By T.D. Flack, Stars and Stripes, April 13, 2011

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan – In the week before the school’s spring break, students at Misawa labored through a project to raise money for the Japanese communities hardest hit by last month’s deadly earthquake and the tsunamis it spawned.

Children worked at home, gave up recess and spent hours in after-school care programs meticulously folding Japanese origami paper cranes — a traditional symbol of hope and good fortune in Japan.

Project organizer Susan Blake, a counselor at Sollars Elementary School, said the goal was 1,000 cranes from Misawa. They would be mailed, along with thousands other from various schools across the United States, to the Bezos Family Foundation, which had pledged a $2 donation per crane, up to $200,000.

FULL STORY:
http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific-students-turn-creative-efforts-into-earthquake-aid-1.140972