How to Help Japanese Children

Emily, who lives on an American military base in Japan, wrote to tell me about Operation Backpack. 

It sounds like a wonderful project to do with our children.  Find a new or gently used backpack, and fill it with items listed by Misawa Girl Scouts, the girl scout troupe on the base.  To see the list, click on the title of this post, or copy this...http://www.misawagirlscouts.org/1/post/2011/03/first-post.html 

I will ask my son if he wants to fill a backpack for a girl or a boy.  He can help pick one out.  He can read the list and help choose the items.

If you are mailing the backpack from the United States, use the United States Postal Service and this address:

Misawa Girl Scouts
attn: Jessica Payne
Unit 5027
APO, AP 96319

Emily's blog is called Acte Gratuite, http://actegratuit.blogspot.com/  You can visit to find out how her area and her family have been affected by the earthquake and the tsunami, and how she is trying to help her neighbors by reading her recent posts.

These beautiful poems and drawings are from a vintage book, "Little Pictures of Japan," first published in 1925.  It is edited by Olive Beaupre Miller, with pictures by Katherine Sturges.