The ISU Origami Club is planning to make 1,000 cranes to give to children at Mary Greeley Medical Center.

Lynn Giang, junior in psychology, said they will start making cranes over the summer. She said the organization plans to pick up around August in making a majority of the cranes.

“My goal is to meet 500 cranes by the end of September,” Giang said.

The organization members said they hope to have 1,000 cranes made by November to give to the medical center in December, like a Christmas gift.

“I think it’s mainly to give them support, so they can fight diseases,” said Peter Wang, member of ISU Origami Club.

“Our mission is to pass on art, which is folding origami, and we want to give them short term joy and long term support,” Wang said.

Giang and Wang thought of the idea to make the cranes and donate them. 

“[Cranes] always stand for hope,” Giang said. “And if you make 1,000, you can make a wish.”

The organization also hopes to attach strings to the cranes so the children could hang them from the ceiling of their room.

Giang said they hope to make it feel more like home for them.

They also plan on getting more of the community involved in helping them make the cranes, Wang said.

“Basically anyone that is willing to help out, they can come and help,” Wang said.

Several ideas were given to support the community helping: Specific times to make cranes, drop boxes and teaching areas.

Giang said there were different levels of origami depending on how hard the piece is to make and the amount of steps to create it. Cranes are a lower level of difficulty.

Ngoc Le, junior in mechanical engineering, said he spent most of his time in middle school reading books at the library about origami.

Le took most of that knowledge to teach members of the group. During Easter, he showed the club how to make a rabbit.

“It was kind of difficult for them, so I had to show them step by step,” Le said. “It took over an hour to teach them.”

Le said he can now finish folding a crane in under two minutes.

The organization makes anything from dragons and flowers to peacocks and Pikachus.

Giang said it took at least 1,000 pieces of paper to complete her peacock origami piece.

Members also participate in teaching elementary students how to make origami figures.

The ISU Origami Club partnered with Giving Children Hope, a volunteering organization set out to fundraise and donate to local hospitals for children, to make paper cranes and other origami figures to give to children, Giang said.

The organization has a total of 71 members, including ISU members, faculty and staff and non-ISU members, according to the ISU Origami Club website. The club does not have dues, so there is no cost to join.

Giang said they want to do more as club, giving more hope through projects like the 1,000 cranes.