Cranes for Care

I'm sure by now you're all well aware of the disaster that occurred in Japan. It seems that things have settled down a bit, with the immediate threat posed by the nuclear reactors contained, but the recovery and rebuilding process will be a long and painful one. There are an estimated 16,000 dead and another 400,000 left homeless. To get a sense of the scale of this, imagine two out of every three Grand Valley students dead and half of the homes in Grand Rapids destroyed. There are numerous efforts underway to help the relief effort, and I'll be posting about some of these later. For now, though, I want to mention Cranes for Care, an effort to fold and sell origami cranes for $1 each, the proceeds to be donated to the Red Cross, designated for Japanese earthquake relief. There will be tables set up in Kirkhof to sell, fold, and teach passersby to fold these cranes this Thursday and Friday and next Monday, and they need volunteers to man the tables, fold cranes, etc. Those who want to help should contact Jessica Pleyel at pleyelj@mail.gvsu.edu. The times are:

Thursday, 3/24 3-4pm
Friday, 3/25 10am-4pm
Monday, 3/28 4:30-6pm

You can find a flier about the event here.