MHS Library Mobile

"Peaceful Flight", is an origami mobile sculpture created from folded paper cranes sent to the students of Marcus High School by students in Japan after the September 11, 2001 tragedy. The title of the piece of literature based on the theme of the mobile is Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. The students were learning English from Eric Pearson, a Marcus graduate and son of retired Marcus English teacher, Jeanne Pearson.

Kathy Toews, one of our art teachers, along with her close friend and creative associate Mark Pepper, designed the structure of the library mobile. Kathy gives credit to Mark for figuring out the mathematical elements of the design (like pi) and how many cranes should be on each strand to balance the mobile aesthetically and physically.

After the physical structure of the mobile was created, Student Council members strung the thousand origami cranes onto clear filament. then Kathy and Mark completed the project. Jeanne Pearson asked if it could be hung in the center of the MHS library. the rest is history. Kathy recently e-mailed us an interesting tidbit about making a thousand origami cranes. Her e-mail stated "Evan Cranston, our newest art teacher, said that some of the classes at one of our middle schools tried to fold 1000 cranes." That certainly speaks volumes for the commitment that Eric's Japanese students made in completing their project of extending a expression of friendship & peace to MHS.

These paper cranes came to MHS in a box. If you look closely at the cranes, you will notice that some are made from real origami paper. When Eric's students ran out of the origami paper, they used candy wrappers, and gum wrappers, etc. in order to finish making their commitment of a thousand paper cranes to be sent to MHS.

Last updated October 5, 2007