Following the devastation, Students Rebuild partnered with DoSomething.org to ensure students worldwide have a way to support their Japanese peers. Cranes are sacred creatures in Japanese culture. According to legend anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. Once organizers reach the goal of 100,000 submissions, the cranes will be woven into an art installation -- a symbolic gift from students around the globe to Japanese youth. These simple yet powerful gestures will trigger a $200,000 donation from the Bezos Family Foundation -- $2 for each crane received – to Architecture for Humanity's reconstruction efforts in Japan.
At Harwood, Ms. Gretchen Stahl was notified of the effort of Student Rebuild by the Asian Studies Department at UVM because of her experience as a teacher in the Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP). Students in her English classes originally set a goal of 100 cranes but by midweek wanted to go for 1,000 cranes. Stahl shared the ASOP idea with Connie Lisle who invited her geometry students to participate, and soon other students in other classes were making cranes to contribute.
In one week, Harwood students made 1,584 cranes ranging in size from 1 foot long to 10 millimeters which were delivered to the Asian Studies office at UVM last Friday afternoon, April 7.
