Peace Takes Flight

Beginning June 11, join our community’s own peace crane project, Peace Takes Flight, this summer by folding origami peace cranes. The cranes will be used to create a special art installation in the Park Ridge Library’s children’s department.

How to Get Involved:

• Pick up a free Peace Crane Craft Kit at the Park Ridge Library.
• View the instructional video for folding an origami peace crane here.
• Create more cranes by reusing or repurposing wrapping paper or magazines
• Connect with friends and neighbors by folding origami peace cranes together
• Drop off finished peace cranes at one of three locations:
  • Park Ridge Library, 20 South Prospect Avenue
  • Pink Nail Salon, 55 Summit Avenue 
  • Dolcetti Patisserie & Café, 133 Vine Avenue
• Register for the Library’s 2021 Summer Reading Club: Reading is Your Passport to the World

Sadako and the Thousand Peace Cranes

Many know the story of Sadako Sasaki, the little girl who started folding 1,000 paper cranes after she developed leukemia as a result of the atomic bomb dropped a little over one mile from her home in Hiroshima, Japan, during WWII.

Though she died in 1955, Sadako’s resilient spirit and her origami cranes inspired her friends and classmates to raise money for a monument for Sadako and the children who died as a result of atomic bombings. In 1977, Eleanor Coerr wrote a historical novel, Sadako and the Thousand Peace Cranes, to share Sadako’s message of hope and healing. Word traveled around the world and a shrine to Sadako was erected in Seattle, Washington and Hiroshima, Japan.

Today, all around the world, people continue to fold peace cranes to honor, memorialize and celebrate life and those who work tirelessly to make an impact for good, for peace.

Thank you to these local businesses and organizations who work tirelessly to have a positive impact on the community and build better lives for children and families through this project.