This year, the Social Service Council is expanding their involvement in various charity events. Aside from continuing established projects, including bottle cap collection, onigiri making, morning cafe, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the leaders of this council, Kanako (12), Julia (12), and Reshma (11,) decided to provide members with new opportunities by reaching out to Hands On Tokyo.

With the assistance of students at ASIJ, who were also looking for ways to expand volunteering opportunities to their students, the leaders of this year’s Social Service Council were introduced to the Hands On Tokyo Teen Advisory Board, which helps the representatives of Hands On Tokyo engage high school students in their charity events.

“The Hands On Tokyo Teen Advisory Board was definitely something we were interested in. We didn’t want to simply attend and support the Hands on Tokyo charity events. We decided that it would be a great experience for all of us to actually get involved in the planning of Hands On Tokyo’s many events,” said Kanako (12).

Kanako (12), Julia (12), and Maya (12) received an opportunity to attend the last two meeting of the Advisory Board at the end of  last school year and officially became a part of the organization at the beginning of this school year.

“Being part of the Advisory Board is a refreshing experience that allows us to think about, share, and plan volunteer events by ourselves. Although we do get help with the bigger concepts, including figuring out where an event should be held or what it should be about, we basically get the freedom to figure out the details all on our own. I think we are able to take ownership of the volunteer causes, ” said Julia (12).

Currently, the Advisory Board consists of students from ISSH, ASIJ, SMIS, Seisen, Hiroo Gakuen, and NIS. The members of the Advisory Board meet once a month to discuss ways in which they could involve students from their schools to help raise funds for charities that Hands On Tokyo supports.

“This year, we decided that each school on the Board should host a particular event or project. For example, St.Mary’s volunteered to host a soccer project later in the year. Julia, Maya, and I gathered to discuss what we could do during this school year, and at the next meeting, suggested that ISSH host a charity concert. The Board members agreed to this idea and asked me to be the leader for this event,” said Kanako (12).

On December 13, the Teen Advisory Board successfully held the event that they had planned at the beginning of the year. The performance involved students from ISSH, ASIJ, SMIS, Seisen, Hiroo Gakuen, and NIS and lasted for just over two hours. The acts ranged from dances, to instrumental performances, to vocal performances and reflected the internationality and creativity of the 60 performers.

“Despite the number of obstacles that we had in organizing the event, from picking a plausible date, to overcoming the technical difficulties during the run-through on the day of the performance, the concert ran very smoothly, thanks to the help of the representatives and students from all of the participating schools. We sold a lot of tickets and through concessions managed to raise 146,500 yen  for the Wakabayaro Children’s Home that we supported through this event,” said Kanako (12).

The organizers received positive feedback from students who attended the event. “I thought that it was nice to see performances by people from other schools. It was a great and fun way to raise money for a good cause,” said Enda (12), who came to watch the performance.

Since it is rare for students from five different schools to host a charity event together, this concert became a memorable night for not only the audience, but also the performers. “Although I do get to perform with students from Seisen and ISSH, this was the first time I got to collaborate with performers from other schools, like NIS and ASIJ. I had a wonderful experience meeting and performing with all the high school students,” said James, a junior at SMIS. Shoko, a senior at Seisen, said: “It was great to be back at the Hands On Tokyo Charity Concert again this year, because I have so much fun performing with my a cappella group. And what’s even better: I got to do it for a good cause, and I got to see performances of all the talented students. It was a very rewarding experience.”