Radford High School’s Japanese Club is taking on a year long project, as members race to make 1000 paper cranes. Club President Charlene Agoot, junior, is working to construct a model out of the cranes, and the club plans to hang it up in a temple when they take a trip to Japan, or gift it to a children’s ward.

When the United States released nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in World War II, there was a negative aftermath. Non-fiction children’s book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, publicized the effect of the nuclear bombs and the legend of 1000 cranes in 1977. The legend entails that a person may fold 1000 cranes to receive a wish, long life, or a cure from illness or injury from a crane, a revered animal in Japan.

In order to motivate members, club officers will give a prize to the person who folds the most paper cranes. Presently, the anticipated prize is a $40 gift card, which will come from the winner’s favorite store.

Deadlines are not permanently set for the end of the crane folding competition, but Agoot said that “it will probably end about a month before the school year is over.”