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.