The Teen Advisory Board next year will be headed by Theint Theint Thu, from the International School of the Sacred Heart, as the newly elected board president. She is organized, passionate, friendly, and extremely capable, and there is no doubt that the Teen Advisory Board will flourish and grow stronger in her leadership. The Teen Advisory Board is planning to lead the game booth at the Hands On Tokyo annual “Day of Service” festival again in October, participate in supporting the MLB marathon (a new project for us) in early fall, and hold our annual charity concert.

Thank you so much. We could not continue our projects or spread teen awareness and passion for volunteering without your continued support!