Although the Marshall Fire is no longer on the front page, many families and businesses that were impacted are still dealing with the losses they incurred and rebuilding their lives. We have some amazing JASC corporate members who operate in that area.

Misaki @ Superior sustained smoke damage to their restaurant and are busy working to reopen. We’ll be sure to let you know when they reopen so we can all support them by eating delicious food! (Someone’s got to do this type of delectable community support work…)

Trailhead Wealth Management is located in Louisville and luckily their staff, families and facilities were unharmed. They have a wonderful list of resources for those who are looking to donate money, time or items to those who were affected. Please check it out.

Montbell USA continues to support Marshall Fire victims through their Outdoor Gientai program and have now hosted two donations events handing out clothing and outdoor gear to those who needed it.

Check out our JASC Kaiwa Club Shinnenkai on ice this past Saturday! Thank you to all who came out for this fun day of sliding across the ice (not always on our feet) and speaking 日本語. The weather was perfect and the views were beautiful at Evergreen Lake. JASC is alternating between online Kaiwa Club (Japanese Conversation Club) sessions and in-person outdoor adventures. Bring your Japanese skills and join us online and/ or outside for our next one! JASC is a community because of our members! Thank you for being a part of it!

Hello and Happy New Year! あけましておめでとうございます！今年も宜しくお願い致します。I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the incredible support you have provided to Japan America Society of Colorado during these past two difficult years. It seems just when we think things are getting back to "normal", we back-step yet again.

Over the course of the next few weeks (months?) we plan to be a little extra cautious with in-person meetings and events until our understanding of the latest wave of Covid is a bit better. Kaiwa Club is planning a fun 新年会 outing to go ice skating - hopefully a nice, safe, outdoor activity. Kaiwa Club itself will alternate meeting on Zoom and meeting in-person.

At least ten of our member families were affected by the fires in Louisville and Superior being displaced by evacuation. Having checked in with each of them, they all appear to have had their homes spared and their families are safe. One of our dear friends and loyal volunteers has lost her home and we are in touch and ready to help if needed. We have since learned of two other Japanese families who have lost homes and we are also in touch with them and ready to help once they know more about their needs. This community of Japan America Society of Colorado is very special. Whether it is connections for your business or your family, the network of resources we have is vast and I truly thank each and every one of you for being here with us.

I have been looking through our online Membership Directory in recent days and noticed many of you have updated your profiles with photos, business cards, descriptions of services, and more interesting facts to help us get to know you better. I love learning more about you all! If you have not done so, I encourage you to login and update your own profile. It really is wonderful to see the wide range of people that we have within our small yet mighty 日米協会。

I plan to continue our "Member Spotlights" this year. If you haven't been already and you'd like to volunteer to be featured, please reach out to me! I will focus on highlighting our member companies this year, along with new members as they join.

We are working on quite a few events for 2022 and hopefully by March we'll be rolling with some new and interesting topics that allow you to learn and connect. As always, if you have a program idea that you'd like to share or help launch, please reach out! Our organization is as strong as our members.

Sincerely,

Claudine Locascio
Executive Director