A simple gesture from faculty, staff and people from around the world has turned into a powerful message of peace at the University of Utah, reports Fox 13.
For the past 15 months, they have been folding paper cranes and those one thousand cranes are now part of a permanent exhibit at the University.
One thousand cranes in Japanese culture are meant to honor marriage, but the cranes since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima have come to symbolize peace and good health.
“People kept saying, ‘Oh I want to learn how to make cranes,’ or, ‘This is so pretty, I wish I could do it,’ I just thought wouldn’t it be nice if social work had their own thousand cranes, and wouldn’t it be nice if everybody could make the cranes and then sign them and it would be an investment in this project that I think can promote community, a sense of belonging in a community,” said Irene Ota, diversity coordinator for the College of Social Work.
You can find out why this project meant so much to Ota and other Asian Americans in the clip below from Fox 13.