Today, I need to use my blog voice for a more important message than desserts or recipes.
More important than chocolate?!?
Yes, yes. Some things are. Hard to believe, but it’s true.
I grew up in Japan.
The Japanese culture greatly impacted my life. My babysitter, my father’s sweet secretary, the 100-year-old sensei (teacher) from whom I learned origami… these people helped shape who I am today.
As a whole, the Japanese are some of the kindest, most well-mannered people you’d ever want to meet. So their current situation is heartbreaking. I just keep thinking, “Why did it have to happen to such wonderful people?” (Not that I wouldn’t think the same thing if the devastation occurred elsewhere. You don’t want something like that to happen anywhere.)
Every time I watch or read about what’s going on in Japan, I feel useless. I’ve already donated money, but I’m nowhere near as wealthy as Britney Spears (who reportedly gave millions to the country). Isn’t there another way I can help? Then I realized…
Duh, Katie! Your blog!
I have a voice… but what good is having a voice if you don’t use it to help? So that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to use my blog to ask y’all to help me help them. I know a lot of you feel exactly as I do: “I’ve already given money. What else can I do?” What else can you do?
You can eat!
We are food bloggers (and readers), after all. 
.
“Help Japan” Blogger Bake Sale
On Tuesday, April 5th, I’ll host a blogger bake sale to benefit the Red Cross. If you’ve never participated in a blog bake sale before, here’s a little about how it works: bloggers (or readers) offer to donate a food item (just like in a regular bake sale) and people will bid on these items. The highest bidders will make a donation to red cross (more on how to do this later), and the baker will ship the actual food to the winner.
Ways you can help:
- Donate a vegan baked good
- Bid on a baked good, during the virtual bake sale (April 5th)
What do you think?
If you’d like to donate a baked good, please send me an email with the name of the food, a photo, and where you’ll be willing to ship, by this Saturday (April 2nd). (Also, because this is a vegan blog, all items must be vegan. They don’t need to actually be baked, though. Raw treats are welcome!)
I’ll donate something too: These Fudge Babies.
Just wanted to let you know how awesome I think this is. I can only imagine how much work is going to go into putting this whole thing together, emailing people and linking and keeping up with the bids. You are a SWEETHEART for doing this!
The world needs more people like you.
I will be telling everyone I know, both in the blogworld and in real life. I only wish I had a twitter account, but I CAN post to my facebook wall :).
Seconded!
You rock! Thanks for using your blog voice! And I would love to donate an item. Will be sending you an email a little later. 🙂
Great idea!! I love your blog!
Blessings, Debra
Raw Vegan Diet
Great idea! I cook but don’t bake, so while I can’t donate a baked item, I sure can bid on some 😉 And I will. I’ll also tweet this out.
Thank you SO SO much for tweeting, JL! Seriously, it means so much to me that there are sweet people in the world like you who care enough to spread the word!
I’ll be bidding for sure! So excited to see all the vegan goodies :).
What a great idea! I may be sending you an e-mail with my baked treats, if not i’ll try and bid!
I love this idea. I’m going to donate a batch of vegan fudge.
YUM! Just got your email!
Fudge? Want!
It really is hard not to feel useless, even for those of us who were here in Japan during the quake itself. Knowing your connections to the country I figured you’d have something brewing, and I am glad you decided to use your voice to do something to help out Japan. The bake sale is a fantastic idea! I doubt that I will be able to participate myself due to the expense of shipping to/from Japan, but I will be cheering from the sidelines and spreading the word.
If it’s okay, I’d like to add a link to this from my blog, where I’ve written a bit about my own experiences with the whole quake situation.
Oh Maya, that would be wonderful. I can’t even imagine how much harder it must be to see the devastation first-hand (or at least be so close to it) and not be able to do anything about it :(.
Thankfully, Tokyo was not directly affected by the damage. We got quite a shaking, and there was mass confusion directly afterwards as millions of people tried to get home with no public transportation running, but that was the worst of it from the earthquake itself.
Things are still very bizarre here three weeks on due to the power shortages and ongoing problems with the nuclear power plant. Trains are still running reduced schedules, targeted panic buying means certain things are hard to get (last week it was bread and milk, this week it’s been bottled water and toilet paper), and many of us are suffering from vertigo from the aftershocks (if you haven’t seen it yet check this out: http://www.japanquakemap.com/).
But no one seems to mind the inconveniences too much. There is a vey palpable sense of thankfulness for getting off so easily and genuine concern for what is happening up north. Every store has donation boxes & dimmed lighting, and I think everyone here is determined to do what we can to get through this together. It’s pretty amazing, really…
Sorry for rambling on at you about this.. but it’s been all we’ve been living and breathing for the last three weeks! 🙁
Katie great idea – I’m glad you are using your blog in this way! I’m sure you’ll have a great assortment of treats. I can’t wait to bid!
Thank you for doing this! I’ve also wished I could do more than donate. I look forward to the bake sale!