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Featured Committee: Kansai - Community Service Committee

ACCJ Kansai - Community Service Committee

The Committee aims to actively pursue corporate social responsibility (CSR) through various local business organizations closely associated with American, Japanese, and other international companies. We organize charity and community development events sponsored by the ACCJ in Kansai and focus on two major charity events, "ACCJ-K.I.S.S. (KISS) Charity Concert" and "ACCJ Kansai Walk-A-Thon."

The 5th Annual ACCJ-KISS Charity Concert was held on February 24, 2013 and KISS's President Marie Kuyumgyan, a student of Canadian Academy, wrote the following review.


Review: 5th Annual ACCJ-KISS Charity Concert, February 24, 2013

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) - K.I.S.S. (Kansai International School Service) concert on Sunday, February 24, was a huge success with over 300 people in attendance. We raised money through ticket and food sales with proceeds benefiting the Kodomo-no-ie, an orphanage in Amagasaki, and the Child Chemo House, a non-profit organization that aims to establish a home-like hospital which children undergoing chemotherapy can spend quality time with their families.

We couldn't have done this without the help of all the KISS members, generous sponsors, especially Eli Lilly our premium sponsor, and our wonderful advisors. There were a lot of people working behind-the-scenes, and although their involvement might not have been visible to outsiders, this concert could not have functioned as smoothly as it had without them.

This year, we had both professional and community performers at the concert that performed a wide range of acts. We also had a professional Canadian Academy (CA) alumni jazz singer, Geila Zilkha, along with guitarist Shunji Takenaka; Sho Amano, a professional vocalist and bassist; and Takashi Shimamoto, a CA parent who is a professional jazz instrumentalist. All their performances were original and beautiful. We also had numerous performances by CA students, such as Interlude, the Elementary School Ensemble, and the CA Swag Bags! The CA performances were all greatly received by the audience and made a fantastic addition to our concert.

I had the pleasure of being the KISS President this year and was privileged enough to work with a dedicated and generous group of individuals. They were all very passionate about helping to raise money for our two main beneficiaries. Just watching them all work with delight touched me and all the other leaders of KISS. It was wonderful to see students from different grades, who don't usually talk to each other, come together and become one team to accomplish a task. I have been helping out with the ACCJ-KISS concert for three years now, but this was the very first year that I felt that all the audience members and volunteers that came were all very passionate about what we were doing and wanted to help out as much as possible. Just seeing everybody's willingness to help, made us (the leaders of KISS) want to do more and give back to the community.

We've learned a lot from this experience.

By: K.I.S.S. President and Canadian Academy student Marie Kuyumgyan


Kansai - Community Service Committee
Kojiro Dan, Chair
Kirsten Welbes, Vice-Chair