Whiz Kid: Kat Dimmick

Whiz Kid: Kat Dimmick

Year: Senior, Age 18

School:

Accomplishment: Kat Dimmick, 18, president of Sewickley Academy’s Asian Cultures Club, helped organize the "One Thousand Paper Cranes" project along with the sophomore class in order to raise money for victims of the recent earthquake and tsunsmi in Japan.

The Asian Cultures Club got the inspiration for this project from the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who tried to fold 1,000 cranes in hopes of curing her leukemia. Sasaki developed leukemia in the mid-1950s as a result of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

This idea comes from an ancient Japanese legend that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted a wish. Although it didn’t work for Sasaki, Dimmick and other Sewickley Academy students “felt it was a good way to show our support," Dimmick said.

"We saw what hurt Japan is going through due to the earthquake and tsunami,” said Dimmick.

Students who participated in the fundraiser were asked to donate any amount of money for each crane he or she folded. They raised more than $1,000, which will be donated to the American Red Cross to help victims of the earthquake.

Additionally, the students took photos of the cranes they made and sent them to Oshkosh B’Gosh in order to participate in the company's Cranes for Kids project, which donates an article of clothing to Japanese earthquake victims for each crane that’s folded.