How To Fold An Origami Crane

Mass-ive get well wish for Roseanna

PARISHIONERS have become used to the sound of paper rustling during Sunday mass at a Prospect church.

Inspired by a teenager’s battle with leukaemia, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to fold 1000 origami cranes.

“My mum told me the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, so we decided to make cranes for Roseanne,’’ Georgia Wilson of Northgate, 13, recalls.

“The story says that someone who makes 1000 paper cranes will get one wish and we wanted to give her that wish.”

Roseanne May the sister of parishioner Davinia Speakman was diagnosed with leukaemia seven years ago.

She relapsed for the second time just before Christmas, and underwent a bone marrow transplant last month.

Members of the church’s Young Women’s Organisation wanted to cheer up Ms May, 18, during her recovery.

The whole church joined in, with parishioners making 1500 colourful cranes.

Ms May, of Kangaroo Island, says the surprise gift blew her away.

“I love them,” she says.

“I knew what the cranes symbolised right away and they brought a smile to everyone who saw them.”

The cranes were hung in her hospital room until she was discharged two weeks ago. Ms May and her cranes have moved to a unit at Wayville, where she is staying during her recovery.

How To: Fold an Origami Crane (and it's for a good cause!)

Tutorial and one-handed photos by Aryn Henning Nichols

Read an inspiring story about Decorah’s Spencer-Berg family and their four-month sabbatical in the Summer 2011 Inspire(d) Magazine, online , starting on page 20. The Spencer-Bergs are folding cranes for a good cause. Here’s how it began, from the Spencer-Berg’s themselves:

“ The crane project actually started over a year ago when Anna and Aidan were looking for a way to raise money for victims of the earthquake in Haiti. They made earrings using tiny cranes that are smaller than a dime (the square of paper that you start with is 3/4” square) and also made strings of cranes interlaced with colorful glass beads. When the earthquake and tsunami happened in Japan it seemed a perfect time to bring the project back with a few changes. And after Anna and Aidan and their family experienced the massive earthquake in New Zealand, they had renewed interest in the plight of people suffering from natural disasters and especially earthquakes. The sisters have been organizing crane-folding gatherings, so far bringing together more than 40 people. Collectively they’ve folded about 800 cranes. Anna’s goal is raise $1000 with the proceeds going to earthquake/tsunami relief for Japan.