Judith Panson and her fellow residents at Misericordia Terrace are building a message of peace out of paper.
“I grew up with war and people dying, and people being blown up, and houses disappearing,” Panson says, recalling her childhood in the United Kingdom during the Second World War.
“Instead of fire drills, we would have air raid drills. There was a concrete block building in the playground and that’s where we would sit.”
Those experiences are why she was keen to help fold 1,000 origami cranes, which they plan to send to Hiroshima for the annual peace ceremony on August 6.
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The project was inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who was exposed to radiation at the age of two when an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Sasaki was later diagnosed with leukemia and set out to fold 1,000 cranes, which, according to Japanese legend, would grant her wish to get well. She died in 1955, before reaching her 13th birthday.
Darren Hemeryck, program director of activities at Misericordia Terrace, says the story resonated with the residents, who have been saddened by the news of increasing violence in the United States, Ukraine, and elsewhere in the world.
“Everybody has that top of mind, and this was just an opportunity to bring that idea of peace back to the forefront,” says Hemeryck.
The group was able to reach their goal of folding 1,000 cranes over several months. Most of them had never done origami before, but Hemeryck said they took the time to perfect the technique.
“The residents really took it upon themselves to make as many as they could,” he says. “They would take some paper back to their residence and work on it. We only met once a week, so they would come back and say, ‘Hey, I made an extra 70,’ or ‘I made an extra 100.’”
Panson says that despite hearing news of war and destruction every day, the goal is to find reasons for hope.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breath,” she says. “We hope for peace always.”
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