CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) invites you to join the 500 Frogs project by hand painting a resin frog for the children of Tohoku, Japan. Pick up your frog at CRS, decorate it at home (realistically or fantastically, whatever your heart desires) , and return it to us by Feb 28. You can color it with permanent markers or paint with oils or acrylics, or even glue on glitter. Just make your frog as beautiful as possible, as it is destined to become someone’s best friend and source of comfort in an extremely difficult time.We will coat them with a clear sealer to protect your decoration through the years and display them in the CRS lobby through the 3/11 anniversary before sending them on to the children of Japan.
NOTE: There is a $5 charge to cover the cost of shipping the frogs to Japan.
As you know, on March 11, 2011, the country of Japan was hit by a powerful magnitude 9 earthquake, followed by a tremendous tsunami and nuclear disaster. Lots of money has been raised to help the massive recovery efforts, but money is not all that is needed. Approximately 100,000 children were displaced (according to Save the Children estimates), and more than 100 orphaned. Many of these children have been forced into crowded new schools in strange towns, separated from their friends and familiar comforts of home. How can we help these children?
This is the question that launched the 500 Frogs project. At Resins by Randy in California, a small resin cast frog was being produced by artist Randy Buckler and his wife Deb for various local fund raising groups.They had about 100 of these little frogs in inventory. They asked artists and sculptors to help paint these frogs and envisioned them being given to the children of Japan as a token of their love. Within hours the entire inventory of 100 frogs was spoken for and by the next day, over 400 more had been reserved. Artists, churches, 4-H groups, schools, people from every corner of the world wanted to paint a frog for a child who survived this disaster. We understand that the project has been wildly popular and that orders are still coming in all the time. For more info, please visit 500frogs.com.
Why frogs? Twenty-seven species of frog are found in Japan. Due to an agricultural economy based on the flooded rice paddy, the presence of frogs is considered to bring good fortune. Additionally, the frog has become a creature much beloved in poetry and art. Ceramic frogs are often sold at shrines as the Japanese word for ‘frog’ is the same as ‘to return.’ Kaeru also can mean “incubation” or “change.” Not all of these children will get to return home, but all of them have been facing and continue to face change. It is our sincere intention to provide them with a beautiful companion and symbol of the world’s love to comfort and support them during this time of change so that whenever they feel afraid they can remember that they are love and that even in amidst such turbulence, miracles are everywhere.