Students and staff alike learn and teach respectively to fold paper cranes. Students from language teacher Teruko Kamikihara’s Japanese class wore red, white, and blue yarn on their wrists to show students that they could help them learn how to fold the cranes. 

– Courtesy of Christina Owen

Palo Alto High School students will donate 6,000 cranes that were folded over Spring Break and during the lunch event on April 18, raising $12,000 for the Japan relief efforts. 

The Bezos Family Foundation, a private organization that strives to aid students, will donate $2 for every crane folded to Architecture for Humanity, which is according to their website, a “nonprofit design services firm” that tries to use architecture to help places affected by urbanization and poverty. 

The Bezos Family Foundation increased its donation to Architecture for Humanity from its intial value of $200,000 to $400,000, according to DoSomething.org, an organization that offers programs for teenagers to help them start clubs and outreach events. 

According to the Architecture for Humanity’s website, the organization will focus on “small scale building projects for local community organizations” in Japan. 

Career Adviser Christina Owen, who organized the crane folding, said that around 200 students participated in folding cranes.

The event, which was supposed to be held on the quad, had to be moved to tables in front of the Student Center because of the rain during lunch. However, Owen said that the event still went well.

“The event was a success, regardless of rain,” Owen said. “The tables were moved under the eaves and we just wish we had a little more room.”

Junior Jean Yang, who helped fold cranes, said that the fundraiser was a good way for high school students to help Japan.

“As high school students, there’s nothing that we can really do to physically help Japan,” Yang said. “However, this event helped Japan a lot, and we didn’t even need to do too much work.”

According to junior Karine Hsu, the co-founder of the Paly Crane Club, the club got involved in folding many of the cranes donated.

Although the club is no longer meeting this year, Hsu says that the Crane Club is dedicated to folding cranes. The members of the club folded approximately 5,000 cranes, according to Hsu, who said that her connection to Japan also made her feel strongly about helping Japan in the wake of its disaster.

“Since I’m taking Japanese at Paly and have visited Japan many times before, I feel a strong connection to Japanese culture,” Hsu said. “Donating the cranes was just a convenient way of helping Japan.”

Owen added that she was pleased with the outcome of the event and said that she approximates that Paly students spent around 1,000 hours folding the cranes.

The significance of the cranes goes beyond just the money donated to Japan. According to Japanese legend, anyone who folds 1,000 cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. The symbolic significance of the cranes, according to Hsu, is that of peace and hope.

Sophomore John Kim, who taught many of the students how to fold cranes, said that the event was worthwhile.

“I participated [in the fundraiser] because I felt it would be fun and a chance to help out, even if it was [a] small amount,” Kim said. “It was definitely fun, and I’m glad I participated.”

Paly students have done other things to support relief efforts in Japan, including selling T-shirts to raise money for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims.