Students at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown turned a music performance into a powerful lesson in history, compassion, and peace this spring.
The school’s Treble Chamber Ensemble performed “Paper Cranes” by composer J. Reese Norris, a piece inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young Japanese girl who developed leukemia after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. While hospitalized, Sadako began folding paper cranes based on a Japanese legend that says folding 1,000 cranes grants a wish. Her story has since become an international symbol of peace and hope.
As part of the project, students learned about the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, folded paper cranes, and worked together to create a collective peace statement. What began with a goal of folding 1,000 cranes quickly expanded beyond the choir program, with students from other music ensembles and across the school joining the effort.
Together, Seneca Valley students folded 1,754 paper cranes. During the concert, every audience member received a crane to take home. The remaining 1,438 cranes were strung together and will be donated to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan.
Students also collaborated on a peace statement that reflected the values they hoped to share through the project:
“Peace is not something we wait for—it’s something we choose.
We choose kindness and treat everyone with respect.
We choose to listen and not judge, even when we disagree.
We choose to include and make sure no one feels alone.
We choose to solve problems with compassion, not create them.
Through kindness, empathy, and understanding, we choose each other — and that is peace.”
