On March 16, in the entranceway of the Carnegie building, Laurier students and Journalism Guild members Katelyn Wong and Victoria Roth set up their booth. Both were teaching others how to fold paper cranes and asking for donations, all in an attempt to raise awareness and money for the horrific natural disasters that took place in Japan this past week. The goal was to make one thousand cranes, a symbolic measure.

“The Japanese believe if you make one thousand paper cranes, you get a wish,” says Wong, regarding the practice.

By the early afternoon, the table had 20 cranes on it – still a ways from their goal. One student, Chris Tanaka-Mann, who is part Japanese, is optimistic about how Japan will recover from this crisis.

“Japan is a country that’s very good with change,” he says. “They are famous for the cherry blossom that only blooms for about two weeks.”

In the meantime, Laurier Brantford is doing its part to respond to the disaster in any way they can.

“Everyone wants to help out,” says Wong.

She recounts that many people, even without the time to make a paper crane, are dropping change into the collection bucket – money that will be donated to relief efforts. Even though some extra coins may not seem like a big deal, Eastern philosophy teaches us that one can only travel a mile by starting with a single step.