"One day after the earthquake, Lisa Thomas replied to my tweet on Twitter," said Suzuki. "At that point we don't know each other-and I tweeted in Japanese so I don't know how she found me and replied, but Lisa and I had some conversations about earthquake after that. She has been very anxious about this earthquake and offered me to help ifthere were anything she could do."
A few days later Suzuki found out that tap water around nuclear plants was polluted by radiation and that while the levels of radiation were not thought to be that harmful for adults, he had serious concerns about procuring safe drinking water for his three-year-old child who officials said tap water might be unsafe for.
"People rushed to buy up bottled water and it was immediately sold out," said Suzuki. "Water in vending machines was sold out, water in the supermarket was sold out, it was literally nowhere. And I didn't have enough water stock for my three year old kid because it was too late when I noticed it.
So I contacted Lisa on Twitter and told the situation. I didn't expect any solution at that point but just wanted to tell her what happened in Japan, since she wanted to know it. Then, she told me to tell her the shipping address so that she could send water through cannedwater4kids.com, but as I myself wasn't financially damaged by the earthquake, I ordered 24-pack canned water by myself."
Upon receiving the order from Suzuki, CannedWater4kids founder and president Greg Stromberg wanted to help. Stromberg said shipping on the single case of water Suzuki ordered cost $103 to ship to Japan, so he got in contact with Lisa Thomas to provided some donations to help with the shipping cost.
CannedWater4kids is currently partnering with WaterCharity.org to try to get more water to Japan.
"We want it to go to children in need," said Stromberg. "Second Harvest works with the poor, homeless and orphanages in Japan. I don't know how the heck we will get it there, but I know will find the donations to make it happen."
