Santa Delivery 2023

We are Santa Delivery, formerly known as We Love Tohoku.

This year our Santa Delivery program is doing something very exciting. We will be visiting the Ukrainian embassy to visit refugees that came to Japan from their war-stricken country. We are hoping for around 200 people to come to the event.

We are also planning on other places to visit in the Tokyo area and we will spend 2- 3 days in Tohoku.

To make this event happen, we are needing your help. This is our 7th year of doing Santa Delivery. Santa Delivery relies on the support of our community. Please help and support us.

In March of 2016 we did a charity event “Tohoku Charity Run” which consisted of one team member, Ryoichi, running from Camp Fuji to Misawa stopping at each US and Japanese Military Facilities to thank them for their support in Operation Tomodachi. Ervin road his bike and trailer to support him and Rika road in the car to support both. We raised money to buy sports equipment for an orphanage in Sendai, Kodomo no Mura Tohoku (Children’s Village Tohoku) and documented the destruction and rebuilding of Tohoku. Rika and Ervin fell in love with this area and started Santa Delivery that following Christmas. We have been going back to this area every year since except in 2020 due to Covid-19.

This is our 7th year of doing Santa Delivery. In the past years, we handed out over 3000 goodie bags and handmade Christmas cards to children and elderly for a week. We visit elderly homes, orphanages, children’s hospital including Ronald McDonald house, Preschool and Kindergartens, temporary houses and so many other places. Each year on the way to Tohoku, we have a Christmas party for the Children’s Village Tohoku.

Due to the continuance of Covid-19, we will only go for three days and visit around 25 establishments. Santa and his crew will deliver the goodie bags and cards to the door and wait outside for the people to see them and take photos.

We are still working on our schedule and will post it on our Facebook group page once it is finalized.

This project is a community supported event. Every year volunteers help organize, collect, and prepare the goodie bags and Christmas Cards.

We are planning on delivering 2000 goodie bags and cards this year. Here is what we need to make this event successful. Updated Nov 28th.

* Yen/Dollar for logistics (We have ¥18,000)

* Funds for supporting the trip. Funds will be used for gas, toll roads, supplies etc.

- Gas ¥104,000 (2,500 km)

- Tolls ¥40,000

- Hotel ¥98,000 (For volunteers)

- Supplies ¥30,000

* Individual wrapped candies such as Halloween or Christmas candies. We have 250 completed.

X (Completed We have over 300) Candy Canes

X (Completed) Senbei Crackers. Crackers are used for the elderly

X (Completed) Christmas Cake for 80 people.

X (Completed) Hand Made Christmas Cards. Here are the guidelines. * Keep it simple * Drawing a picture is good * Simple English words: Merry Christmas, We care, Good luck, Fight! etc. * If in envelope, don't seal it. We need to see them prior to giving to them. * If you want to use simple Japanese word: good luck がんばって keep spirits high げんきでね fight!ファイト

****Please have your child write their 1st name,age and city,state they live or from.

We request to have them to us by Dec 1st if possible. Dec 8th at the latest. We appreciate any and all that we can get. Please contact usfor how we can receive them.

For more information and to stay updated to our event, please join our Facebook group.

https://facebook.com/groups/welovetohoku

We really appreciate your help and support to lift the spirits of these people and to bring them some good memories.

Ervin and Rika Lawrence

YouTube promotional video.

Santa Delivery with NHK news NHK spent 2 days in 2019 and documented our trip. https://youtu.be/YeZn47OFAww

Santa Delivery 2018 JP - YouTube

Here is what we did in the past. December 2016 - 2022: Santa Delivery For 3-8 days, Santa went to various temporary houses, children's homes, orphanages and retirement homes to bring some Christmas Cheer. We delivered almost 3000 good bags, tea gifts and hand made Christmas Cards to the people in Tohoku.

Tohoku Charity Run 2016

March 2016: On March 11th 2011 at 1446, the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan struck in the Tohoku area causing a 40.5 meter high tsunami killing almost 16,000 people. It also caused the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor meltdown. Operation Tomodachi was formed and implemented almost immediately. Over 24,000 US servicemen and women helped Japan as it struggled during this triple diaster. Almost all US bases in Japan was involved somehow with the operation. In March, 2016, Ryoichi ran over 1100 km in 17 days while visiting 7 US bases and 4 Japanese bases which included having a ceremony at Camp Sendai for the 5th anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake. Ervin Lawrence supported him by riding his bike and carrying all the supplies needed to be successful. Our mission was to visit as many bases we can that was involved with Operation Tomodachi and say thanks for their contributions to support the effort of restoring the Tohoku area. Ryoichi Sekiya ran over 1100 km over a course of 17 days to thank them for their support. Ervin Lawrence ride a bike with a trailer and support him buy carrying his food, water and other supplies. We also raised over $6000 to buy Tohoku Children's Village sports equipment such as basketball goals, soccer goals, ping pong tables, bicycles and so much more.

Ervin Lawrence