Cranes of Hope at HHS

Great minds think alike, but at , great minds also work alike. Since March, the school’s Philosophy Club has been striving to put a good idea into action as they push to create 1,001 paper cranes to benefit the victims of the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.

“I was completely on board with the idea of being to help people,” said freshman Emily Finn, 14, who is a member of the club. “It seemed like a great idea. It was also a lot of fun making the cranes.”

The group is headed by science teacher Franco Paoletti, who is a former nuclear scientist and has worked at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. A brochure created for the project says that their "challenge is to be able to fold 1001 colorful cranes in the attempt of covering that black cloud that now sits over Japan and paint it over with 1001 colors of hope.”

Philosophy Club members began folding the multi-colored cranes, which decorate dark paper clouds hung in the school’s main entryway, in mid-March. By selling the cranes at the school’s lunch periods for a $1 each (with a purchase, students can sign a pre-made crane or fold one of their own) the club has been able to raise about $500 so far, Paoletti said. Members of the club, who hope to raise more than $1,000 by the end of the school year, plan to donate all the funds they raise to the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund.

“They have become really proficient at making the cranes,” Paoletti said.

Doriane Feinstein, 14, a freshman, said club members were excited to get started with the project as soon as they heard about it. “We immediately tried to learn how to fold the cranes,” she said.

Lantana Grub, 15, a sophomore, said it takes about one and half minutes to make each crane.

Benjamin Benson, 15, also a sophomore, added, “We have fun doing this while we are helping a whole pack of people.”

Paoletti came up with the idea of having the club fold 1,001 cranes from the story of Sadako Sasaki. Sasaki was a young Japanese girl who was 2 years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

When Sasaki became sick with leukemia, a young friend told her of the legend that promises that if one folds 1,000 paper cranes and makes a wish, that wish will be granted. Sasaki started folding the cranes, making the wish to live. Sadly, she died at the age of 12. It is said that her friends finished the cranes for her, burying her with 1,000 of them.

Paoletti said he has a special affinity for the people of Japan. He spent three weeks in the country in 2005 as part of the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program. There, he visited Japanese schools and interacted with Japanese teachers and students. “When I went there, I fell in love with Japan,” he said.