The staff of Griffis Hall is sponsoring an ongoing fundraiser to aid earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan by selling origami paper cranes, displayed across the first floor of the residence hall. 
The project began on March 23 in response to the March 11 disaster and will continue until the end of the semester or until the goal of selling 200 paper cranes is met.
Ella Selfridge, senior psychology major and an RA at Griffis Hall, said she came up with the idea for the project after she learned GAP was selling Japan Relief t-shirts to donate to GlobalGiving, an organization that supports relief projects all over the world by providing fundraising and exposure and generating donors. 
Selfridge said she chose to donate the proceeds of the paper crane project to Civic Force, a nonprofit organization sponsored by GlobalGiving.  
Civic Force was established in Japan after the Niigata earthquake in 2004 to provide emergency relief after large-scale disasters. 
Civic Force has already delivered 135 tons of relief, mainly in food and clothing, to disaster victims and two days ago began constructing bath houses in disaster areas to provide civilians with clean, uncontaminated water.  
The story of origami cranes comes from the Japanese proverb that one who folds 1,000 cranes will get a wish and the maxim was popularized by the children’s book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.” 
The book tells the true story of a young girl Sadako who lived in Japan and developed leukemia due to the radiation effects from the atomic bombing by the United States in Hiroshima. 
Sadako started making paper cranes when she was on her deathbed in hopes of getting a wish to live.  Sadly she died before she could finish, so her family and friends completed the project in her honor.  The story is told to promote awareness of disaster victims.
 ”We just wanted something to relate to Japan to raise money, so we’re selling paper cranes,” Selfridge said. 
While not expecting to sell 1,000 cranes, the Griffis staff chose this project because of its relevancy to Japan and will be satisfied with reaching the goal of 200 cranes. 
So far, 80 cranes have been sold and over $200 has been raised from the proceeds, as well as from a bake sale in Griffis Hall.  Cranes are $1 for white, $3 for colored and $5 for the larger red cranes. 
 ”The reason the red one is five dollars is it’s actually the colors of heroes for Japan. So, it’s like buy a crane, be a hero!” Selfridge said.
The cranes are sold at the front desk of Griffis, and people can write their names on the cranes they purchase.
Timothy Fair, resident director of Griffis Hall, said this is one of many fundraisers organized by the staff this year. 
“I’ve given charge to the RAs to do things that impact people. We attack issues to make not only our community better but, from a global standpoint, to make things better,” Fair said.
Residents and honors college staff have been very supportive of the project.  Mason Hall, senior aerospace engineering major, bought two, red paper cranes as a way to help victims in Japan and to see the results visually. 
Hall said after the earthquake he wished there was something he could do to help the people in Japan.  He thought the paper crane project was a creative way to take action by incorporating origami, an integral part of Asian culture, into the giving process.
“You’re not just giving money to some organization. You can see what you’ve donated and what everyone else has donated, and it spurs more people to donate and to give,” Hall said. 
He said instead of writing his own name on the cranes, he wrote, “Guidance and Wisdom —something the Japanese people need.”