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Pencils.com Helps Japanese Disaster Victims

We were greatly disturbed to see the tragic events and human suffering resulting from the earthquake and tsunami last week in Japan. The devastation caused by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded is quite simply staggering. To do our part we will be donating 5% of Pencils.com revenues for the Months of March and April to the Red Cross for Japanese Tsunami and Earthquske aid.

Pencils.com and particularly it’s parent organization California Cedar Products Company has a long history of business relationships in Japan over the past 50 to 60 years. This spans from supplying cedar and basswood pencil slats to all the Japanese industry participants to the more recent development and production of our Palomino and Palomino Blackwing pencils. As a multi-generational family business these relationships often extend to personal relationships with principle business owners and management in these companies. We were very happy to learn all of our dear friends and associates in Japan came through last weeks terrible events safely.

Certainly there are and will be many challenges for the pencil industry and the country as a whole facing both the tragic loss of so many countrymen, the potential threat of radiation exposure and the inconveniences of transportation and power supply disruptions and of the overall rebuilding process. Economic conditions are bound to deteriorate in the near term and this will certainly have tremendous impact on the lives of many Japanese citizens. As a company with strong long term trading ties to Japan we are committed to supporting our customer and supplier relationships to our best ability and helping them rebuild their economy as best we can through our ongoing relationships.