Charity Akita

Charity Akita

Charity Akita (チャリティ秋田) is a charity fundraising and volunteer organization comprised of ALTs and residents of Akita who strive to create connections between foreign ex-pats and the wider Japanese community. They organize fundraising events for charities, create events to welcome newcomers into Akita prefecture, and seek to work towards grassroots internationalization by forming meaningful relationships.

Board Members

Board members are filled by current members of the JET program. They oversee the function of Charity Akita as a whole.

Year	Executive Director	Deputy Director	Treasurer	Secretary	Social Media Coordinator	Event Coordinator	Community & Charity & Location Liaison
2024-2025	-	-	Stephen Fischer	-	-	-	-
2023-2024	Sophie Korver	Theresia McGrath		Tyron Stewart	Lydia Stuker	Rose Jacques*	Aiya Perrine
Year	Executive Director	Deputy Director	Treasurer	Secretary	Social Media Coordinator	Location Liaison	Community & Charity Liaison
2022-2023	June Kim	Stephen Fischer	Tyron Stewart	Sophie Korver	Theresia McGrath	Aiya Perrine	Crawford Wilson
2021-2022		—	Amy Lin	Erica White		Amanda Lockwood
2020-2021		Anthony Madry
2019-2020			Vincent Hsu	Danie Manos
2018-2019	Peter Hall	Chris Dean	Caty Sullivan			Aki Regan	Asami Jin
Year	Executive Director	Deputy Director	Director of Finance	Secretary	Social Media Manager	Admin. Assistant	Community Liaison
2017-2018	Maeleen Arce	Amber Shamma	Peter Hall	Stephanie Gross*	Derek Bonilla	—	—
2016-2017	Michael Aubrey	Maeleen Arce	Jessica Fareri	Domonique Owens	—	Joey Griggs	Mihoko Kakuta

*Resigned before end of term

Community Representatives

Community Representatives are former ALTs and current Akita residents who work with Charity Akita to provide unique and exciting opportunities for both Foreign Nationals and Japanese Nationals.

Year	English Cafe representative
2022-2023	Yuan Xiaoben (Ben)

Contact

Sign up for the Charity Akita mailing list to get updates about upcoming events and volunteer opportunities or check out the website at charityakita.com.

You can also contact Charity Akita directly at charityakita@gmail.com.

Monthly Events

• English Cafe - Not to be mistaken for English Camp hosted by the Akita Board of Education. English Cafe is hosted by Charity Akita with formal ALTs and Expats to create an opportunity for Japanese nationals to meet with English speakers to create a fun and cohesive environment for learning English and sharing experiences.

Annual Events

• Welcome Party (September)
• Halloween Dance Party (Late October) - CA's largest fundraising event, roughly 200 people descend on Akita City for a night of costumed revelry.
• Christmas Caroling (Mid December) - A relatively recent development, JETs gather in from of Akita station for an afternoon to sing Christmas carols for passersby in the hopes of raising money for a nearby orphanage.
• Appi Ski Trip (February) - Appi Ski Resort in Iwate hosts JETs for a weekend while they show off their skills on the slopes.
• Block Cup (May-June) - An event where all blocks get together to compete and see which block is the best of the four. It is held at the Athletic Park near Akita Airport.
• Akita International Sumo Basho (Late June) - The Akita Community's longest-running event, participants from all around Tohoku (ALTs and Japanese) come together to learn about the rules of sumo and get a chance to battle it out in the ring for a chance at the title of Yokozuna.
• Goodbye Party (July)

Previous Events

• Akita Orientation Tatami Party (Mid August) - The new cats of Akita gather during their first night of orientation for a night of good food and drink, all for a great cause.
• Lake Tazawa Camping (Late September) - Camping out under the stars on the shore of Lake Tazawa is a perennial good time.
• Mid-Year tatami Party (Mid-October) - Same as the orientation tatami party, this one is held in the education center on the first evening of the ALT Skill Development Conference.
• St. Patrick's Day Party - Usually held around St. Patrick's Day. Decorations and costumes are all about the green.

Equipment

To reduce rental costs for the charity events, the following equipment was purchased and is currently owned by all the JETs in Akita. All this equipment was purchased since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (mainly by Wil Lentze) and paid for by the events.

• Charity Akita Event Equipment

Event Procedures

These pages explain how to organise and run the charity events.

• Halloween Party event procedure
• St. Patrick's Day Party event procedure
• Goodbye Party event procedure
• Akita International Sumo Basho event procedure

See Also

• Charity Akita Website
• ALT Charity Groups