Mar 17, 2011

John Lofgrens's Speedway-Shop SENDAI Update

Big props to Mose at WEAR 'N' TEAR & Matt at Rivet-HEAD for the links & support.
Woke up this morning from another flu-ridden, sleepless night to some very good news regarding John Lofgren & family and his Speedway-Shop in Sendai, Japan. David Himel posted a comment and link to an update run in the Fresno Bee on Sunday titled Sendai survivor:Kingsburg native gets word to family.

I also ran across this nice article from the abc Fresno website titled Valley residents try to contact loved ones in Japan.

Nice Q&A piece posted on Monday via the Fresno Bee titled Sendai survivor:Q&A with Valley native John Lofgren
Once you read the above stories on this man and the goodwill he spreads, you can't help but want to get involved and help.

This evening I received a response from John to an email message I sent to his eBay shop just yesterday expressing my best wishes, and when the time was right that I wanted to pick up a few items. Here it is.

 Hi,
We're cleaning up after the earthquake right now. We're in Sendai, the city that got hit hardest. My store, office and home all sustained a lot of damage. Our office should be up and running normally a few days only. We know everyone is worried and we appreciate it very much. For now we need to get the mess cleaned up so we can get back to work and our lives back on track. If you can afford it, donating a few dollars o the Red Cross wouldn't hurt.
The post office in Japan is fully operational too, so shipping is not a problem. Even though our shop was wrecked, over 90% of our stock made it just fine. Main damage was to fixtures & displays, not actual merchandise, so if you'd like to do a little shopping with us, we are fully capable of taking orders (and we could really use the support).
Read an interview I did with a California newspaper here:

Thanks a lot, and a special thank you to all of those who emailed as soon as they found out about the quake and emailed to see if we were ok.

John Lofgren
980-0811 Sendai
Aoba-ku, Ichibancho 1-11-20
Oumi Bld. 4F
Japan


I am including John's contact information for those who want to get involved in the cause or just purchase some great goods.

 www.speedway-shop.com <http://www.speedway-shop.com/>
Speedway on Rakuten <
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/speedway-shop/>
Speedway on eBay  <
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Speedway-shop%20


The email update above was followed by an order confirmation and invoice for these caps I had inquired about only the day before. I can never pass up a good engineer cap, especially in much coveted pincheck material.
The cap invoice was followed by a personal note of thanks from this man and his damaged business halfway across the world, whom I have never met but consider to be a peer and friend,  who obviously has so much going on at this trying time yet took the time to connect. Thanks John for doing all you do & best wishes from So Cal. Truly a rare breed, let's show him some support!

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