This is a huge, heartfelt “thank you” to Oak Harbor residents. We are a group of Navy spouses, most of us Japanese. With family stuck in Japan for health and monitary reasons, we felt very frustrated about what our country, friends and relatives were experiencing.

We decided to try to help from our American home in Oak Harbor and raise money to help Japan rebuild and recover.

The last few weeks, we’ve hosted yard sales and bake sales and have learned something new: the people of Oak Harbor are extremely generous and compassionate.

Many people stopped to talk to us about Japan, many of them having been stationed there with fond memories. Some just stopped to ask us if our friends and family were okay. We received some extremely generous donations all of which we’ve donated to the Red Cross.

We wanted to say thank you to the residents of Oak Harbor for their generosity and for helping us feel like we’ve helped somehow, despite us being so far from our country.

Oak Harbor, Domo Arigatou!

Jessica Wilson-McFarlane
Oak Harbor