Tim Roesner is a "super" HOT volunteer. Since he began volunteering through Merrill Lynch, Tim has given back more than 36 hours to the Tokyo Community through HOT and set an outstanding example for his co-workers.

Tim was born to volunteer. As a child his parents, both college professors, instilled in him and his six siblings the value of community service. During summer as a young boy Tim worked on the migrant children's program to help newly immigrated children adjust to life in the U.S. He was also active in 4H through which he came to learn about Japan as his family hosted three different Japanese students through the program. He has now lived in Tokyo for eleven years, one as a student at Sophia University.

In high school Tim was a leader in Junior Civitan, a service organization with an emphasis on good citizenship, leadership development and aiding people with mental and physical disabilities. In Junior Civitan Tim worked with Special Olympics and attended national conferences to learn more about leadership and service. Through HOT Tim is pleased to have been able to renew his relationship with Special Olympics.

During college, Tim continued to be active in community service activities.  As community service chairman of fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha, Tim helped organize projects working with the disabled, the elderly, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. His fraternity performed over 2,000 hours of community service during the year he was in charge and received the Greek award for the top community service program. 

Tim says his philosophy toward community service is simple. "I believe that every day I have the opportunity to help others and make a difference in someone's life.  Most of the activities I do adhere to that philosophy.  By having access to HOT and the great project coordinators, I have an organization that helps channel my energy to those that can really use my help.  It's a really powerful organization, that I'm very happy to work with."

Volunteer leaders like Tim help make Hands On Tokyo the growing, dynamic organization we are. Thank you, Tim, for showing all of us how to make a difference in our community every day.

Rie Kaneko had been teaching English to blind adults for two years but felt her students were missing something just interacting with her. Most students had never traveled abroad and could not practice English easily by watching movies or making friends with foreigners in Japan. She was searching for a way to introduce the world to her students when she stumbled on an article about HOT in Tokyo Families magazine. That was the start of a two-year partnership with HOT that has grown into two projects where volunteers teach English conversation to the blind.

Today Rie is both teacher and HOT project coordinator for the English Conversation for Blind Adults project. One Saturday a month four volunteers meet with Rie's class and talk about themselves, share stories and enjoy getting to know the students. Rie says the sessions have made her students much more motivated to study English because they want to converse freely with the volunteers. "The HOT volunteers are bringing so much excitement and richness to my students' lives", says Rie. "I wish I could show you the awe on their faces when they touched the 'locks' of an African-American lady volunteer for the first time, or the big grins when I explained a volunteer's eyes are blue and his hair is light brown!" The classes are equally as enriching for the volunteers and the experiences they bring back have made this one of HOT's most popular projects.

Through working with Rie and her students, HOT developed a close relationship with the Japan Federation for the Blind. From that sprang the International Festival for the Blind at the 2008 Day of Service.

HOT's newest project with the visually impaired--English Conversation for Blind High Schoolers--began in April in partnership with the National School for the Blind Affiliated with Tsukuba University. Each session HOT volunteers introduce themselves to students from the school's International Exchange Club in simple English talking about how long they have been in Japan, hobbies, profession. Then the students ask questions and practice basic-to- intermediate-level conversation. This project is open to all native English-speaking or near fluent volunteers aged 15 and above.

English Conversation with Blind Adults
June 6 (Sat) 9:45-12:00PM
(For ages 10 and up)

To volunteer for any project, e-mail us at: info@handsontokyo.org
or call: 03-5404-3563