Gayhurst Community School

Just to say we raised 11.39 at Gayhurst Community School the other day - Thank you children and I shall post a picture shortly!

Amy and Co at New Seasons Market, Portland, Oregon, USA

Hazel, unidentified friend of Ira, Ira, Pippa, Amy, Alice & Seamus. 

Amy heard about Origami4tsunami and liked the idea so she got together an event in Portland. Here are her words about it:

"We were all headed into Spring Break, so there were many idle hands available to make origami.  The group of kids that participated was not any kind of school or organization, but just a bunch of neighbors/friends.  We have a unique situation in that many of our closest and oldest friends live within a few blocks of each other, so our kids are all friends whether they like it or not. 

Once we decided on a date, I contacted our local supermarket, which is a very socially-conscious local chain called New Seasons.  There is a public sidewalk right out in front of the store, so it's easy to set up there on a renegade basis and then you've got your built-in lefty clientele to work with.  When we did our bake sale there last year, they happened to be matching the funds that anyone donated that day to Mercy Corps, a locally based organization that does work similar to the Red Cross.  So this time around, I sent them an email and asked them if they would match our earnings for Mercy Corps again...they wrote back and said they remembered us, and they'd be glad to set aside $500 to match us!  Very exciting for the kids.

So we spent the next week or so folding paper.  We even used old paper, like sheet music and magazines, and we used the website you suggested, which was GREAT.  We made lots of little tags that said "this origami raised $1 for mercy corps" and we tried to attach them to most of the pieces.  So on the day of the sale, at least 7 kids showed up with origami they had made.  We also had pieces that some of my daughter's friends from school had made (origami earrings!!!) and some really fancy pieces that the grandpa of one of the kids made.  Overall, I could swear we had almost a thousand pieces (the photo was taken at the end, so everything you see is leftover!). We priced most of them at $1, with the exception of the earrings, which were $5.

Unfortunately, the weather on the day of the sale was absolutely rotten. Pouring rain and gusty wind do not go well with origami.  We had tried to prepare for the worst with a tent and towels to cover the merchandise, but we still got hit pretty hard.  So the first hour was depressing and sad.  Then the weather cleared a bit, and the store started making announcements to let people know what was going on.  Business picked up, and after about 2.5 hours we had made $400!  We marched into the store with the money, they counted it out, then made an announcement on the PA that the kids outside with the origami had raised $400 and that New Seasons was doubling it to $800.  The kids were thrilled, the people in line all clapped, and it was a great moment."

CONGRATULATIONS AMY AND CO! What a fantastic response. I am particularly admiring of their perseverance, refusing to be daunted by those enemies of Origami, the wind and the rain. I have added £489.00 ($800) to the offline giving section of the Just Giving page.

George Green's School

Rae's mum Sarah set us up to go into George Green's School in Tower Hamlets for a little while during their parents' evening.

cindy folds her winged box

Cindy with her creation

We met some lovely people and collected £10.60 which I will put on the Just Giving page now. Thanks George Greens.

Hackney City Farm

Jennifer and I both contacted, independently, the wonderful Hackney City Farm about doing something for Japan through Origami and they put us in touch with each other. She borrowed the banner and made some origami out of newspaper as part of a recycle initiative at the Farm.

There were several other stalls there collecting for Japan relief, selling bric a brac, secondhand books and clothes as well as these badges which we liked:

which means GanbareGanbare Tohoku. Ganbare Nippon.’ Which means ‘Stay Strong Tohoku (the area that was hit by the quake), Stay Strong Japan

Jennifer raised £13 which she put into the Japan Relief box on Tomoko's stall. I shall add it to the offline giving part of the Just Giving page so we can see it - more money raised through origami.

Tom and Emma get folding

Tom and Emma got the bug on Saturday too, setting up an Origami4tsunami stall at Rushmore primary school market.

They stuck to a few designs and printed off the instructions.

Tom with cat. I love the banner behind them.

This is one of the dads who's family come from near to the nuclear power plant (Fukushima Daiichi I presume) in Japan, getting his hands around a crane

Emma says that the origami went down really well and that they raised £65 which is fantastic. They have given the money to the Japanese Red Cross via the Just Giving page (coded by the Red Cross so that the money goes to their Japan appeal) which is here: http://www.justgiving.com/origami4tsunami.

Congratulations Tom and Emma!

Origami 4 Tsunami in Dublin

Friday morning at Dalkey School Project in Dublin began with a difference as children and parents gathered to fold paper cranes to show our support for the people of Japan.

One week had passed since the natural disaster and we wanted to show our support for all of those struggling to rebuild their lives! Although we discovered that folding origami cranes is a little challenging, we persevered and we now have around 300 beautiful cranes hanging in our lobby with the number growing daily as inspired children, parents and grandparents continue to contribute to our display.

Why cranes? Cranes are sacred creatures in Japanese culture. According to ancient legend anyone who folds 1000 origami cranes will be granted a wish. We are going to upload a photograph of our cranes to dosomething.org who are hoping to collect 100 000 cranes to represent 100 wishes for relief and healing for all of those affected by this tragic natural disaster.

We managed to raise almost 400 euros and will be donating this to the Japanese Red Cross!

Origami4tsunami gets street wise!

On Saturday 19th March we had our first origami4tsunami street event, where we set up tables in our street in Hackney and made origami. Loads and loads of Origami. We started at about 12.30pm and finished off at around 4.30.

Rae (8) stopped people walking down the street and explained what we were doing. , which As did Kesia (6), though some people she spoke to thought we were collecting for the "Japanese Salami".

setting up

getting busier

 We developed a nice line in patter: "we have Origami from the traditional to the conceptual".

traditional and conceptual...

This being Dalston the conceptual did really well with loads of people taking away Kesia's work (above on the left). We also taught people to make things which they took away with them.

Satisfied donators taking home their/our creations:

 Nicole and her "dog takes boat"

Dave and a penguin made by Jonjo

Marguerita and a cat made by David and Simon

Heads were down all round. A veritable hive of industry.

 

As Jonjo put it the day was "brilliant". Thank you, thank you to everyone who stopped and talked to us, folded with us, and donated their pennies and pounds.

We made two hundred and fifty-one pounds and seventy-four pence which I will give to the Japanese Red Cross tomorrow through the Just Giving page (see the link on the right).