Disaster Relief Aid from Riverside

1. Assistance from Riverside

1) Heart-warming Message

Sendai City received a heart-warming message from Mayor Loveridge right after the big earthquake that occurred two days before the Great East Japan Earthquake. Mayor Loveridge kindly called Sendai City Hall on March 14th to show his support for afflicted people in Sendai as Sendai’s oldest sister city.

2) Sendai Relief Fund

The City of Riverside launched Sendai Relief Fund and called for monetary donations on the City’s website and at various locations around Riverside. An enormous amount of money from many organizations, businesses, individuals, the City of Riverside and Riverside County, were collected.

3) Charity Activity Carried Out by Riverside Fire Fighters

The City of Riverside Fire Department collected donations through a Charity Event called “Fill the boot for Sendai.” Fire fighters held a boot in one hand and stood at various locations around Riverside asking for donations for Sendai.

Photo1 - A Riverside firefigher asking for monetary donations
Photo2 - Poster for the "Fill the boot for Sendai"
(Both images are from the City of Riverside Offical Website.)

4) Riverside Mayor’s visit to Sendai and Monetary Donation

Mayor Loveridge and Riverside delegates visited Sendai. They visited City Hall on May 5th to see Mayor Okuyama and gave the donation collected through the “Sendai Relief Fund” and various charity events held in Riverside. The money will go to the Sendai Social Welfare Council and will be used for their disaster relief activities such as operation of the disaster volunteer centers. They also visited a refuge area in Wakabayashi Ward which was one of the worst tsunami afflicted areas and encouraged the people there.

5)Additional Monetary Donation (Added on 12.07.2011)

The eight members of the Today's Urban Renewal Network(TURN) which greatly contributed towards the Sendai Relief Fund activities in Riverside, visited City Hall on September 14th to see Vice Mayor Inaba and gave the additional monetary donation. The money went to the Sendai Social Welfare Council as was the money Riverside donated in May.

6) Receiving additional relief funds (Updated December 25, 2012)

Mr. Lalit Acharya, International Officer of the City of Riverside, and an instructor and two students from the University of California, Riverside, visited City Hall on December 17th, 2012. During their visit, the representatives from Riverside handed Mayor Okuyama a check for the amount of the Sendai Relief Fund collected after September 2011. These funds, as well as those received last year, were donated to the Sendai Social Welfare Council.

2. Other Assistance

1) Charity Event at UCR

Approxima電話y 60 students and locals organized a charity event held from March 28 to April 1 at the University of California, Riverside. The 1,000 Origami Cranes’ project and charity bazaar took place as the charity events. They taught all the people who donated money how to make an origami crane. Decorative origami paper balls and candles engraved with Kanji (Chinese characters) were displayed at the charity venue. All the money and messages collected at the event were sent to Sendai.

2) Benefit Concert

A benefit concert presented by various groups including the International Council of Riverside (IRC) was held on April 1. The Riverside Kingsmen, of Kings High School performed and all the admission fees were donated to Sendai.

3) Messages from School Children

Sendai city has received many generous messages from school children in Riverside and its neighboring cities. Most of them have been sent to schools in Sendai through Sendai City Board of Education and some of them are displayed in the lobby of Sendai City Hall.

• Japanese
• Riverside (U.S.A)
• Sendai Relief Fund( External link )

You can view the Message from Mayor Loveridge here:

• Message (original in English) (PDF:266KB)
• Message (translated into Japanese) (PDF:10KB)