Living Cranes: Spreading Hope and Blessings

Chloe folded her first origami crane when she was eight years old and immediately fell in love with how calming and relaxing it was. From then on, she has been folding them before school, after school, and during breaks. She loved it so much that she made hundreds and hundreds of them. Then one day, she decided to challenge herself to fold the cranes in a quarter of the size. She kept doing until the smallest one was a mere 1/8 inch long.

When her friends saw her origami cranes, they asked her to make them some and she gifted her cranes as a form of blessing to them. She also made origami crane mobiles for people she knew who were recovering from injuries or surgeries.

In her freshmen year, she started a Cranes for Hope Club in her high school to share her love of folding origami cranes with her classmates and to share that joy with senior centers.

In summer of her freshmen year, Chloe and her family visited the Peace Museum in Hiroshima and she was touched and inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki. Chloe has decided to help spread the blessings of the origami cranes to even more people back home and hence decided to start up the Living Cranes organization.

She has since used her origami cranes to raise money to help bring water and education to Sintaro Village in Ethopia, worked with Lucile Packard Children Hospital, Cards for Kindness and other organizations.

Chloe is determined to bring her origami cranes to anyone who needs blessings. If you are interested in joining Chloe in spreading hope and blessings, she would love to connect with you. Just drop her an email.

• In the Asian culture, cranes signify longevity and good fortune.

• Cranes are referred to as the “birds of happiness”.

• Cranes are also symbol of hope and healing during challenging times.

• It is believed that your wish will come true if you fold a thousand origami cranes.

The current pandemic and social distancing have led to increasing isolation and mental health challenges. This makes the impetus to engage and connect with our community, particularly the seniors and the other vulnerable members, even stronger.

Our outreach efforts did not halt because of the pandemic. Instead, we doubled our efforts and found new means to connect.

If you are interested in working with us or are seeking ideas on how to similarly impact your community, please reach out to us.