I rarely go away from my usual weekly postings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays without good reason. Today’s reason for posting is an exceptionally good one.

I’m sure by now that most everyone has heard of the devastating earthquake that has happened in Japan, and of the many aftershocks that have occurred after also in high magnitudes. And we also all know that Blythe, while originating in the USA, has a certain Japanese connection about her. Many in the dolly community have wanted to find a way to help, many in the dolly community have managed to find a way to help.

This image was created by Gaia (Bambina Carabina).

Many people have been putting up raffles of dolls that they own, or raffles for custom packages or reroots. And it’s all for a fantastic cause. There’s been many raffles being held and some have ended very quickly after beginning, so I’ve had trouble keeping up with all of the raffles and auctions that have been happening. Luckily there’s a better way to find out about these great fundraising efforts, through Flickr.

There’s a Flickr group called Dolly Community Unite for Japan and people have been putting information about their own raffles and auctions where the proceeds will be going towards an aide organization that is helping Japan.

Please, please, please consider donating money towards one of the many good raffles currently happening in the dolly community (most tickets seem to be around $5 or $10).

If you’re not interested in buying a raffle ticket, here’s a list of (legitimate) aide organizations that are helping to collect donations for aide efforts:

• Japanese Red Cross
• American Red Cross
• Canadian Red Cross
• Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (American website)
• Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (Canadian website)
• Médecins Sans Frontières (International website)

Please be aware that there are a lot of organizations that are currently taking donations but not all of them will be using that money specifically in Japan. Do your research to see if where your money will end up is where you want it to go and also check before donating that the site you’re donating to is a legitimate organization! Doctors Without Borders is one of the organizations is already in Japan helping (they state on their website that money donation goes to where it’s needed most, and they help in all situations, even ones that are not getting media time).