Folding Paper for Japan

Many young people are aware of news events that they have observed in the media, but these remain distant until students themselves are asked to take part in making solutions to the issues that they see. At Baylor school, the mission statement of the school is to “Make a positive difference in the world.” My group of advisees recently took these words to heart when we learned about the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Japan last month.

For my ninth-grade Advisory group at Baylor, I had each advisee read one of a series of newspaper articles about the way people have responded to the disaster in Japan silently. Each student was to then present and summarize the content to their peers. In response to each article, we discussed the concepts that the articles invoked, and what effects these actions could have on the victims, the actors themselves, and the society at large. I allowed the students to explore the ideas themselves and take leadership of the majority of the discussion, which they did quite well.

Then, we discussed ways that we can “make a difference”.

We found a charitable organization in Seattle that had pledged to donate $2 for each paper crane they received for disaster relief in Japan. That same day, we started folding cranes, and continued to fold them in advisory class and in our free time. This is a great way for students to feel involved in making a difference without having to have a lot of money or special skills.

We were able to get traction for the project and two of my advisees, Jake Shuptrine and River Cole, made a presentation to the general student body in an announcement at chapel. They explained that we would collect the cranes and send them in a package together in the name of our school to the “Students Rebuild” project in Seattle, Washington. Thereafter, several more students got involved, including a student from Japan, Hiroko Omura, who gave assistance and advice for folding the cranes and stringing them together, as well as folding over two hundred cranes herself. Several other international students got involved as well, including Korean students Sofia Lee and Angela Lim, who gave a workshop to their peers on how to fold the cranes at a table in the dining hall where students could learn to fold the cranes themselves. Hundreds of students took part in this group effort to bring this effort to fruition. This weekend we will send the cranes, which, in a flock of 1,000, are said to bring good luck. We are proud to have achieved this, and the exercise has brought a true sense of accomplishment to the students as well as a feeling of connection and compassion toward the wider world. .

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/papercranesforjapan


Students can seek details about the program at: http://studentsrebuild.org/japan/

Address to send cranes:

Students Rebuild
1700 7th Avenue
STE 116 # 145
Seattle, WA 98101