Cranes for Hope - Fundraiser!

Today I woke up at the bright and early hour of 4 pm (yes, you read right, definitely not my finest hour!) During my fifteen-hour slumber, I had dreamt of the most amazing day. In my dream, more than 100 students had come together to fold cranes and fundraise for the victims of the Japanese disasters. Together, they fundraised more than $5 000. Even in my mind this was a lot of dream dollars!

And then I realised it hadn't been a dream at all, that it really had happened.

On Tuesday the 19th of April, enthusiastic and inspiring students from schools all across Sydney folded, smiled, got rejected (ohhh, how we felt the burn of rejection!) but, most importantly, made a difference in the world. 

The world is crying out for our help (not literally). There are people in Japan right now who are suffering in abysmal conditions. They have no homes left. They have no hope left.

These young people answered their call for help and roved the streets of Sydney, braving the sting of rejection and valiantly asking the public to donate to our cause. 

There were many many smile-lights for the day and this is to just name a few:

=)    When Sharon Mo was on her way to the toilet, a couple of punk-ish teenagers called out to her "Girl, why you in school uniform?" After explaining our project, one of them reached into their bra (her BRA, I say!) and pulled out $10 in coins and gave them to Sharon, filling her entire hand full!

=)   As Bella and I were walking along with our basket of cranes and collection cup, a frail voice called us back. We turned around to see an old man who seemed unfortunate - his clothes were old and tattered and he was sitting by himself. When we walked back to him, he pressed 40c to us, insisting that we take it and telling us what a good thing we were doing. After we thanked him profusely and were walking away, we heard him whisper "God Bless You."

=)   The many, many people who didn't have spare change... and donated $5, $10 and even $20 to us! The sheer generosity of the people overwhelmed me and I was reminded again and again that there are so so many selfless and amazing people in this world.

=)   When the day began, we only aimed to reach $1000. By the end of the day, because of everyone's amazing perseverance (as well as their sheer charm of course) and generosity, we managed to raise more than five times our target.

There were a lot more smile-lights but I don't think words can quite capture them. So I just want to thank everyone who came out today - you're ALL amazing and awesome people and, without you, the event would not have been such a success! I'd also like to thank Abby Hatami and Brad Timms who supported us on behalf of the Red Cross, putting in so much effort to reply to my incessant emails haha! Finally, thanks definitely has to go out to Officeworks and all the people who bought and donated today - thanks for believing in us!

You ALL inspired me and made me realise that dreams really do come true.

I'd like to leave you guys with some photos from the day (credit goes to Anu Ganapathy, Blair Wang, Cheuk Lam, Joanne Kim, Kelly Tran and Michael Ma for these beautiful shots!).

Since a picture is a thousand words, consider this our 10 000 thank you's to you!

Lined up and waiting to hit the streets!

How can you say no to that?

One of our charming teams!

Folding cranes with all their might.

We raised almost $3500 in coins alone.

Our sweatshop of crane folders. Just kidding!

Sharing a well-deserved hi-5.

On our way to depositing first $2000!

People of all ages joined us in our plight.

A generous lady who donated $20!

Folding cranes at Cranes for Hope HQ.

Cranes for Hope posters

There's always time to pose and look awesome.

Our beautiful hand-made cranes!

Late night preparation for the event.

Gorgeous coloured paper donated by Officeworks.

Ready to become beautiful cranes.

At Central at the ridiculous hour of 7am.

Ready to take on terror in the world!

Our all-nighter team!

Always, always remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)