Please help us help Japan!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Click the thumbnails above for larger views

Donations are now closed.

Click the "Add to Cart" button to buy a raffle ticket. In the shopping cart checkout, you may change your quantity to buy as many tickets as you like. Click the currency icon at left to calculate estimated price in your currency. Winning non-US buyers are responsible for all customs fees incurred in their country.

Update - Sunday, March 20th, 8:30pm - Here's the winning number...

And the winner IS...

of Gainesville, Virginia! Congratulations on your win, William, and big thanks to EVERYONE who generously helped out with their donations! I just made the last $500 transfer to GlobalGiving today. In total, we brought in $2,640 of aid money, and all of it (minus Paypal's fees) has gone on to help the victims of this disaster. Somewhere in Japan, someone who will never know any of us will be getting blankets, food, and shelter thanks to what we did here. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. And William, we'll get that pipe in the mail tomorrow!

Update - Sunday, March 20th, 7:45pm - Just closed the ticket buying option, so all donations are officially in with 132 tickets sold. Here's a screen cap of the Random Number Generator program open and ready to pick the winner.

Update - Sunday, March 20, 4:15pm - Almost there! A few more ticket sales have been trickling in this afternoon from last minute buyers, so I'm going to leave this open till after dinner tonight, and then pick a winner. So far we have 129 tickets sold! Since the number got a little too much for cutting up names for a drawing, I am instead using fancy technology - A Random Number Generator will pick our winner. Here's a little pic of the two files sitting on my desktop waiting - The list of ticket buyers and the RNG program.

By now, everyone knows about the horrific events in Japan. I just finished this exceptional Ligne Bretagne Oom-Paul and thought I would try to help in some small way by holding a website raffle to raise funds for Japanese aid. One raffle ticket costs $20 - You may buy as many as you like. In fact, PLEASE buy as many as you can afford - Every ticket gets you one entry in the blind drawing, so the more tickets you buy, the greater your odds of winning the pipe above. This Sunday, March 20th, I will pick a name out of a hat from all who bought tickets, and one lucky person will win this $165 grade 4 Oom-Paul, with free shipping and a signed letter testifying the purpose of this charity pipe. I'm not keeping any money from this - ALL money raised will be donated to Global Giving's Japan Fund*, an emergency aid organization devoted to getting usable shelter and basic necessities to the victims on the ground as quickly as possible. I want to help but can't afford to make a significant donation on my own, so I hope this way we as a pipe enthusiast community can come together to pool our donations and give a bigger amount, with one lucky person among us getting a very good deal on a pipe in the process.

I love Japan. I've been a fan of Japanese culture, TV, and cinema since I was a wee lad watching Speed Racer and Starblazers on afternoon TV. A plethora of kaiju movies and anime later, and I'd become more than a little infatuated with the country and the people. I believe very strongly in the willpower, determination, and intelligence of the Japanese people, and I hope everyone reading this will take a little time and send a little money to help them now in their hour of need. Thanks so much!

** A special note to non-smokers/non-pipe people - Your contributions are still needed and welcome! Should you win the pipe and not have a use for it, I am confident that I can connect you with a buyer willing to pay the full $165 retail price of the pipe, so there is a chance you will make back your contribution and more by selling your pipe prize to an enthusiastic buyer. Please don't let, "But I'm not a pipe smoker" keep you from helping out with your donations. Thank you!

Update - March 17th - Raffle donations have been pouring in, thank you all! I had hoped to maybe raise $300-400, and as of today have raised $1,979 (minus Paypal's percentage). This is staggering to me. Please don't let up now, though, as we still have 3 days to go till the winner is randomly chosen, and the aid organizations in Japan need all the cash support they can get. I made our first donation transfer today, since I figured the faster the money could get on the ground there, the better. Here's the receipt. You folks who contributed should be proud, you've helped a lot of people in need who will never even know your names to thank you.

 

 

* Note - I had originally intended to donate the raffle money to the charity Shelterbox. As of March 17th, however, they report they have 468 shelterboxes on the ground in Japan and another 5000 waiting to be deployed. They also have ongoing operations in various other disaster-hit areas around the world, and their donations page specifically states that they cannot take location-specific donations. Since they appear to be well-stocked at present, and the whole point of this raffle was specifically to help Japan, I have instead opted to donate the money to Global Giving's Japan Aid fund. Global Giving serves as a cash disbursement agency directly funding aid organizations on the ground in the disaster zone, including the International Medical Corps and Save the Children.