VIDEO: Palm Desert Students Send Japan Good Wishes

In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan, the country has received aid, assistance and well wishes from across the globe.

Palm Desert Charter Middle School students hope to make a contribution by shipping 1,000 paper cranes along with poems and letters to Japan. The project took flight on the last week of school thanks to free shipping provided by UPS.

“The shipping costs were very expensive for shipping to Japan,’’ said Debra Ruderman, an 11-year teacher at PDCMS. “And then to the rescue came UPS. UPS said they loved the idea of the project and that they wanted to get involved.”

The project was inspired when Ruderman had her eighth grade Honors High School Geometry class read “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,’’ a true story about a girl who lived in Japan after the dropping of the atomic bomb.

Ruderman had a parent teach the students origami.

“They students read in the book that when Sadako was ill, it is Japanese tradition to make 1,000 paper cranes for good wishes and good health and that you will recover from your illness,’’ Ruderman said.

Students decided in the face of the devastating earthquake and tsunami to make 1,000 paper cranes for Japan.

Kaho Akiya, a 14-year-old eighth grader at PDCMS, said the project had special meaning for her because she moved to the United States from Japan when she was 7 and still has family there.

“The first image I saw (of the tsunami) when I woke up and my mom was crying in front of the TV,’’ Akiya said. “She that it was closer to our family.’’

She later learned that her family was safe.

“We were really scared,’’ Akiya said.

Her brother 11-year-old Yuta, said he enjoyed making the cranes and has only one wish for the Japanese people.

“I hope they get better real fast,’’ he said.

To learn more about this project watch the video above.