While nobody likes a good, steaming plate of lip-smacking meta more than I, there are just a few other issues of import in the world today, not least of which is the ongoing crisis in Japan.
While it is vitally important, in the wake of a major upheaval, to provide the basics to persons afflicted, it is important to remember that, as one rather well-known fellow put it, "Man does not live by bread alone." While filling bellies and covering flesh is paramount, we must also look to ways to rebuild spirits and hopes--and little bits of normalcy--for our brothers and sisters in Nippon.
After our terrible troubles in 2005, the Japanese people, government and companies so generously offered assistance to New Orleans to rebuild, reclaim and renew our city. The people of New Orleans have been responding in kind in the face of the awful calamities that have recently befallen Japan.
As a unified voice, the members of jetaaNOLA, the Japan Club of New Orleans, the Japan Society of New Orleans, the Japanese Garden Foundation of New Orleans, and the Ikebana International Chapter 97, advised by Donna Fraiche, Honorary Consul General of Japan for New Orleans, have established the NOLA Japan Quake Fund. The delivery of these funds is designed to be as strategic as possible, with the lowest possible overhead.
So far, the NOLA Japan Quake Fund has raised over $140,000 in individual and group donations. If you are so inclined, you may donate to the Fund here.
Today, though, I would like to highlight the efforts of the Tipitina's Foundation, who organized the "Instruments A'Comin'" program after Katrina to replace instruments lost in the flood of '05, enabling New Orleans students to get their groove back.
Now, the Foundation has widened the "Instruments" program to provide new instruments and rehearsal spaces for Japanese music students who lost their vital tools and spaces in the earthquake and tsunami.
The first shipment of axes has hit the ground, enabling the Swing Dolphins youth jazz band to tour shelters, lifting the hearts of quake/tsunami victims. This is just the beginning of the Foundation's efforts to bring back the joy of music for those who helped us so much in our worst times.
I know we're all squeaking a bit right now, and lord knows I'm going to be hitting you ruthlessly in a couple of weeks for the Letter Carriers Food Drive, but, if you have a little jingling right now, please consider helping this beautiful campaign.
If you need a reason, here's the Swing Dolphins blowing on their new axes, courtesy of the Foundation: