18 March 2011
Bake Sale to be held in aid of Japanese disaster fund
Photo opportunity: 10am-12noon on Monday, 21st March at Wellcome Trust Building, University of Dundee. Members of Dundee’s Japanese community will hold a bake sale in aid of Japanese Red Cross and other non-profit voluntary groups.
Tayside's Japanese community will next week come together at the University of Dundee to raise funds for their stricken country.
Around 15 Japanese researchers work within the College of Life Sciences at the University and, with the help of family and other Japanese residents of Dundee, they will host a bake sale on Monday to keep the ongoing disaster in people’s minds locally.
Ex-pats have watched on in horror as events thousands of miles away have unfolded, and felt they had to do something to recognise the plight of their homeland. The sale has been co-ordinated by Drs Tetsuya Muramoto, Etsushi Kitamura, and Kei Sakamoto, researchers within the College of Life Sciences.
'We just felt we had to do something given the horrible events of the past week, and people were asking us what they could do to help,' said Dr Muramoto.
'Obviously we’re working at short notice so we felt we should have an event when everyone could come together locally and make a contribution. There are a lot of Japanese researchers at the College of Life Sciences so it made sense to hold it here. This is just the first thing we will be doing to raise money, but we wanted something visible to raise awareness of our fundraising.
'There are lots of other fundraising activities organised by CLS researchers and their families, notably by Mrs Noriko Kobayashi, and Japanese residents of Dundee as well as students and staff at the University.
'Thankfully, we’ve not spoken to anyone here who has lost a family member, but every Japanese person has been affected by what’s happened. We have had a lot of messages of support from our friends here and hopefully the community in Dundee will continue to do what they can to help.'
The bake sale will be held at the atrium of the Wellcome Trust Building, University of Dundee, from 10am on Monday, 21st March. All proceeds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross and other non-profit voluntary groups.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
