By Paul J. Condra
Of course, rubbing the genie's lamp involved a bit more work than a spit shine and a feather duster. Bridget Hunt's third-graders, with the help of some elder volunteers, garnered corporate sponsors and printed T-shirts in a campaign that raised $12,708 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. But the core of the work that drove the effort revolved around the kids' origami aptitude to fold 1000 paper cranes, which were sold for a dollar.
The kids just kept bringing them in in bags of 40, said a rather overwhelmed Hunt during a presentation to press and parents in her class Friday. The teacher said she was hoping to sell the cranes and raise $1,000, she never thought the project would grow so large.
Now, the prehistoric landscape of her class is abundant as folded cranes swoop from the ceiling. Some crisp and precise, others wrinkled and intricate, the cranes represent the breadth of talent that flaps in the minds of third-graders as wildly as the wings of a pterodactyl.
Hunt explained the idea for the fund drive evolved after the students read Eleanor Coerr's Sadako and The Thousand Cranes. It's the story of Sadako, a young Japanese girl sick from the nuclear fallout of the atomic attack on Hiroshima. In the hospital, Sadako spends her remaining days attempting to fold 1000 cranes in the hopes that an ancient legend that whoever completes the task will lead a healthy life will come true. She folds 644 before passing away.
Inspired, the children and other volunteers set out to raise money to ease the burden of other children with terminal illnesses. They not only sold cranes, but made shirts which they sold for $8 and sought out corporate contributors. As Janet Digilio, a donor development associate from Make A Wish explained, the money the kids raised will allow the wishes of two sick children to come true.
People like you let people like us go in and say if you could have anything in the world what would it be, she told Hunt's class. And from being the boss of the ice-cream man, to directing the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, kids don't appear to be running short on things to wish for. One child, Digilio explained, was upset that while most superheroes have sidekicks, Spiderman doesn't. So that child spent the day as Spiderman's new sidekick, Beetlebody, helping the silk ranger save the world.
Last year, in Metro New York and Nassau County, Digilio said 434 wishes were granted, and about 100 kids came to New York to have their wish fulfilled. She said every dollar the kids raise goes directly to the child who needs it. For Hunt's class, that's $7,807 going directly to fund the day in the sun for two people. The other $5,000 has been pledged by a corporate sponsor, Forest Laboratories, in New York City.
I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around what you did, Digilio told the students. This is truly an overwhelming response.
One of the wishes the students provided has already been realized. An 8-year-old boy named Amit had his wrestling dreams immortalized when Make A Wish arranged for him to take a limousine to Madison Square Garden where he had box seats to see the wrestler, The Rock, pile-drive the competition. Then, Amit was taken back stage to meet the seething superstar.
This is what education is about, said Lena Richardson, the principal of Davison Avenue. You've demonstrated your leadership and your commitment to help others, she told the students.
Hunt, who grew up in the Malverne school system, said the students even donated their allowances to the fund.
They all have good hearts, it's a representation of what wonderful schools we have, she said.
But even though the drive had ended, there was no shortage of creativity bubbling from the young minds of Hunt's students. As she explained how the children were solely responsible for doing most of the work, she said she and a few other volunteers exhausted themselves licking stamps and envelopes.
You could have used a sponge, said one student.
