Southold creates 1,300 paper cranes to send to Japan

Thanks to children throughout Southold Town and most recently, at Floyd Memorial Libary, Sonomi Obinata has 1,750 paper cranes to send to her native Japan and raised $1,560 in contributions for the Japan Society’s earthquake relief fund.

The Southold resident began making the paper cranes, a symbol of long life in Japanese culture, to send to her homeland after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster there last month. In her anguish after the earthquake, Ms. Obinata hit on the idea of making the cranes, but knew the project was more than she could manage alone. She reached out to her adopted community and children responded through schools and libraries to her call for action.

This week, she made contact with the OshKosh B’Gosh corporation, which is sponsoring its own crane-making initiative and sending clothes to children in Japan who are suffering after the disaster. OshKosh is bringing Southold’s cranes to Tokyo, where they will be on display at the Tokyo OshKosh B’Gosh store.

“I really appreciate it and would like to give thanks for the people who’ve been supportive and helping,” said Ms. Obinata this week.