Several months ago, some Parkie friends of mine,  Amy, Clara and Naomi, started a project called “Soaring with Hope for PD”.  Inspired by the art installations that they saw at the World Parkinson’s Congress in Portland last year, they decided to create an art installation for the next WPC in Kyoto, June 2019.  Naomi is Japanese, and to celebrate her heritage, she settled on Origami Paper Cranes.  She says “traditionally, it was believed that if one folded 1000 origami cranes, one’s wish would come true.  It has also become a symbol of hope and healing during challenging times.  As a result, it has become popular to fold 1000 cranes (in Japanese, called ‘senbazuru’).”

They have taken this idea one step further.  Each crane represents a person withParkinson’s or a person impacted by Parkinson’s. They are asking each person to give their message of hope, which will be written on a crane.  So instead of 1000 cranes, they have a goal of 10,000 cranes to bring to the WPC, each of them with a message of hope written on it.  Can you imagine an installation of 10,000 colorful origami cranes hanging from the ceiling?  How beautiful will that be?  And the impact that the installation will have will be substantial – there will be more cranes than there are people attending the WPC, representing the thousands who could not be there.

To participate in the project, please
provide your NAME, LOCATION and WORDS OF HOPE by clicking HERE,   emailing to SoaringWithHope@gmail.com  or message it to them. They will dedicate a special crane with YOUR MESSAGE on it.  You can also help by getting the word out, sharing this post with others in your community.  They are also going to take pictures of the origami cranes and and post them on the Soaring With Hope for PD   Facebook page for all to see.