{"id":25028,"date":"2012-05-10T00:44:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T04:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=25028"},"modified":"2012-05-10T00:44:23","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T04:44:23","slug":"jetaa-chicagos-bingo-nights-with-japanese-senior-living-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/10\/jetaa-chicagos-bingo-nights-with-japanese-senior-living-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"JETAA Chicago’s Bingo Nights with Japanese Senior Living Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

*************\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JETAA Chicago’s Bingo Nights with Japanese Senior Living Facility<\/strong><\/p>\n

By JETAA Chicago<\/a> Treasurer Thomas Osugi (Hokkaido<\/a>, 2005-07)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I believe that one of the missions of JETAA is to volunteer and to help out the community at large. As much as I love eating sushi and singing karaoke, it’s always great when JETAA Chicago can give back to the community, and I just wanted to say that our alumni here in Chicago have been doing a great job!<\/p>\n

Every month, we regularly help out at a local retirement home called Heiwa Terrace<\/a><\/strong> on the north side of Chicago. This place was created by a group called JASC (Japanese American Service Committee)<\/a><\/strong> whose mission is to help out the Japanese and Japanese-American communities. (I should mention that Heiwa Terrace is HUD-certified and abides by the rules of equal housing opportunity.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>About the event: Bingo is on the third Thursday of every month, and usually a few of us come in and help call out numbers. It’s very regular and short – in a very Japanese fashion, it promptly starts at 7 and ends at 8. When I first started, I was surprised to see so many residents – 20 or so mainly Japanese, Koreans and others, and how passionate they were about the game. There are always prizes to be won, usually very small things such as a cans of green beans, soap, shampoo, picture frames, but the most popular item is toilet paper! During the game, extra volunteers usually chit-chat, walk around and help out those who are hard of hearing. At the end a few minutes before 8, we play for a grand prize which we call “super” bingo. In order to win “super” bingo, players have to match both top and bottom row. If you can imagine, there is a fair amount of tension in the room to see who is the winner.<\/p>\n

Volunteering at Heiwa is great because we get a chance to practice our Japanese, and for us working professionals, it’s right after work and very low stress – unless we miscall numbers (then all bets are off). Afterwards, we usually go out for dinner and catch up.<\/p>\n

Although small, I think having this kind of regular volunteer event is great for alumni and the community and a gives a sense of reason for JETAA. I’m not sure if something like this is available in other cities, but I think it is a good model for local chapters everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

************* JETAA Chicago’s Bingo Nights with Japanese Senior Living Facility By JETAA Chicago Treasurer Thomas Osugi (Hokkaido, 2005-07) I believe that one of the missions of JETAA is to volunteer and to help out the community at large. As much as I love eating sushi and singing karaoke, it’s always great when JETAA Chicago can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[305,15,282,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-outreach","category-jetaa-chapters","category-jet-roi","category-volunteer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t