City Hall hosts third annual TREE OF HOPE tree lighting ceremony

The TREE OF HOPE, a gift to the City of San Francisco, was created by the Rainbow World Fund as a way to inspire hope and encourage people to think about what they would like for the future of the world.
“The Tree of Hope is an exciting community project and a chance for the City of San Francisco’s compassion to be seen and heard throughout the world promoting peace and humanitarianism.”- Mayor Gavin Newsom

The origin of the Tree of Hope and the Origami Cranes stems from 1955, when the folded crane became known as a symbol of peace when the world learned the story of Sadako Sasaki. Several years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Sadako contracted leukemia. While in the hospital, a friend told her about a Japanese legend that grants one wish to the folder of a thousand paper cranes. Her wish was to heal. Sadako died 356 cranes short of her goal.
Her classmates folded the rest and all 1,000 were buried with her. Her hope, strength and determination inspired millions.
Many noted celebrities have contributed to the Folded Cranes displayed on the Tree of Hope, including Dame Jane Goodall, president-elect Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Mayor Gavin Newsom, Frances Moore Lappe (Diet for a Small Planet), Danielle Steel and Stanley Gatti.
The first Tree of Hope was created in 2006 and was displayed at Mayor Newsom’s request in the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall. That location has become the home for the tree. The tree is on display in City Hall for 30 days during the month of December where it is seen daily by thousands of visitors from around the world.
A Shared Vision In June of 2006, Rainbow World Fund (RWF) founder, Jeff Cotter, was moved by a speech given by then relatively unknown, Sen. Barack Obama, that he attended in Washington, D.C. The speech focused on eradicating global poverty and developing partnerships that defy historic cultural separation. The speech reminded Cotter of Francis Moore Lappe’s writings on living democracy and the power of hope. Hope had been a driving force behind founding RWF and was something that Cotter worked to instill in everything RWF did.
Upon returning to San Francisco an idea for a global art project that inspired hope started to grow. Cotter had also wanted to develop an annual holiday event to bring attention to RWF’s work. He thought about the symbols of the season and realized that one of the most powerful was the tree – symbolizing light and transformation as well as protection of the earth. Over the years the tree had become a nearly universal symbol transcending its pagan roots and Christian history. Cotter had always loved creating art and realized that the tree could serve as a bridge for RWF’s message of “One Human Family”.
At that time, Paul Stankiewicz, RWF project manager, was reading a book about origami and told Cotter about Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and her inspirational story of transformation and hope. Stankiewicz shared a similar vision he had been holding for a tree and suggested they create a holiday tree covered in paper cranes sent in from people around the world. Cotter took the idea a step further suggesting that the cranes be inscribed with people’s wishes for the future of the world as a way to inspire hope and courage. Cotter and Stankiewicz realized that the project could indeed be global in that people from anywhere could be invited to send in their wishes via the Internet to be printed and folded into cranes.
Cotter sought expert advice and contacted the Mihara family, owners of Paper Tree an origami store in San Francisco’s Japantown. He shared the vision of this special origami tree and RWF’s philosophy. Vicky Mihara immediately was taken with the idea and told Cotter of her family’s dream of creating an origami tree in San Francisco to inspire peace. She explained that her grandfather envisioned such a tree during World War II when he was interned at a camp in California because he was Japanese American. A man of peace, he prayed for understanding and genuine connection between cultures and saw the art of origami as a powerful bridge.
The tree lighting ceremony will be held Tuesday, December 9, 2008 and is open to the public. SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and SF’s first lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom will speak, as well as entertainers and community leaders including: The San Francisco Boys Chorus & Singer Veronica Klaus. Donna Sachet will be the emcee; The Rev. Lea Brown of SF Metropolitan Community Church and Rev. Nobuakl Hanaoka (an atomic bomb survivor) will be officiating the tree lighting. A party withrefreshments and drinks will continue until 8:00 pm. Admission is free.
RWF’s accomplishments
RWF has distributed over $2 million dollars in humanitarian aid (supplies and grants) over the last four years: providing food aid for Hurricane evacuees (including funding one million meals for Hurricane Katrina survivors), emergency supplies for the South East Asia tsunami, medical supplies and financial aid to various projects in Guatemala, funding water projects throughout Central America; providing safe drinking water to hundreds; delivering thousands of pounds of medicine, medical supplies and school supplies to communities in Mexico; launching of a landmine eradication project for Cambodia; an HIV/AIDS case management program in South Africa funding the monthly salaries of rural HIV peer educators; providing a computer lab to a Guatemalan middle school; producing a benefit concert for Haiti; traveling to Washington DC annually to advocate on Capitol Hill for development and aid issues and delivering thousands of stuffed animals to children in hospitals, schools and orphanages.