~ Wish upon a Thousand Cranes ~

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. I recently saw a thread on the Etsy forum titled "*Please Help* with "1,000 Wishes for Jen" Origami Cranes for Brain Cancer" that motivated me to start folding these little cranes.


Jen is fighting a brain tumor. Even though I doubt a few paper cranes will cure her, I am folding for her because I think this will give her encouragement to continue fighting. Here's an excerpt from her CaringBridge website:

Just before the end of the school year in May, Fairfield Middle School Spanish and French teacher discovered she has an anaplastic astrocytoma, or grade-three tumor, after experiencing two occasions of speech and memory loss: one was when she couldn’t recall student names. The other time was when she was running and could not speak.

The tumor, which has attached itself to the front left side of her brain, is inoperable, she said, but it is responding to treatment.

Since discovering it was cancerous this June, Fox said she has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She also takes anti-seizure medication to ensure she can continue teaching.

You can go here to read more about this 1000 crane project here. The page has instructions for folding the cranes and address to send the cranes to. Folding these is not trivial and it does take time. But, your hands aren't doing anything while you are watching TV right? So, fold a few while you watch your favorite shows this week. I did a dozen while watching a little TV with my fiance today. You can use magazine paper. Just cut them up into nice 4 - 5 inch squares. See, that way you are recycling too!


Let's show Jen that life is worth fighting for :)