Not-for-profit organization NY de Volunteer (www.NYdeVolunteer.org) Annual Report 2010

1. Annual Report
FY2010
(January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2010)
NY de Volunteer
10K5, 601 West 110th Street, New York, NY 10025 USA
Tel: 212-932-7208 Fax: 212-678-5365
www.NYdeVolunteer.org staff@nydevolunteer.org
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2. Table of Content
P.3 From Our Executive Director
P.4 Overview of NY de Volunteer and Mission Philosophy
P.5 FY2010 – List of Activities
P.6 Top News of 2010
・Volunteer Appreciation Award
・Coverage in Humanity Column of Asahi Shimbun
・Coverage by a Local New York Paper – Our Time Press
P.8 Main Activities of 2010
・Explore Japanese Culture: After-School Program on Japanese Cultural Exchange
・Japan Day in Central Park
・Happy Hour Fundraiser
・Lectures in Japan by Our Executive Director
・Paper Lantern Ceremony for 9.11 Victims
・Clean Up New York: Japan-US Beautification Program
・Japanese Spa Day: Community Volunteering through Beauty
P.13 Our Volunteers
P.14 List of Our Donors for 2010 (January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2010)
P.15 Accountant’s Report
Our newsletters were published twice a year, and from 2011 our newsletters will be
published at our blog (http://ameblo.jp/nydvnoriko/) to inform everybody of our activities
sooner.
Our blogs will have a URL on the bi-monthly e-mail newsletter. Separately, we will send an
annual report once every year.
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3. From Our Executive Director
We are continuously grateful to everybody’s support for NY de Volunteer (NYdV).
Please find herewith our annual report for FY2010.
Year 2010 marks the 7th anniversary of NYdV and its activities, and this past year was a year of
many good news. In June, we were graced with the Volunteer Appreciation Award, which is given to
organizations of New York City that make substantial contributions through their volunteer activities,
and our contribution by Explore Japanese Culture (EJC), which is our afterschool program on
Japanese cultural exchange for inner city children of New York City, was well received. Additionally, a
major newspaper in Japan, Asahi Shimbun, covered a story on us in their “Hito (Humanity)” column
of their international edition, and our activities were reported overseas to the people of Japan.
With the global recession since 2008 still looming, 2010 was too a difficult year for NYdV. EJC is a
regular program that is held every year, but due to budget cuts from serious finance issues of New
York City, our program that was scheduled for October could not be performed in the year 2010 during
the new school year that began in September. EJC is the only foreign culture exchange and
development program among the official afterschool programs of New York City, and because the
popularity of this program grew year on year and the number of participating schools had also grown
in number, we truly regret the cancellation of this program for 2010, particularly after this program
received the Volunteer Appreciation Award two years standing in 2010 and 2011.
This program not only provides a pathway to immerse in Japanese culture, this program provides
children who are less fortunate, who grew up in small communities with limited opportunities, and
who have almost no opportunities to see the other parts of the world, to take a step out into the broader
world. We are very frustrated when we think for the children who must lose this opportunity just
because of tight budget problems of New York City.
What must we do now in this state? What should be the activities of our organization going forward?
There are many issues ahead of us that we must seriously manage today.
On embarking in a new year, we welcome comments and feedback from everybody, and we will
continue to make more efforts to develop as an organization and make more contributions for the
people.
We thank you again for your generous support and your confidence in our activities.
NY de Volunteer
Executive Director
Noriko Hino
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4. Overview of NY de Volunteer
NY de Volunteer is a non-profit organization that began its activities in 2002, and was granted a
501(c)(3) status (tax exemption) from the IRS in 2003.
Organization (as of December 31, 2010)
Founder & Executive Director: Noriko Hino
Honorary Director: Naoko Taniguchi
Members
Directors: Andrew Meehan
Takeharu Kato "The Overseas Safety Council" of the Japanese
Carl Taeusch Consulate of New York
Takahisa Juba "Japanese Medical Support Network" of the
Kazumi Terada
Paul Golin Japanese Medical Society of America
Founder & Executive Director: Noriko Hino “Alliance for Business Professional Services”
Advisors: 5
Staff: 28
Contact Information
601 West 110th Street #10K5, New York, NY 10025 USA
Tel: 212-932-7208 Fax: 212-678-5365
E-mail: staff@nydevolunteer.org
URL: http://www.nydevolunteer.org
Mission Philosophy
NYdV was consummated by an experience that the founder, Noriko Hino, had during her first visit to
Coney Island in 1994. Our founder was disheartened by the garbage strewn around the beaches, and
when she was picking up the garbage alone, one by one, others joined her to clean up the garbage. This
one experience gave her the confidence that many share her feelings, and although one person’s
contribution is minimal, when people join hands, the contribution become great, and this led to the
founding of NYdV to share this experience and the great feeling with as many people as possible.
Since the founding of this organization, the principle policy is “to promote activities that anybody
can freely join and through which things can be learned and great feelings shared.” Furthermore, we
gained many participants, coordinated and collaborated with corporations and volunteer organizations
to make contributions to society, and we promote volunteering through opportunities including
lectures to which we are invited.
In a large city like New York, which is a cultural melting pot, our activities bridge differences in
social status that come from race and age and bring people together, bring people to understand one
another, and build a society where people can cohabitate with others well and with hope. Specifically,
Explore Japanese Culture (EJC), which is a program that introduces Japanese culture to local children,
and Japanese annual lantern boat memorial ceremony for 9.11 victims, and make-up and beauty event
at seniors home are some of the volunteering events that we run annually for many years in New York
as a Japanese volunteers organization to promote cross cultural sharing between Japan and America.
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5. FY2010 – List of Activities
Date Program
Jan 6th to Feb 3rd Explore Japanese Culture After School Program (EJC)
Jackie Robinson Recreation Center (Manhattan)
Jan 15th to Apr 23rd EJC Red Hook Recreation Center (Brooklyn)
Feb 17th to Apr 21st EJC St. James Recreation Center (Bronx)
Apr 9th to Jun 18th EJC Herbert Vonking Cultural Arts Recreation Center (Brooklyn)
Apr 28th to Jun 16th EJC Sorrentino Recreation Center (Queens)
Jun 6th Japan Day in Central Park
Jun 8th Happy Hour Fundraiser
Aug 31st Lecture by Our Executive Director Noriko Hino in Ibaraki, Osaka, Tokyo
Sep 2nd to 4th “Lecture by an active NPO pioneer in Japan and New York”
Sep 11th Paper Lantern Ceremony for 9.11 Victims – A volunteering event
Oct 23rd to 24th Clean Up NY – Japan-US Beautification Program
Nov 10th EJC Event: Japanese culture for children
Thomas Jefferson Recreation Center
Nov 13th NYdV Salon: Lecture by Honorary Director Naoko Taniguchi
“Lesson learned from a pioneer with 30 years of experience”
Dec 4th Japanese Spa Day
Media Coverage
Asahi Shimbun Humanity Column, Page 2, June 8, 2010 Edition
“Gathering Japanese Volunteers in New York”
Our Time Press Page 1, Vol 15, June 20-26, 2010 Edition
Job Labo No 62, November 26, 2010 2010 Edition
“Gathering Japanese Volunteers in New York”
NY Seikatsu Page 4, December 11, 2010 Edition
“Community Service through Beautification”
US Weekly Biz Page 16, Dec 18, 2010 Edition
“Beautification Community Service to Seniors Home”
Results for 2010
Volunteers: 353 (total)
Mailing list subscribers: 1,746 (1,335 Japanese and 411 English subscribers)
Website hits: 1,161,021 hits
Beneficiaries total: 7,000
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6. Top News of 2010
＊ Volunteer Appreciation Award
On June 3, 2010, NYdV received a Volunteer Appreciation Award from the City of New York. Our
activities for Explore Japanese Culture After School Program (EJC), which has been running for three
years since 2007, received praise. EJC is the only long-running cultural exchange program in New
York City. It is a very innovative educational program, and each year almost 500 volunteers and
Japanese cultural specialists volunteer in its operations. The City noted our results including how we
realized spontaneous cultural exchange between the US and Japan.
At the awards ceremony that was held on the
same day, sponsored by New York City
Department of Parks & Recreation, we received
praise from New York City members on our
activities to date and excitement towards our
future activities, and furthermore we received
congratulatory remarks from many other
concerned parties.
＊ Coverage by Asahi Shimbun
International Edition
Our executive director, Noriko Hino, was
interviewed for the “Hito (Humanity)” column on
page two of Asahi Shimbun of June 8, 2010
(international edition). This article told the story
of how our executive director came to start
volunteering, recent activities, and receiving the
Volunteer Appreciation Award. The picture that
was selected was one from when the volunteers are working in the office. The impact of this article
was tremendous, and we continue to receive inquiries from Japan and elsewhere about our activities.
＊ Coverage by a Local New York Paper
On May 14, 2010, we held our first EJC Ikebana (Japanese floral arrangement) event at Herbert
Von King Cultural Arts Recreation Center in Brooklyn with the support of Ikebana International New
York Chapter #7. All children who attended this event experienced Ikebana for the first time in their
lives, and both the boys and girls were seriously involved in creating arrangements and the final
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7. artworks were very impressive.
A local New York newspaper, “Our Time Press,” was at this event to cover this EJC program. He
interviewed our Executive Director, and also tried some arrangements with the children. The activities
at this event were covered in Volume 15 of its June 20-26, 2010 edition with large images. For a local
paper to cover this event was a wonderful opportunity for NYdV as we were able to teach both parents
of children and adults in the area about how amazing a cultural exchange can be.
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8. Main Activities of 2010
＊ Explore Japanese Culture: After-School Program on Japanese
Cultural Exchange
“After-School Program: Explore Japanese Culture! (EJC)” is one of the main activities of NYdV. In
this after-school program, Japanese culture is introduced to the local children at a recreation center of
New York City. The objective of this program is to open the minds of the children of New York
through contact with foreign culture, and educate the children to become global citizens. In this
program, the children are of ages 6 to 13, and this program is comprised of seven or eight classes and
each class covers a different theme, which can range from Japanese language, Japanese games,
Japanese food, Japanese martial arts, Japanese tea ceremony, Japanese lifestyle and culture, and
Japanese dance.
In our activities for 2010, we held programs
at four sites during January to June. Activities
are held across the boroughs of New York City,
and we met with many children and shared fun
times with them. By the request of New York
City, we had to add two more sites to our initial
program plan, which doubled our program days
from once to twice weekly, and consequently we
became very busy, but, with help from many
volunteers at each site, we were able to
complete all days of each program.
Meanwhile, activities from the new school term in September were cancelled due to budget cuts that
did away with the after-school program, caused by the difficult finances of the City of New York. As a
result, no activities will begin this October, and we were unable to re-start this program in 2010.
However, in this downtime, we were unable to hold our regular activity, but we instead held a one-day
only event, “Japanese culture immersion for Children,” at Thomas Jefferson Recreation Center in East
Harlem on November 10th, because we wanted as many children as possible to experience this
program.
In addition, even during this period when this program is suspended, we continue to be in contact
with the person in charge at the City of New York and have been requesting that this program be
reinstated. As a result, this program will be started at two sites from February of 2011.
To Our EJC Partners
The following partners volunteered their time at each site as a specialist on Japanese culture, performed
for our children, and provided materials and food for our activities. We are grateful for their services.
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9. Music Cobu, Taiko Masara, Carl Taeusch, Karaoke Champ
Sports Ken Zen Dojo
Ikebana Ikebana International New York Chapter#7
Calligraphy Mrs. Shizuka Snyder
Japanese food Sunrise Mart, Mr. Masaki Nakayama, Mr. Yasukazu Seto
Japanese magic toys Mrs. Yoshiko Gonai
Japanimation Studio Pierro
＊ Japan Day in Central Park
On June 6, 2010, we held Japan Day, which
is an event to teach Japanese culture, in
Central Park of Manhattan, which marks the
fourth consecutive volunteering event since
Japan Day began in 2007. It was a hot summer
day, and 2010 was the 150th anniversary of
the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between
the Unites States of American and the Empire
of Japan and many events were held from very early in the morning with attendance by many. NYdV
gave a simple self-introduction in Japanese and worked as volunteers and staffs for this event.
＊ Happy Hour Fundraiser
On June 8, 2010, we held an event to
support the activities of NYdV at a Karaoke
bar, Top Tunes, in Midtown East and called
this Happy Hour Fundraiser. For this event,
NYdV staffs worked as staffs of Top Tunes,
and all tips were donated to NYdV. Almost
100 different nationalities from many
industries and age range attended this event.
We also had a raffle, and people were having a very good time comingling.
Because the plan is to put the tips from this day toward the funds for EJC activities and operations,
we introduced the activities of EJC to the people who came to this event, and when we explained that
20 dollars allows one child to benefit from the EJC program, everybody voiced their support for the
EJC program, which led us to raise almost 2,300 dollars.
Your donations are very valuable, particularly during a financially trying time of today. We will put
your donations carefully to our EJC activities, which will start again in February of 2011.
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10. ＊ Lectures in Japan by Our Executive Director
From August 31st to September 4th, 2010, our Executive Director gave a keynote address at
seminars and symposiums on “Pioneering the NPO industry in Japan and New York” at three sites
spanning Ibaraki, Osaka, and Tokyo, at the invitation of Palette, a special purpose NPO.
At the symposium “Build a Happy! Relationship for Everybody to Bring Out Everybody’s
Potential,” the daily activities and mission of NYdV were presented from the standpoint of how to
grow an organization through building relationships with supports of activities, and how to utilize
personnel and reach out to volunteers. Furthermore, at the seminar “Strategic Community Service to
Touch People’s Hearts: Studying Social Marketing,” we presented how we engage in new business
models by citing our Happy Hour Fundraiser as an example, where a company collaborated with a
NPO to tie social contributions to the core business of this company to build social value in this
business collaboration, through this Karaoke program of EJC, which is a business collaboration with
Karaoke Champ, and held at a Karaoke bar.
In addition, a director of NYdV, Paul Golin, also participated as a panel member, and presented his
views on the disparity between activities by NPO’s in Japan versus the US.
The audience at all sites was excited, and opinions were actively engaged with many participants
during Q&A’s and group discussions after the lectures. This allowed us to see new viewpoints and
notice what we hadn’t in the past, which served us well.
＊ Paper Lantern Ceremony for 9.11 Victims
In remembrance of the victims of 9.11 from 9 years ago, we held a
Japanese spiritual ceremony of sending candle-lit paper lanterns
down a river in remembrance of the 9.11 Victims, to pray for peace
in the world beyond all borders. This annual event by NYdV marked
its 9th year. The weather was cool and the sky clear, and over 60
volunteers helped.
The volunteers built 108 paper lanterns, and called for people to
put their message on the paper lantern. The messages expressing
their mourning were written in many languages from English,
Japanese, to Arabic, and reflected the prayers, wishes, and hopes of
everybody.
Some participants of this ceremony have attended every year to
mourn for their loved ones who were lost to the event. After nine
years, people are still afraid of another event like 9.11, but this is an
important event for us to mourn for the victims and pray for a world
without war and peace, and NYdV will continue to hold this event
every year.
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11. ＊ Clean Up New York – Japan-US Beautification Program
“Japan Beautification Collective” was founded in November, 1993, as a collective of people
wanting to learn about the philosophy of cleaning by Hidesaburo Kagiyama, founder of Yellow Hat,
and this Collective held “Collective to Learn from New York Clean-Up (Shiogai Group CEO Hisashi
Shiogai),” which is a beautification event at public sites of New York, now in its 8th year, held over
two days at a weekend of October 23th and
24th, 2010.
In addition to the eight participants from
Japan (Shiogai Group, NIHONKIKAKU,
Kanaken employees), from New York City,
the participants were us, NYdV, and
approximately 30 staffs of New York Gomi
Dai-Sakusen and Gommunication, which
engage in environmental issues, beautification
activities, and volunteering activities on a
daily basis, and we together worked hard with
the local children to clean public toilets.
Some feedback from participants on the days were “It was fun to volunteer not only with the
Japanese but with Americans through cleaning public areas,” “It was fun and felt wonderful to work
on one thing together with everybody,” and “After the cleaning was finished, I felt mentally cleaned
myself too.”
＊ Japanese Spa Day – A Community Service Beauty Event
On Saturday, December 4, 2010, we held Japanese Spa day at Isabella Nursing Home in northern
Manhattan, as a community service event of beauty services. Japanese Spa Day is a popular annual
event that we have been holding since 2004, and this year we had 40 volunteers which included
make-up professionals, and services from make-up, hair styling, manicure, hand massage to photo
shoots were provided to more than 100 senior citizens. In the morning, we held a make-up workshop
with cooperation from make-up artist Yoshie Nezu and her professional hair and make-up staffs at
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12. Bridal Doll, and the staffs and volunteers learned the basics of make-up and the tricks of applying
make-up to seniors.
The staffs at Isabella Nursing Home taught us how to use the wheelchairs, and in the afternoon all
volunteers changed into yukata, a traditional Japanese summer kimono, and the seniors at this home
came into the room one by one, just when the room was dressed up in a gorgeous mood. The seniors
received make-up and manicure services at their choosing, and were teary, telling us “It has been too
long since I had been this pretty” and “The hand massage feels so good.”
We required cosmetics in great quantity for this day, and Shiseido, Estee Lauder, Pola, Nars, and
other brands donated products to us in large quantities, which made for a luxurious make-up event.
This event doubled as a cultural exchange event. The band UZUHI, singer and songwriter Mai
Kawamura, and pianist TSUBASA performed traditional Japanese songs and original songs,
international soprano Asako Tamura performed Ave Maria and other pieces with Gohei Nishikawa on
piano, and the audience gave a big applause.
Images from the day of this event were published in Shukan NY Seikatsu, page 4, in their December
11, 2010 edition under “Beauty – Community Volunteering in NY through Beauty.”
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13. Our Volunteers
Michiyo Akiba (Pictured at center, Volunteer Staff)
Michiyo has been central to EJC activities for over 2.5 years, ever since she came to America in
2007 when her husband was transferred for work, and is a pillar of our EJC program. In Japan,
Michiyo worked as a teacher at an elementary school and school for the disabled, and she is more
devoted to children and education than many teachers we know. In the EJC program, she handled
almost all areas of this program, from planning, preparation of materials, to leading our volunteers.
Michiyo is kind to everybody, and many say that her company is a blessing and she is an uplifting
person. But she returned to Japan in June of 2010, and we were saddened when she had to go. Michiyo
is vocal about her desire to be always involved in work that concerns children. NYdV supports
Michiyo’s efforts, and will build upon the platform that Michiyo helped create for EJC.
Mayuko Koike (Pictured at right, Volunteer Staff)
Mayuko is a project facilitator and MC for our EJC program, and children adore her and call her by
her nickname, Mayu. Mayuko moved to New York in the summer of 2009. Soon thereafter, she joined
the EJC program in 2010 and helped us in many ways from her first year in this program. Mayuko
spent her middle and high school
years in America and is therefore
proficient in English, and previously
had taught English to children in
Japan. She took advantage of here
previous experience and brought new
value-add’s to this program and had
the children enjoy (Japanese) culture
from new viewpoints. Also, Mayuko
is a fine illustrator and her adorable
illustrations were very helpful for the
children to learn Japanese Kanji
characters and numbers. Activities of
the EJC program is “a place that lifts my spirits!” says Mayuko. We look forward to making the EJC
activities more fun, together with our energetic and positively minded Mayuko.
Our volunteers (alphabetical order):
Chiaki Kaneko, Chie Evans, Chikako Tarner, Hiroko Kawai, Hiroko Anderson, Hitomi Nakamura, Kana Ishii,
Kenji Nakano, Maki Yanagimoto, Marc Carroll, Mari Konno, Masami Kokubo, Mayuko Koike, Midori Mashiko,
Michiyo Akiba, Mika Kuroda, Noriko Okubo, Ryoko Matsumoto, Sachie Miyashita, Shizuka Kamaga, Tomoe,
Hands,Toshiko, Nakaura, Yasuo Kuroha, Yoko Okamura, Yumemi Kuriyama, Yukari Sasaki, Yurika Mizuno
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14. Our Donors - Thank You!
Activities of NYdV are made possible by the generosity of our donors to whom we are always thankful.
$20,000 or more
The United States-Japan Foundation
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
$3,000 to 19,999
The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership
$1,000 to 2,999
Clean Tech Shiogai Tokyo K.K.
Chizuko T. Korn
Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc.
Johnman U.S.A., Inc. DBA Karaoke champ
Metzger-Price Fund, Inc.
Naoko Taniguchi
R2 Systems, Inc. DBA at New York
Sumitomo Corporation of America Foundation $1 to 99
Kazuma Morita
ZBI Employee Allocated Gift Fund Michiko Terasaki
Hirokazu Ishige
ARUMA, Inc.
$500 to 999 Atsushi Tatsuoka
Paul Golin Kevin & Tomoe Hands
LAW OFFICE OF KEIKO KATO
Arc Media, Inc. Maiko Kawamura
EXROYAL CO., INC. Michael Y. Chung
Minoru Minamida
Funahashi International, Inc. Mitsuo Hirai
The Japanese Medical Society of America Inc. Ohashi & Horn LLP
Riki Ito
The Ripplewood Foundation, Inc. Toshiko O. Nakaura
Suntory International Corp. Satomi Kitahara Yoshio & Mary Ito
Jun Kojima Hiro Matsumoto
Tabata Oxford Personnel LLC Yuichiro Kuwama Ryoko Matsumoto
Takahisa Juba Fumi Matsuki Advanced Wealth Solutions Group, LLC.
Akihito Sunami
Akiko Mikumo Ayako Sakurai
$300 to 499 Shigeki & Yumiko Nakanishi I.E. PROJECT INC.
Carl Taeusch Toshiko Sakane Nora Kohri
Nobuko Sakurai Yoko Fukuda
Chie Kobayashi Katsuya Araki
Miho Fujimura Hiroshi Sasaki Masaharu Isogai
Masahiko & Nadine Kasuga Hidetoshi Shiokawa Mugiko McCutcheon
Zofia Stankiewicz Risa Nakayama
Midori Mashiko Koh Tanaka Tatsuma Kasama
The Mitsui USA Foundation Kazumi Terada
Masao Katagami
Umi Yokota
Sachiko Uozumi Yurika Mizuno Golin
$100 - 299 Kazutaka Yamada Choux Factory Inc.
Julie Azuma Takeshi Yamaguchi COSME PROUD USA, INC.
Misayoshi Ebato Mike Chung
Yoshinobu & Maki Yanagimoto Mizuho Oka
Kumiko Fox Isabella Geriatric Center, Inc. Stann Nakazono
Yukiyo Funabashi Judo Karate Center, Inc. Yoko Sugano
Kaoriko Katayama Midtown Planning Corp. Yuko Nishida
Hiroyuki & Mitsuko Kawashima Eizo Nakatsukasa
NNB Enterprises Inc. Kenji Nakano
Eddie Kim PASONA NA, INC. Mick McGovern
Nobuaki Kinjo THE NEW YORK GO CENTER Yukari Sasaki
TOBARI NEW YORK, INC.
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