Introducing a Support Project for People in Disaster Areas by Snow Sports Athletes

Abstract

    In the afternoon on Friday, March 11^th, 2011, the giant tsunami caused by a massive earthquake attacked cities and towns that were located along the shore of the North-Eastern part of Honshu Island. The tsunami destroyed those cities completely and took more than about twenty thousand people’ s lives. After that day, almost all sports competitions and events were cancelled for a couple of months in Japan. Although they quickly made the decisions, the Japanese sports societies could not find out what they should do as a next step for the people who had the miserable damages.
    However, snow sports athletes made a plan to support the people after the earthquake quickly, and they carried it out. The project was named the “I LOVE SNOW/ One’ s Hands Project” . They collected over sixty thousand items which include ski jackets and pants, gloves, knit caps, blankets, and so on, for one week from all over Japan, and visited the regions to provide those items for the people directly.
    The purpose of this study was to introduce the project with detailed information on the factors that made the project successful.