A 1,000 Paper Cranes for Sadie
By Beth Gulley
If you have visited the YMCA on a Tuesday or Thursday evening lately, chances are you have seen a group of people huddled around the front desk folding pastel squares of paper. When I asked Callie Benton what they were doing, she said “we are folding a 1,000 paper cranes for Sadie Olson. To fold an origami crane it takes 44 folds, and you are supposed to say a prayer for each crane you fold.”
Ten-year-old Emily Benton set a goal to fold a 1,000 paper cranes for Sadie Olsen, a second grader with Rasmussen’s syndrome, by Sept. 30. In order to achieve this, she and her twin sisters enlisted the help of Kim Bolen, a front desk associate at the Y, and 15 to 20 other people to help fold the cranes. Kim said she” started folding when Rudy and Clare Benton invited me to. We love doing craft projects around here. We couldn’t resist.”
Emily got the idea when visiting her aunt, Annie Peace, in Manhattan, Kan. Annie was in the process of folding 1,000 cranes for a friend who had recently lost the use of her legs in an automobile accident. Because the friend could only use her hands and needed to keep busy, she and Annie started doing origami together, and through that they learned about the book Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes.
In the story, a young Japanese girl comes down with radiation sickness from the atomic bomb. She tries to make a 1,000 paper cranes before she dies, so she can get her wish. The girl in the story did not finish her 1,000 cranes. But with a lot of help from her friends at the Y, Emily Benton did collect a 1,000 paper cranes by Sept. 30. It didn’t look like Emily would finish in time, but on the last day Megan, Caitlyn and Jessie Shasteen brought her 700 cranes.
Because she had already participated in the swim-a-thon for Sadie and the Heads Up 5K, Emily thought “why not fold cranes for Sadie.” Callie Benton, Emily’s mom, said “it makes me proud of her that she comes up with these ideas on her own.” Unfortunately, even though Emily finished in time, she had not yet delivered the cranes at the time of this interview because Sadie went back to the hospital for a few days. She knows about the cranes, although she may not fully understand what they are yet. However, “Sadie’s mom was excited about the idea,” Callie said, “and Sadie has a bedroom upstairs where they plan to hang the cranes.” When Sadie gets home she will get the wish from her 1,000 paper cranes, but she will also get the prayers of all the people who folded cranes for her.
If you would like to participate in folding the second 1,000 paper cranes for Sadie, Deana Howard said “people can drop off their cranes at the YMCA. “ You can check out the book, Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes, from the newly reopened Osawatomie Public Library, and you can find directions for folding origami cranes at http://www.operationmigration.org/Origami.pdf.
Emily said her “favorite part of the book was the little girl believing she could do it.” My favorite part of this story is that Emily believed she could do a small thing to encourage her friend, and in her quietly passionate way got swimmers, runners, grandmas, firefighters, preschoolers and teenagers to believe in and work towards her goal.
To fold a 1,000 cranes, to say a 1,000 prayers, and to give Sadie Olsen one big wish.
Short URL: http://osawatominews.com/?p=415
Posted by Beth
on Oct 13 2010. Filed under News and Updates.
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