Remembrance service set Saturday for Henry Yang

Date is May 6, from 7-9 p.m., at Princeton Christian Church, 471 Cherry Valley Road

By Ruth Luse
   There will be an informal time of remembrance for 14-year-old Henry Yang — who died April 24 from injuries he received in a one-car accident in Hopewell Township on April 23 — on Saturday, May 6, from 7-9 p.m., at Princeton Christian Church, 471 Cherry Valley Road.
   A funeral service was held April 29 in East Brunswick.
   For that service, Henry’s fellow students at Timberlane Middle School made 4,000 paper cranes. According to Jamie Drucker, Henry’s eighth-grade homeroom teacher, the cranes were fashioned as a tribute to Henry. The idea came from the story, "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes," based on the classic book by Eleanor Coerr. The tale sends a message — "our students’ love and promise to never forget Henry," said Ms. Drucker last week prior to the funeral.
   According to a Web site: "The paper crane has become an international symbol of peace in recent years as a result of its connection to the story of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki, born in 1943. Sadako was 2 years old when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. As she grew up, Sadako was a strong, courageous and athletic girl. In 1955, at age 11, while practicing for a big race, she became dizzy and fell to the ground. Sadako was diagnosed with Leukemia, ‘the atom bomb’ disease. Sadako’s best friend told her of an old Japanese legend, which said that anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her a wish to get well so that she could run again. She started to work on the paper cranes and completed over 1000 before dying on Oct. 25, 1955 at the age of 12."
   "We are going to have baskets of them at the funeral for students to take as a keepsake," Ms. Drucker said. And there were. About 1,000 cranes went home with people who attended the service.
   On April 25, during Timberlane’s advisory period, the school’s Adirondack team went around to homerooms to ask that every student make a paper crane to be hung at Henry’s funeral. The successful effort was organized by teacher Debbie Liwosz and student Steven Palder.