I was recently featured in a local Tohoku newspaper called the Fukko Kamaishi Shinbun.
Below is the Tyler Foundation’s English translation of the article from January 25, 2012.
Children smile with magic and games Tyler Foundation’s Shine On! Smile Ambassador visits nusry school in Kamaishi City.
Gaetano Totaro – Guy, the Tyler Foundation’s Shine On! Smile Ambassador, provides the opportunity for children to forget their worries through magic and games. On January 17, he visited 82 children and the principal of a nursery school in Kamaishi in Koshi-cho.
Having visited several times already, he is quite a popular guest now. On this visit, he performed a magic show and played games with the children.
One of the activites was a painting exercise in which the children rearranged basic shapes such as a circle, square, into their own image. In addition to being fun, this activity exercises children’s creativity. One of the children named _____(5 years old) drew a picture of himself taking shower by developing his idea from the picture of triangle and circle. He was delighted with the results and said, “I’m happy I could draw well. I also had fun playing with the parachute.”
Through the Tyler Foundation’s Shine On! Smile Ambassador Program, large groups of children are being supported in the Tohoku region. Guy travels through various parts of the Tohoku region on a regular basis visiting places such as shelters and offers performance which helps in psychological recovery.
Guy told us “Smile is the best medicine. I want children to always remember smiling at anytime even in the difficulty of moving forward.”
The foundation is accepting requests from schools and kindergartens who would like to receive a visit.
