This is very nice news. Kids helping out other kids, and adults going out of their way to help, too.
March is graduation month for students across Japan, and each spring Minori Yamaki teaches traditional songs and dances to her students at a Japanese preschool in northwest suburban Niles.
The lyrics express gratitude to friends and teachers and bid farewell to their school, especially poignant themes for this year’s graduates in the wake of the earthquake that rocked northeastern Japan on March 11.
On Sunday, Yamaki’s students, ages 3 to 6, expressed thanks to hundreds of people who donated money to relief efforts at a fundraiser in Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. The store is an Asian mega-grocery that is a destination for Japanese expatriates from across the Midwest.
“I’m overwhelmed. The people are so generous,” said Yamaki, director of the Japanese preschool at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. Yamaki said she watched customers entering the store fill a 55-gallon drum with donations of checks and cash.
By Sunday afternoon, the barrel was growing full, and Yamaki estimated that it held a few thousand dollars. The barrel will remain at Mitsuwa, which sees thousands of shoppers each day, for the rest of the month. The money raised will be donated to the Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan, Yamaki said.
