Seven-year-old William House is an expert paper plane folder -- just ask his first grade teacher Elaine Sirota, who'll attest with a smile and eyes rolled skyward.
But when he first heard of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left at least 28,000 people dead or missing in Japan and another 350,000 homeless, William asked his mother what they could do to help.
William, and his sister Kanna, 8, are both natives of Japan, although they've been growing up in Sandy Springs. The Japanese communities of Sendai and Saitama where they are originally from were devastated.
"The kids had a lot of questions," said their mother, Debbie House. "Mommy, what does an earthquake feel like, and stuff like that."
Debbie House thought they could redirect William's paper airplane skills of making origami cranes, sell them for a dollar each and donate the money to the Red Cross for tsunami relief.
"I thought that maybe we'd make a dozen or two and sell them to our friends," Debbie House said. "I put a note on Facebook about it, and it just took off."
"We first got an order for 20, then 40 and then another 100," she said.
Now, just shy of a month later, they have more than $700-in-hand, $4,000 pledged and orders for about 1,700 origami cranes.
They needed help. Lots of it.
So Debbie House enlisted William's and Kanna's schoolmates at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Elementary School for help. On Tuesday, she had taken over Ms. Sirota's scheduled morning reading class to lead about a dozen children in an origami lesson.
With 6-inch squares of colored paper, the children learned that origami is from two Japanese words, ori for folded and kami (later translated as gami) for paper. And if folded just right, they could make cranes.
Allison Toller, a school spokeswoman, said the origami project fit perfectly with the private school's mission to have students work on service projects as well as academics.
"There's just so much enthusiasm and curiosity about this," Toller said. "We're all getting into it."
William and Kanna don't know for sure if they'll be able to make 1,000 cranes, but they're determined to do so. The siblings said there's an ancient Japanese legend that says if you make 1,000 cranes, you get to make a wish.
"If we get there, I'll wish that everyone in Japan is safe," William said.
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