Hewlett Happeings

Craning for hope and peace during unprecedented times

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Hewlett High School’s Art Club has been hard at work crafting hundreds of origami cranes for hope, peace, and decoration throughout the school.

The initiative was kickstarted by seniors Tahreem Chaudhry, Zoe Ng, and Carrie Zheng. They were inspired by the work of Sadako Saski, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945, who developed leukemia due to radiation poisoning.

Saski, an 11-year-old girl, made origami cranes in the hopes that she would recover after folding her 1,000th paper crane. Saski, unfortunately, died soon after but her legacy lives on through the story of hope that inspired these students.

Due to the pandemic, Chaudhry, Ng, and Zheng wanted to bring these feelings of hope to the students, faculty and staff of Hewlett High during these unprecedented times.

When brainstorming ideas to accomplish this goal, “the crane project started as a nonsensical idea, but with teamwork, we were able to make this exhibit come to life,” Ng said.

The students were motivated by Saski’s story of hope to implement this project. Zheng said, “With the pandemic affecting many, we wanted to create something artistic to provide hope and a positive outlook for the future.”

“We decided to create a paper crane exhibit in the sky walk to ultimately represent unity and positivity and establish a positive social change within our school community,” Chaudry added.

During this project, the students were guided by Karen Cunningham, art teacher and Art Club adviser, who was amazed by their work. “I think the idea was brilliant. Carrie Zheng and Zoe Ng along with many other art club members have done well creating this exhibit,” Cunningham said.

More than 600 paper cranes are currently on display at Hewlett High School. As the Art Club continues to work towards hanging a thousand origami cranes, its current progress has already uplifted the spirits of many.

As students and faculty pass by the origami cranes each school day, they are reminded to look towards the future with hope and peace.