TPS's Activity Report
- Date:
- One day in April
- Location:
- At Jonathan's house (one of the core members)
- Participants:
- 7 core members, 4 high school students who have agreed with the activities, our parents and TPS supporters
- Subject:
- Meeting on WIT and deciding the team name!
Today we had a meeting about WIT, which stands for "Whatever It Takes".
When the core members got together to investigate charity groups and organisations in the world from the past, we heard about WIT, which started in London, UK. We were strongly impressed by the group and its idea.
Let us briefly explain about WIT...
WIT is a charity campaign which was established by the British organisation called 21st Century Leaders (UK charity group registration no:1061376).
WIT's mechanism is that they license and commercialise artworks that celebrities, including the Royal Family, Nobel Peace Prize winners, actors, musicians, and athletes, have drawn for free. The loyalties will be donated to charity organisations, which help to alleviate poverty, help with environmental conservation and child protection.
About 700 eminent well-known celebrities, including George Clooney, Daniel Craig in 007, Nicole Kidman, Giorgio Armani, Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney, are on the list of this campaign.
"Can we start activities in Japan like WIT?"
"By creating a Japanese version of WIT, we also want to send our ideas to the world!"
As we were inspired by WIT, those thoughts began to arise.
First, what can we do to achieve that?
What do we need?
All of us gathered to exchange ideas and opinions on following weekends.
This time, some adults, including our parents and their acquaintances that listened to our story and expressed agreement to our activities, also participated in our discussion.
How about the team name, proposal creation and sponsors?
That day, we brainstormed ideas to help with the issues of our world.
We discussed the team name that is comparable to "Whatever It Takes".
Next, we thought we needed a logo. When we looked at a mineral water bottle which had a campaign product of WIT, our eyes were caught by the hand logo.
Well, a logo... First, let's create a logo!
So, we began to brainstorm with some pens and paper.
When we told some adult supporters about these images, one of them, who was a designer, agreed to help us create a logo!
When the artwork was drawn, what kind of great products should we advertise on? We were thinking more and more about that...
- Chewing gum (bottle type)
- Skateboards
- Sports drinks, coffee, juice, energy drinks (something like Red Bull)
- Bracelets
- PC or tablet covers, etc.
Then, who do you want to ask to draw the logo
Akihiro Miwa, Masayoshi Son, Prime Minister Abe and his wife, Hayao Miyazaki in Studio Ghibli and Takeshi Kitano
Mao Asada, Yuitsuru Hanyu, Keisuke Honda, Ichiro, Shigeru Mizuki, Monkey Punch, Taiyo Matsumoto, etc.
As we got more and more the ideas, our dream began to grow.
- Eventually, we would like to found a company through this activity and spread our products through the world.
At first, we want to share our profits to children in developing countries. Then we will eventually have the children become shareholders so that they can regularly receive some profit, because we learned at school that some adults are forcing children to work as slaves in developing countries. - We'd also love to interview charity groups around the world.
We would be able to deliver that on YouTube...…
On this day, everyone had a lot of opinions and ideas about what we were going to do. We did our best to gather and write them down.
The newly established "TPS" has taken a solid first step by getting adults involved.
- Team name: "TPS: Teenage Peace Seekers"
- Our logo represents teenagers all over the world holding their hands around the earth.
- We began persuading school officials and parents so as to obtain the consent to the activities.
- We decided to choose Japanese celebrity candidates and get appointments with them with the help of the parents and other adults around us. We wanted to visit the candidates and ask for their consensus, and then make an arrangement to get some artwork.
- The international schools start their summer vacation in late June. Some members who will stay in Thailand and Hawaii should try to spread the ideas of this project and invite comrades and supporters in each place.
Our parents and adult supporters also helped us gather and consider which of our ideas were realistic goals. We think we can move even further from the previous meeting.