27 January 2009
Here are three articles from the Japanese newspapers related to Everest of Apples. You must be able to view PDF documents to open these links.
Article 1, Article 2, Article 3
20 February 2008
Commitee Meeting, February 23rd
The Everest of Apples committee will be meeting on Saturday, February 23rd to make preparations for our spring and summer fundraisers (please see our events page), to consider future projects and to discuss and define our relationship with the Prajwal school in Nepal as this is our last year of funding. Anyone is welcome to attend. Please contact Julia if you are interested in joining the terrific EofA team!
Prajwal Updates
- 1) Quite recently, NEST organized Korean Student exchange programmes. Korean students came to Nepal and worked with students from Prajwal School on a children’s park project. It was a way to exchange the culture and arts of the two countries. This Korean cultural programme went well. Students and parents of Prajwal School enjoyed the exchange. Korean and Nepalese children went around the village and then shared their impressions and feelings through painting. The theme of the painting was a happy village.
2) Pratistha, the former vice principal who is currently doing Post Graduate work in Primary Education in Kathmandu, organized a three day teacher workshop and as a follow up, she observed teachers and has prepared the report.
3) The Prajwal School will announce a teacher training workshop in April to attract potential candidates to teach in the school. The workshop will be offered to youths preferably from disadvantaged groups. This workshop will be targeted at trainee teachers.
4) It is likely that with the increment in student fees, the Prajwal school will be able to break even with the teachers' salary. The salary will also be increased but still it will not be as much as the government scale.
5) There was a parent/teachers meeting and the parents agreed to raise some fees.
6) Prajwal School is starting to support poor families with micro credit. At this time, three families will be supported. This support has come from the ICFON, Netherlands. This project will, metaphorically, give people fishing skills instead of simply giving a fish. In the long term, it is expected that the Prajwal School will help to develop people's capabilities as well as improve the quality of life.
7) Prajwal School is producing bio-gas by using wastes from toilets and urines which is providing fuel for cooking and electricity.
From Purna Kumar Shrestha
Founder and Advisor
Nepal Educational Support Trust (NEST)
23 June 2007
Monster Trivia Quiz Weekend, Lake Towada
Oirase Keiryu Grand Hotel www.oirase-keiryuu.jp
Hello everyone!
I hope you all got back to your repsective prefectures safe, sound, and without too much of a hangover! Thank you all for coming and making Trivia Weekend a huge success - thanks to your generosity, it looks like we have well and truly exceeded our fund-raising target! More about this later...
First of all, there are many, many people that I would like to thank for working so hard to bring the event to you. People kept coming up and thanking me for putting the weekend together, but I was honestly just the front-man. An event on this scale simply wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the dedication of the following folk:
The Suppliers - Especially David, who gave up three precious weekends to get us on to the air force base and buy a ridiculous amount of booze and prize hamper goodies. Without David, Sabastian, Carl, and Ben, the entire weekend would have been, frankly, impossible. Thank you boys - not only for giving us your time and energy, but also for showing an ignorant Aussie how to work the free salsa and chips table at that Mexican place. You're right - chicken chimichangas are amazing!
The Transporters - Thank you to Jody, Marti, Erin Sandstrom, and JP for loading up their cars to breaking point with all the drinks for the weekend and driving up to 4 hours return on a school night to deliver everything to the hotel in the week before the event.
The Chefs - Natalia, Maribel, Chris, Abidemi, Jason, Dan, Teri, Allison, Brian, Kazuko and Rumiko for cleaning, chopping, cooking, and packing all the food for the BBQ. From slicing up steaks, to roasting veggies for the couscous, to mixing up the falafels, and stirring those massive pots of lamb stew - you were all amazing! A special thank you to Brian, Teri and Allison for staying up (literally) all night to reduce the stew and make sure it came out perfectly. A special apology to Jason for accusing him of screwing up the Dal Bhat, when it was my fault all along. In future, I promise to always check which jar is salt, and which is sugar. And bless you Natalia for offering up those chickpeas to save the day. Kelly - the bruschetta was terrific - thank you for bringing it along!
The Shuttlers - Jody, Teri, Brian, Allison, Rumiko, Lois, Ryan, and Dee for being relentlessly cheerful despite being at the ferry terminal at 6:30 a.m. to pick up the Hokkaido folk. Considering how little sleep most of you got the night before, I would have expected grumbling and whining, but as usual, you amaze me with your grace and good cheer.
The Hardware - What would we have done without Lois and her electronic timekeeper, or Natalia and the projector pinched from the school? Thank you both - and please pass on my thanks to your teachers and sports club!
The Volunteers on the day - There were so many of you who weren't even registered to help out, but you did so whenever you saw that a hand was needed. I can't name you all, because many of you pitched in, then disappeared before I could say thanks. So a big thank you to all of you. I know it's cheesy, but I get a lump in my throat (not cheese) when I think of how fortunate Aomori is to have you all.
The Sponsors - The Australian Meat and Livestock Association were responsible for the beef and lamb at the event. Tengu supplied us with the pita, falafels, couscous, and the lentils for Dal, so if you feel like letting them know how much it was appreciated, feel free to email me and I'll pass everything on to Rob at the MLA and Laurie at Tengu Natural Foods. Tengu also has a shopping catalogue for organic goodies. I have a few copies left, so if you would like one, please send me your address and I'll pop one in the post, or check them out at www.alishan-organic-center.com! The Oirase Keiryu Grand Hotel let us run riot at a heavily reduced cost, so any business you send in their direction will be much appreciated - as you saw, it's a beautiful part of the world, and if any of your friends are looking for somewhere to visit in Aomori, they could do worse than Lake Towada and Oirase.
The Technicians - Dan, JP, and Gregory for helping us with everything from Lighting Issues to Powerpoint Crises. Thank you for saving our sanity!
The Partner in Crime - Finally, the biggest Thank You goes to Julia Beale, the girl with a heart bigger than Texas. From the very first days of planning for the event, Julia was the perfect Trivia-Partner-In-Crime. Mate, you're a legend - thank you so much for doing all the million thankless tasks that no one ever hears about. You should have had been given a much fairer share of the glory and kudos, but never complained once about other people (me) stealing your thunder. We all love you and think you kick ass. Seriously. Even when you forget to take your contact lenses out and look like your eyes are bleeding with pain (laser surgery, mate. It's the way to go).
The final scores for the evening were (from a possible 98):
Ainu Yo Momma - 55
Rub Shack - 53
White Piece of Paper - 49
Easy as ABC (The Nuns) - 47
Tsugaru Rocks - 44
Biodome in the Backyard - 43
Robinson's Cru-Yo! - 41 (who knows how they would have scored if they had submitted the answers to the last round!)
Ainu More than U - 40
Roud and Rowdy - 38
Shimokittens - 33
Beer Me Up Scotties - 32
Wise Without Sobriety - 28 (I reckon John should have been given a bonus 10 points for his egg-hatching routine though).
The Bagpipes and Rabu My Ringo rounded out the total with 25 points each.
The three winning teams, being the absolute Champions that they are, all donated their winnings back to Everest of Apples to put towards the children of Prajwal. Thank you all - you're making a huge, and very concrete difference to an entire community in Nepal. Which brings us to the question of "How much did we raise?"
I haven't finalized the accounts yet, but my rough estimate tells me that ***DRUM ROLL PLEASE*** thanks to your generosity, we have come close to doubling our fundraising target for this event! We were hoping to make somewhere between 25-350,000 yen from this event to put towards the nest egg that Everest of Apples will supply for the final year of our 5-year project to make the Prajwal School a self-supporting entity. With your purchases of T-Shirts, Silent Auction items, extra drinks(!), and general donations, it looks like we will just about go over the 500,000 yen mark!!!! This is terrific news, and means that we can be confident of providing a decent safety net for the school as they take their steps toward complete independence! Please give yourselves a huge hug and pat on the back. Every one of you is amazing. I'm so grateful that you were all willing to sacrifice your liver in the name of the less fortunate!
Very sincerely, thanks to all of you who brought such good vibes and great attitude. You all were so positive and cool - it really was great to have such good energy going on! I was parochial enough to think that Aomori had a monopoly on awesome JETs, but I admit I was wrong - it was brilliant to meet so many like-minded souls. For all of you who brought along your Japanese mates, please pass on my thanks to them too! I would love to have any pictures that capture the mood of the event, so if you have any to send along, please email them. Anything from BBQing, to jumping in the lake, to cycling the gorge, and of course the quiz and the recovery are welcome (and wanted). BBQ pics in particular are welcome - we want our sponsors to see how happy they made everyone!
Finally, on a personal note, I can't describe how it felt to receive the album from Erin and everyone else who contributed. Thank you simply doesn't cut it. Erin, you said that I've done things for you, but what you did was 10 times that. You gave me the last 5 years of my life in pictures and words, and I'll never be able to tell you how much that means to me. The names, faces, people, and places that have come to mean so much to me are all there, and I feel overwhelmed when I look through the album, so carefully and lovingly put together. Thank you. I'm the luckiest person in the world to know you all. You remind me, once again, that the world is full of beautiful souls if you know where to look.
Love,
Melanie
21 April 2007
Everest of Apples Aomori Casino Night, Hachinohe.
Thanks to all those that came to Casino Night in Hachinohe on 21st April and condolences to those that couldn’t make it due to early Golden Week commitments.
The Hachinohe Grand Hotel was the perfect venue to set the mood, everyone looked fabulous in their frocks and suits as they supped on bubbly and nibbled on nibblies.
The grand total has yet to be finalised but it is over JPN¥140,000. Well done everybody!
Special thanks to Toby, Becky, Anna, Jason, Julia, Jody, Ryan, Kevin, Mark M, Joel, Yumiko H and Lois. Sorry if I have left you off!
Hope to see you all at Trivia Night!
Kathryn.
7 April 2007
Everest of Apples Aomori Futsal Tournament.
On Saturday 7th April 2007, Everest of Apples hosted the 3rd Annual EofA Futsal Tournament at the Aoimori Arena in Aomori-shi. We want to give our sincere thanks to everyone who participated and helped out. Through your efforts, we were able to raise ¥151000 for the Prajwal School. Really great job!
There were about 150 people who came out to the event on 15 formidable futsal teams. The field was strong causing many capable teams, such as those representing Aomori ALTs (Mr. Miyagi's Karate Clan, Team GK, and プレーアーズ) to fall to the weighside. Through many exhilarating wins and heartrending losses, the field was gradually narrowed to two teams, 青森中央学院大学A (Aomori Chuuougakuindaigaku A) and Akita North. The battle will go down in the ages but Akita North eventually claimed the title becoming the 3rd Annual Everest of Apples Futsal Tournament Champions. Pictures from the tournament are posted at www.picasaweb.google.com/eofa.futsal.
Later that night, we drowned our sorrows and celebrated our victories (in the tournament for Team GK, in life for the rest of us) at "Snake Pit" as graciously set up by Ryan and Nat. It was a great time and a fun venue . . . from what I remember and what people can tell me. ;-)
We especially want to thank the following volunteers who gave up their time and energy to keep this rambling wreck on-schedule, organized, informative, and making money:
- ♦ Mandy Wang
- ♦ Sara Naguib
- ♦ Erin Sandstrom
- ♦ Digira Baidya
- ♦ Kathryn Harris
- ♦ Karina Pearce
- ♦ Jody Buhay
- ♦ Kendall Deichen
- ♦ Yumiko Hayashi
- ♦ Dan Mahashin
- ♦ Melanie Surry
Until next year, Otsukaresama!
Greg Moore
Reece Brown
Ex-EofA Futsal Tournament Co-organizers
P.S. if you have pictures that you can submit, please email them to eofa.futsal@gmail.com.
19 March 2007
Everest of Apples Aomori St. Patrick’s Day, Hirosaki
As a great man once said "There's nothing like an open bar and a bit of dancing to raise money for Nepalese children."
I think that great man was St. Patrick himself.
In fact I'm sure of that.
You can quote me.
Thanks to everyone who came kitted out in green for making the night a great success. After all the 100 yen coins have been counted, I can tell you our beer-fueled banter raised over 100,000yen for Everest of Apples. That will go towards furthering the education of some inspirational kids, you can sit back and feel good about that for a while.
Apologies for forgetting to do the best dressed competition, the green fungus that adorned my chin that night sapped all my grey matter. I can now tell you that the best dressed was....and you understand when I say best dressed I in fact mean most ridiculously dressed, as in the person who looked most like they were beaten with the paddywhackery stick by Enya, that person was none other than the girl who called in an airstrike of diddly-eye, Claire Brown. Her prize is the knowledge that I have never seen anything a leprechaun-like in all my year, and I used to work in a tourist shop in Dublin that sold leprechaun themed tack.
Also much thanks to Dan Mahashin, who donated his winnings from the 50/50 to Everest of Apples without a second thought.
Also thanks to all those from outside the JET community who came and made the night a great success. It was great to meet you all and we hope to see you at an Everest of Apples event in the future.
A chairde go raibh mile mile maith agaibh (Friends thanks a million)
Kevin Byrne
30 November 2006
Everest of Apples Aomori Talent Show & Slave Auction, Hirosaki
Thanks for a fantastic Mid-year seminar and for everybody who came out and supported EofA at this year’s Talent Show/Slave Auction. It was a knock-out!
Especially big thanks are in order and rightly so to those who got onstage to display their talents, sell themselves, or stood out in the audience shouting numbers. Special thanks also go out to all who jumped in to help at the bar and those who helped set up and clean up, there were too many to name. Mika, Leo, and Matt for their help on the sound. JP for pulling a fast one to fill in as MC along with Nat and Kev. Mel, Kev, Joel and Nat for somehow convincing Courtney that they were worth 10man. Courtney for seeing them for what they are collectively really worth, 10man. Ryan for the keg, bartending and the sheet dance. That guy from CLAIR for missing a U2 concert to attend. And to Dan for putting so much of the night together!
The Talent Show/Slave Auction ended up raising 484,773 Yen (after deductions!!!), and 30000Yen of that was from the Slave Auction! That's amazing!
For EofA this really has been a big year of redefining our role as a charity, defining goals, and establishing better communication with the Prajwal School in addition to planning events. That said, it's great to know that so many people support the work that the committee (with our fearless leader Granny Smity aka Nat and accountant Dan) has put in. It's really rewarding when so many people come out, have fun and help make events like this such a success. I hope that you all had a fantastic time. Enjoy your slaves. Well done!
Julia Beale & Dan Mahashin
28 October 2006
Everest of Apples Aomori Halloween Bash, Misawa
Thank you to all who came out (not Greg Moore) and supported Everest of Apples Halloween Bash 2006! It was such a huge success, it appears to be on the agenda next year.
In all, t-shirts, donations, nomihoudai and single drink orders, EofA raised 10.2 man... that's 102,000 yens!! Thanks for helping us meet our fundraising goal!
Next up is the best party of the year... the mid-year seminar. Come and join in the talent show and slave auction and get really drunk!!
Rock on,
Ryan Castle
16-17 September 2006
Everest of Apples Dinner and Information Night, Ajigasawa
On Saturday 16th September 2006, Everest of Apples Aomori held its first event for the 2006-7 JET year, a Dinner and Information Night at Ajigasawa Camping Park, Ajigasawa (http://www.ajigasawa.net.pref.aomori.jp/page/shisetu/ryokoumura.html).
This event was not a fundraiser but rather aimed at giving the newbies (and whoever else was interested) a chance to find out more about our Aomori JET charity org (our plans for the year, the Prajwal School, trips to Nepal) while at the same time learn a little about Nepal and Nepalese culture.
Thanks to a wonderful combo of awesome people, delish food, cosy cabins and funky tunes it was an all-round fantastic night and rip-snortin' good time...
Highlights of the night include the dinner itself, Nepalese-style dal bhat, spicy chickpeas and rice, accompanied by loads of beautifully fresh organic veggies and Lois’ handmade cakes for desert and Dan’s presentation on Nepal and the Prajwal School.
To everyone who came along, a HUGE domo arigatou gozaimasu!! I hope you all had as much fun as I did and found out all you wanted to about Nepal, the Prajwal School and our little grassroots charity org, Everest of Apples.
Also, a million thanks to everyone who helped to make it so fab - you are all worth your weight in gold!! I couldn't have done it without you. Really.
Natalia Manidis
