Washington Students Help Quake VictimsOne teacher’s ties to Japan has led Washington Elementary School to raising funds for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the island country. According to the Associated Press, more than 12,000 people are missing and presumed dead from the earthquake and tsunami that hit March 11. Some were likely swept out to sea, while others are buried under the mass of rubble. About 14,300 are confirmed dead. Pardee Gunter and Nicole Ryman-Dick are teachers at Washington. They organized two different fundraisers to help raise money for Japan. Gunter’s wife is Japanese, and her family lives in Japan, about 175 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter. After the earthquake hit, Gunter said, they were concerned about her family. He said his wife’s family doesn’t need anything, but do have some hardships with the rolling black outs in the country. Some friends of the family were killed by the tsunami. “I’m sure there’s billions of dollars (in damages),” Gunter said. “It’s just incredible.” Gunter started thinking about ways the school could help. At the same time, Ryman-Dick had the same idea: What could Washington students do to help? Ryman-Dick ordered “Pray for Japan” wristbands for students to purchase to help the disaster victims. All but one of the wristbands sold as of Wednesday, she said. Gunter’s idea came from the non-fiction book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” by Eleanor Coerr. Sadako Sasaki lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States. She developed leukemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home, creating origami cranes in hope of making 1,000 of them. Sasaki was inspired to make them by the Japanese saying that one who created 1,000 origami cranes would then be granted a wish. Her wish? To live. She managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died shortly after. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako. For the Washington project, sixth-graders were asked to make as many paper cranes as they could. No school time was used. Students made them during lunch or at home. Each participating student got sponsors for their cranes. A person could pledge 1, 5, 10 cents or more per crane that a student folded and created. Allison Miller and Morgan Kohler made the most cranes. Miller folded 81, and Kohler made 91. Miller said she wanted to make a lot of paper cranes because, if it was her family who had been in the earthquake, she wouldn’t be happy about it. Her goal was to fold 100 of them, but her busy schedule kept her from being just 19 short of that goal. Kohler said, “I just had fun with it. I hadn’t planned to make as many. I just had more time.” The two girls said it took them about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes for each paper crane. Until she got the hang of it, Miller said, it was about 3 minutes per bird. The paper cranes start as flat pieces of paper, about 3 inches square each. Because of Coerr’s book, Gunter said, he was able to buy a box of 1,000 papers for the cranes. “We need to string the cranes yet. We didn’t take school time to do this,” Gunter said. “Students did them at lunch or at home on their own time.” Art teacher Martha Beeson helped show students how to make the origami art, Gunter said. Between the wrist bands and the cranes, Washington raised more than $650 as of Wednesday noon. The money will be given to the Kosciusko County chapter of the American Red Cross for Japan. Gunter said the money probably will be presented to the Red Cross by the end of this week.
