1,000 Cranes Peace Project Brightens Spirits at Diane and Charlie Mashburn Infusion Center
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RN Mallory Gillem, Director of Infusion Services Kathy Ivy and RN Jacy Green stand around the 1,000 Cranes Peace Project in the Diane and Charlie Mashburn Infusion Center at Childress Regional Medical Center.
When patients walk into the Diane and Charlie Mashburn Infusion Center at Childress Regional Medical Center (CRMC), they are greeted by the 1,000 Cranes Peace Project.
“All of our patients really love it,” RN Mallory Gillem said. “They like looking at all the different colors, reading the story about it and I think it does just that – gives them hope.”
According to Japanese legend, folding a 1,000 paper cranes brings a person happiness and good luck. In some versions of the story, the person may be granted a wish, CRMC Chief Financial Officer Emilee Stratton said. The 1,000 Cranes Peace Project came from her mother, who sent Emilee a picture of the 1,000 Cranes Peace Project at the hospital she works at in Montana.
“One of my coworkers’ husband was diagnosed with cancer, so it hit me at that exact moment – we have to do this,” she said. “The whole point of the Crane project is to give someone next to us a little bit of strength that we have.”
After getting approval from CRMC CEO Holly Holcomb, Emilee got to work. They ordered origami paper, pens and everything else they needed for the project, she explained.
CRMC Chief Financial Officer Emilee Stratton holds the 1,000 Cranes Peace Project chandelier after speaking about it at the We Can Care Survivor Dinner on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at the First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.
“We asked our employees – every single one from dietary, maintenance, nursing, business office, the clinic – to make a crane,” Emilee said. “I thought it was going to take us months to get a 1,000 cranes back.”
But they received 2,000 cranes in just two months. “I saw people working together as a team to create them,” Emilee added. “Cranes are hard, origami is hard and it takes time.”
Once they were made, she received comments like this, “you can’t put this ugly crane on there.” But to Emilee, “every single one is imperfectly perfect.”
These imperfectly perfect cranes now welcome the 10-chair infusion center’s 90 patients.
“Everybody looks over there,” Emilee said. “The infusion center is beautiful. It is browns, it is creams. It is calming colors, but this pop of color in the crane chandelier is just fabulous.”
Behind it, 1,000 Cranes Peace Project story is hung on the wall.
“It’s an amazing addition to the already amazing infusion center,” Emilee said. “The Peace Project is just one extra cherry on top for the entire infusion center.”
