NEW ULM–A special origami class will be held at The Grand Center for Arts and Culture, Saturday that will teach students to create the Peace Crane.

Instructor Wilbur Neushwander-Fink learned how to make the peace crane in 1983 while working as a Registered Nurse in New York. Neushwander-Fink said her supervisor wanted to do something for the nursing unit. This included decorating the ceiling of the unit with a thousand origami cranes.

Neushwander-Fink learned how to make the peace crane and has been passing the knowlege on ever since. She has lost track of the number of people she has taught the skill.

“I’ve taught people from 4-year-old to 104-years old how to fold the birds,” Neushwander-Fink said. Everyone attending her class will leave with at least one peace bird they have folded themselves. She will provide students with as step-by-step instruction to help them remember after the class.

The legend is that anyone who creates a thousand peace cranes will be blessed with good fortune. The act of creating the origami birds is a meditation on peace, something Neushwander-Fink believes the world could use now.

The special workshop 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 9 to teach student the history of the “peace crane” and how to make the origami bird.