Paper crane folding a celebration of peace
Flex your fingers, grab some paper and join the library in a community-wide project to celebrate International Day of Peace this fall. We’re on a mission to fold 1,000 origami paper cranes and hang them in the Library Center in September surrounding the Sept. 21 Day of Peace.
Origami is the ancient art of Japanese paper folding, and you can learn how at a program for all ages from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, June 24, in the Library Center meeting room B. The library has printed instructions to help you if you want to fold at home.
Reference librarian Alana Myler traces the project to a book and true story about a girl, Sadako, diagnosed with leukemia after the bombing of Hiroshima. During her treatment, she began folding paper cranes, recalling an ancient Japanese legend holding that anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish. Sadako wished for world peace and continued folding cranes until her death at age 12 in 1955. Sadako’s schoolmates later funded the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, with a bronze figure of Sadako holding a golden crane.
“I’d seen the idea of cranes before and heard the story, and I just saw that as a really great way to do a community art project,” Alana says. “It’s easy for patrons to do, and see the result and say, ‘I was a part of that.’”
Alana’s goal is to display 10 strings of 100 multi-colored cranes in a curtain effect from the Library Center ceiling when all the cranes are complete.
_ _ _
Looking for ways to keep your brain sharp and make new friends? Consider learning to play chess with the Springfield-Greene County Park Board Chess Club.
You can catch the Monday night Beginning Chess classes from 6-6:30 p.m., or the Winning Tactics and Strategies classes from 7-7:30 p.m. in Library Center meeting room B on June 26, July 10, July 17 and July 24. For details about the series call Rob Dean at 866-9677.
Kathleen O’Dell is community relations director of the Springfield-Greene County Library District. She can be reached at kathleeno@thelibrary.org.