Immediately after Japan’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake, there was a huge outpouring of support from organizations worldwide. Over a month later, though, we can’t forget the tragic devastation that the country is still facing. A new charity called Songs of Love for Japan is launching a flash sale over the next three days to remind people that Japan still needs help.
By simultaneously raising money and rewarding you for your donation with new music, the people behind SOLFJ (a play-on the term solfège, the word for the scale of syllables Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do) banded together to make a difference by giving you two ways to help out: buy a limited $20 compilation album or a full $100 compilation album. 100% of net proceeds are going to ShelterBox, an organization committed to delivering emergency shelters and equipment to afflicted families. For every $1000 raised, SOLFJ and ShelterBox will deliver a tent, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a toolkit, a children’s activity pack, and other essential items to families who lost everything in the March earthquake.
$100, or even $20, might seem like a lot, but think about the money you spent over the weekend. Friday night, you probably went out with some friends. Your happy hour drink was $5, your entrée was $10, and the movie, popcorn, and Coke were another $20. Saturday you filled up your car with a $50 tank of gas, then drove your friends to the mall where you dropped $60 on a new swimsuit and $5 on one of those delicious sugar cookies that you can only find in mall food courts. While I appreciate your diligence in single-handedly fixing our economy, you are also now $150 in the hole that you could have put toward a more rewarding cause.
I’ve got a different plan for you this week. Invite your friends over for a cheap, homemade dinner and watch a movie on TV (might I suggest the early Oscar favorite, Lifetime’s William & Kate). There’s $20 you’ve each saved, and if you have at least four friends, the five of you can put your money toward a SOLFJ album, something clearly more meaningful than a tub of buttery popcorn and a cheesy RomCom, plus be rewarded with a new playlist to listen to all weekend.
The Songs of Love album includes recordings by Sara Bareilles, Josh Ritter, Tori Amos, and Ani DiFranco, among 96 other artists. Over the next three days, you can purchase your album here, and follow the hashtag #SOLFJ on Twitter for updates.
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