socks to japan

[reei]

Here are the details:

Socks for Japan | Facebook



Quote
American author Jason Kelly, who lives in Sano, Japan, is collecting socks for earthquake victims. He writes:


Here's a way you can help Japan, directly and meaningfully.

Hundreds of my readers in the United States and other parts of the world have asked me how they can help the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Japan on March 11. There are many places to donate money, and that's a wonderful thing to do, but direct aid is also cherished by victims.

My office location is perfect for managing a direct-aid operation because it's close enough to the primary damage zone that we can physically get there to help, but far enough away that mail delivery is working. So we quickly set ourselves up to run this operation, called Socks for Japan.

Guidelines:

- Send only new socks.
All human beings are comforted by a fresh, clean pair of socks. Other advantages socks offer this operation: their sizes are easy, they don't break, people need lots of them in disastrous times without running water, people can keep them forever and remember that somebody from far away cared. Please do not send any other items of clothing, food, etc. Just socks, but go ahead and choose nice ones that will brighten somebody's day.

- Group similar socks in one package.
To help our inventory management, put all socks of one type in a single package. For example, "men's large," "girls' medium," "boys' small," "baby girls'," and so on. Different colors and styles are fine in the same package, but keep the gender and sizes consistent, please. If you include several different groups in a single box, please pack the groups in clear bags with a description enclosed, facing out.

- List package contents on the package.
To help our inventory management, write on the outside of the package exactly what's inside. For example, "ten pairs, men's medium socks" or "one pair, girl's small socks" and so on. This will enable us to quickly group inventory for efficient distribution without opening packages.

- Enclose a short care letter. Japanese people treasure letters, especially ones from foreigners. Victims of the 1995 Hanshin quake in Kobe said that care letters were among the most uplifting items they received. If you enclose a care letter, provide a copy of it for each pair of socks you send. This will enable us to hand each recipient of your socks a letter from you. Please keep your letter brief. You can save us time by enclosing a translation of your letter into Japanese, which you can make easily at Google Translate, then copy, paste, and print the result to attach to each copy of your English version. Machine translations are imperfect so be sure to send your English version in case we need to tidy up the Japanese. If you send only English, we'll translate it to Japanese and include your information that the recipient can use to respond later if they would like. No guarantee on that, of course, and any replies will probably arrive months or possibly more than a year later. We'll translate replies from Japanese to English.

- Write your email address on the package. The most efficient way for us to keep in touch with you, and track the status of your package once we receive it, is via your email address. Please write it on the outside of your package so we can communicate with you without opening the package.
Please ship your package to my office:


Jason Kelly
Helping Angels : Socks for Japan
Plaza Kei 101
Wakamatsu-cho 615-6
Sano, Tochigi 327-0846
Japan


Thank you for your support! When your package arrives, we'll send a note to you at the email address you wrote on it.
unquote

[luckycat]

This is an appeal for socks, right? I just want to be certain because this is ridiculous.

[shri]

No clue how this has gone viral. One of the most spectacular wastes of time and energy. Like Japan's infrastructure needs to handle millions of packages containing sent by dumb by good intentioned people.

[nlsk]

Thanks reei. That's actually quite interesting and the kind of aid/help that I was talking about. He tapped into a resource (his readers) to get something done.

Essentially, what I've been saying so far is essentially, "here's a business opportunity. How do you make it work?" You have a need. You have resources (lots of people just want to help, not just donate). You just need a plan. There may be financial, legal, logistic requirements and additional legitimate concerns (not just based on intuition) so build a business model that has not been done before, something that is effective and using resources that would otherwise sit there untouched. For those that responded "negatively," honestly, how long did it take for you to come up with your response? It's not easy to build a full business plan. It takes a lot of time and effort. Those that are entrepreneurs/investors/etc would certainly understand this concept. From the start, I was looking at this from a different perspective, not simply a "I just want to help!" mentality. There is a large pool of people that want to just jump right in. By telling them to donate or stay at home instead, that's just leaving a large portion of the resources untouched. They want to do something. Telling them otherwise is rather pointless. So let's capitalize on this situation. The idea is how to fully utilize that group. This is independent of donating or other activities, which I'm not touching at all. We're looking at different levels in the supply chain. It seems everyone has too narrow a perspective on "how to help." Where can this group fit in from raw materials, to manufacturers, to distributors, to vendors, to retailers? Maybe they don't fit in anywhere. But has anyone given this some serious thought?

Jason Kelly essentially created his own niche business model. And it appears to work. I'm sure there are other opportunities.

*Note: I use the term "business" just to convey the concept. I don't literally mean to make a living off this.

[MovingIn07]

nisk - Shi did ask us not to comment but I just cannot hold back any longer. YOU SERIOUSLY THINK THE SOCK IDEA IS A GOOD IDEA? Please stay away from Japan. Your kind of help they don't need.

[reei]

I did sent a link of the facebook. please check it out. some victims did ask for socks. but losing home and loved ones, what is a pair of socks gonna do? i wanted to send a hug, but i can't. so here is a pair of socks for you, please keep your feet warm. - love from Hong Kong.

it is a bit childish to most people, but 24 pairs of socks is what I can afford and posting in the forums that i usually visit.

[nlsk]

I never said it was. But how is it not? Please don't give a response about "he could do this...do that." Fact is, he's there. He's doing something. What can you really say against that? Big or small, he's helping out. For you to sit there and say anything just makes you a complete a$$. What did you do? Donate money? If so, do you now feel entitled to be better than him? Get off your high f*cking horse. Sure Japan doesn't need my help. But the world could do better without people like you.

[shri]

Lets keep the socks to one thread.

[MovingIn07]

I never said it was. But how is it not? Please don't give a response about "he could do this...do that." Fact is, he's there. He's doing something. What can you really say against that? Big or small, he's helping out. For you to sit there and say anything just makes you a complete a$$. What did you do? Donate money? If so, do you now feel entitled to be better than him? Get off your high f*cking horse. Sure Japan doesn't need my help. But the world could do better without people like you.

It can actively cause harm. There is a huge logistical exercise going on in Japan. Add to that, shipping socks (and notes) and then expecting notes back - when perhaps people need not just socks, but hats, jumpers, clothes generally (ALL OF WHICH MAY BE ALREADY AVAILABLE IN JAPAN BUT NEED MONEY TO BUY). It's just a token effort to make some guy feel good (just like yours) without actually focussing on the REAL PROBLEM like the major aid agencies are.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT US. THIS IS NOT ABOUT US FEELING GOOD.

It's about helping people. Support the Red Cross. Give money. Stop support crackpot ideas that distract from the bigger picture.

[shri]

nlsk - the issue is one of logistics. Do you think it would be better to have a couple of containers of socks shipped from China or for an already overloaded postal / logistics system dealing with 1 million individual socks arriving in a location?

Yes, the guy means well, but in my humble opinion, it is a great case of good intentions but little common sense.

Reei - I'm not directing this to you, but the guy who started this bizzare viral effort.