Inside of an old metal cabinet in English teacher Mike Carriger’s room is a huge collection of small, brightly-colored paper cranes.

The cabinet is several feet wide, and the cranes are a few feet deep. They’re held back from tumbling out by an old plastic tub lid.

The avalanche of cranes continues to grow every day. Senior Julia Drahozal folds cranes during every class.
When Carriger noticed Drahozal folding so much, he got an idea.

“I noticed in the fall that she was making the little cranes, and she was making a lot of them during class,” Carriger said. “Just on a whim one morning, I said, ‘Well, maybe we should collect these. Maybe we should store them somewhere and see how many you can make.’ And that’s just how it started.”
Drahozal folds cranes simply because she enjoys it.
“It’s just a hobby,” Drahozal said. “It’s really relaxing, and it gives me something to do in my classes.”
Making cranes may help her focus in class.
“All students find their own ways of working through difficult material, trying to figure out their opinions on different matters,” Carriger said.
“I think for Julia, the way she is manipulating that paper and occupying her hands is a way for her to process material.”
She is not the only one contributing to the cabinet. Five other girls also make cranes. They use colored sticky notes, and the pile is still growing. Drahozal guesses there are several thousand.
“Oh, Lord only knows,” Carriger said. “I am sure there is a mathematical formula for determining the potentiality of how much is in there. I don’t have that.”
Drahozal doesn’t have a goal, and she doesn’t need motivation to keep going.
“The tradition is make a thousand, but I haven’t really been keeping track,” Drahozal said.
Drahozal makes them in other classes as well, and carries them to Carriger’s room.
Senior Katie Jacobsen sees Drahozal folding every day.
“It’s ridiculous. She sits in AP Music Theory and will just sit there folding cranes,” Jacobsen said.
The mountain of cranes grows, and Carriger is unsure what he’ll do with them at the end of the year.
“They’re in a cabinet I don’t really use, so it’s sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind,” Carriger said. “But every once in awhile I’m reminded, ‘Oh hey, I should probably take a look to see how far she’s advanced.’”
For now, the mountain of cranes remains. Carriger is happy to let Julia continue her project.
“We haven’t spoken a whole lot about it,” Carriger said. “It’s just sort of a quiet thing that she’s done.”