Last Day to Ship Socks and Letters: Monday, May 16
Our team at Socks for Japan has carefully monitored the situation in the disaster zone to anticipate need. It’s important to maintain a supply of socks and care letters for as long as people need them, but we don’t want an enormous surplus when we’re finished.
In our judgment, acute need for socks and letters will drop off dramatically as we enter Japan’s hot summer season in June. That’s when people will start wearing sandals without socks and, three months after the March 11 disaster, many survivors will have moved on to more permanent housing from temporary shelters. We’re already seeing such a migration in certain areas, with shelter populations cut by half or more.
Therefore, the last day to ship socks and letters to us is Monday, May 16.
Note that a ramp-down schedule doesn’t mean we’re done. On the contrary, we’re only halfway! Please continue supporting us as we get socks and letters to people who’ve lost everything, and need to know that all is not lost. Join our list.
21 Comments
The 4th grade students of St. Gabriel’s, Austin,Texas have socks and letters en route along with many prayers for those suffering.
Hey there!
I’m a Sunday School teacher in Missouri. My kids are still really into sending items to help out. What can we be doing? They are enthused about the direct action aspects of this.
Thanks,
Dawn
we are teaching children in our day care about service to mankind in realtion to whats happening in the world today. Our drive event will start on from 1st week of June. Can we start collecting socks than and post it to your center by mid June. Pls allow our children this opportunity to help others and know what helping means .
Awaiting your reply
Preman
We are currently collecting socks and letters at my son’s school in Sydney, Australia and have just seen the deadline of 16 May. We will do our best to ship them as soon as we can but may be a few days late. We hope you will still be able to accept and distribute our donation when it reaches you.
My fifth gradershere in Rhode Island have been collecting socks school-wide for a few weeks. We are readying our shipment today. They are very happy to be helping out.
We are in Rhode Island and have done a fundraiser at our office. We will be shipping socks either today or Monday. Not sure how long it will take to get there but I pray that they will get there in time.
hi,
My sunday school children would like to donate and i only came to know about this programe like a couple of day only, can i still donate the socks and the well wish cards any time later tha 16 march?
Thanks for wanting to help. Yes, if you get your package on its way to us asap we’ll see that your socks and letters find their way to the right feet. Please understand our schedule, however, so we’re not surprised by a box of socks in July!
The Venice Youth Council of Los Angeles, CA, USA sent 8 boxes (890 pairs of socks) and wondered if you have received the boxes. We have additional socks to send but are unable to meet the May 16 deadline. We plan to package and send the additional boxes the week of May 23. I hope that you will be able to accept our boxes. I can email after May 21 to confirm the amount of boxes being shipped to you. This is a wonderful outreach from the US to Japan. We are all wishing the very best to the people in the stricken areas of Japan. I will announce to all our basketball teams of the results posted in your newsletter.
Thank you, Debbe! We’ll take the socks shipped after our deadline, and get a note to you soon confirming receipt of the others you sent.
Jason,
The 2000 students of the Los Nietos School District, in the western portion of Los Angeles County, held a 1-week fundraiser and “Cents for Socks”. With the funds raised by this lower income community, we purchased approximately 3000 pairs of socks! We are packing them tomorrow and will meet your deadline to send them off by Monday.
Los Nietos SD is the oldest district in California (Aug. 12, 1861) and is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
How wonderful, Mary! Thank you for letting me know, and for creating the touching story of a successful fundraiser in a “lower-income community” that will bring a smile to thousands of faces in Japan. We’d love to receive some photos of the efforts in Los Nietos SD. Please either send them to the email address shown at our main page, or post them on our Facebook page.
Hi Jason, Many thanks for your response today it is good to know that the package I sent some weeks ago arrived despite the negative remarks from our local Post Office – ‘can’t guarantee delivery’ and ‘are you sure you want to send such a large parcel’ etc.
Congratulations and thank you to you and your volunteers for the mighty job you are doing and how wonderful it is that you have been able to harness not only socks but such goodwill from all over the world for those poor souls in Japan. It seemed so much more real and personal to pack up those socks with little caring notes than to donate money to an international aid agency and never know how it is used.
Jason, you must be a very special human being for thinking of doing this and then putting your thoughts into action – again, congratulations! Darien
Thank you, Darien! This project is powered by special human beings all over the world. It’s one of the most inspiring endeavors I’ve ever undertaken. I’m happy you’re a part of it.
Hi, I didn’t even try to track the two boxes of socks that I sent but I sure hope they get there. It was very rewarding to work on something that could be done with my hands in addition to the money I had already donated for Japan. Somehow sending my note and hoping that the receiver would maybe have a moment of knowing that someone is thinking of them and hoping for things to get better – made me feel a bit better. News of Japan has pretty much dropped off the radar of national news in the US but we haven’t forgotten. Also my husband I are going to go to Japan in the fall and spent our tourist dollars! Thank you so much for doing this project. Anna
Alright, thanks for the response! (:
this is indeed a massive, massive cause. but it warms my heart still thinking about it.
God bless all of you.
hi jason,
a team of friends and i sent over 429 pairs of socks from Singapore in two batches
in April (2nd & 3rd week). But we have yet to receive an email as to whether you
guys have received the packages. ): Please do let me know if you have as i would love
to share the news with my team.yeah.
thank you once again for all the hard work, love and care you all
have laboured to show to the people of Japan!
hope our little contributions of socks helped (:
waiting to hear from you!
I’m sure we received them, Alina, but will double-check and see that a note finds it way to you. I admit that the one part of this operation we haven’t handled well is the timely sending of receipt notes. We’re getting better, but still aren’t fast enough. Thank you for your contribution!
Hi Jason
We sent 3 big boxes from the Middle School at North Yarmouth Academy (Maine) last Wed. I just checked my tracking # this morning and they have already left customs in Japan! I put a note for you in one of the boxes but I just want to thank you for organizing this project. I lived in Japan (Odawara–Hakone pref.) from 1991-1993 and couldn’t even watch the news when the quake/tsunami hit.
Thanks to you, I was able to lend some real assistance by organizing the kids at my son’s school to collect socks and write letters. By holding a pair of socks in your hand here in the states and imagining a recipient in Japan, you have helped to shorten the distance between people. I wish you could have seen the enthusiasm of the 5th graders writing their names in katakana and the labels for “man,” “woman,” and “child” in kanji. It eased my heartache.
By the way, many of our “child” socks are large teenager size and will probably fit plenty of adults. Thanks to you and your extraordinary team of volunteers. Gambatte kudasai. Arigatoo gozaimasu.–Aldona
Jason: I know that my two boxes of socks have not reached you yet from tracking on Canada Post. I have a third box leaving my home in Ontario tomorrow. Hopefully you will receive my parcels soon.
I wondered when you were going to slow down, but admire your commitment to stay the course. Thanks for all the good work you have done.
Catherine Mussington
Brooklin, Ontario
Thank you, Catherine! We’ll get a note to you eventually, but we’re not as efficient in that department as I’d like. We have yet to not receive a package somebody inquired about, however, so don’t let a delay scare you into thinking a box was lost in transit. It probably wasn’t.