Local Students' Origami Handiwork Supports Japan Relief Efforts

Kids in Three Village have found a way of using their own hands to help support relief efforts for Japan. Over the past two weeks, kids across town have chipped in to make more than 2,000 paper cranes to send to a school in Japan – and for every crane they made, the Bezos Family Foundation donated $2 to Architects for Humanity.

According to a traditional Japanese folktale, one who makes 1,000 paper cranes will have a wish granted by a crane, which in legend is considered a mystical creature that lives 1,000 years.

Local parents like Maya Koga and Kathy Whelan coordinated crane-making events and students from Minnesauke, Nassakeag and Setauket schools spent some of their school days making cranes. They surpassed their original goal of 1,000 cranes on April 11, and by April 14, the final count was 2,221. The cranes will become part of an art exhibit at a school affected by last month's natural disasters.

"We are very small, but we always discuss at the dinner table what we can do to help," said Koga, a Three Village resident who is originally from the epicenter of Sendai, Japan. Her family members near that town are all OK, but she was not able to contact them for several days following the earthquake and tsunami.

"We all pictured ourselves as if West Meadow Beach was gone," she said, adding that the crane making events over the past few weeks have helped her children feel they can make a difference. "They can contribute, use their physical movement to help Japan."