Bainbridge Chamber of Commerce
The 2026 project planned its main folding station at the Chamber’s Winslow Way info center during April and May.
2026 community project
Paper Cranes for Peace
Revisit the 2026 community folding project with the Bainbridge Chamber, the Asian Arts & Heritage Festival, Sonoji Sakai students, and the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.
The Chamber will host a community folding station in its Winslow Way info center with origami paper, instructions, and an open invitation to fold a crane or ten. The cranes will be displayed during the festival month of May and then featured again in the final 2,000+ crane ceremony at Festival Finale on May 31. As the project grows, it can also support light Chamber + festival co-promotion and broader downtown participation.
Fold together
A simple island-wide art project meant to promote peace, beauty, and community.
May 31
The full 2,000+ crane display will culminate at the Waterfront Festival FINALE.
How it works
A public peace project with multiple places to join in.
The project is intentionally simple. The Chamber provides paper and instructions. Sakai students contribute cranes. The memorial offers another folding site. The festival gives the work a public home in May and a larger closing ceremony at Festival Finale. It can also become one of the clearest Chamber-facing examples of a festival activity that businesses and visitors can understand at a glance.
Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School
The project invited fifth and sixth grade students to contribute cranes alongside the wider community.
Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
The 2026 plan included folding tables at the memorial and a later crane donation following its renovation and expansion.
Asian Arts & Heritage Festival
The project planned a 2,000+ crane display for Festival Finale on May 31, 2026.
Downtown participation
A Chamber-linked activity that can scale beyond one folding table.
The strongest version of this project is not just one folding station. It is a visible downtown invitation that can appear in Chamber promotion, festival planning, and public business participation over the course of the month.
Fold at the Chamber
The Chamber info center can act as the most visible public entry point, with paper, instructions, and light festival framing that helps people connect the activity back to AAHF.
Extend into downtown
As more businesses participate, crane-making stations and public displays can become part of a broader downtown festival layer instead of living only in one location.
Lead into Festival Finale
The final 2,000+ crane ceremony gives the month a clear waterfront payoff and helps the project read as part of the larger festival season.
We are also beginning to group projects like this inside the broader Festival Activities planning view so they can connect more clearly to Island Explorer, Festival Finale, and the larger downtown story.
Timeline
From folding tables to the finale ceremony.
The project unfolds in stages so people can join over time, not just on one day.
April
The community folding project opens at the Chamber info center on Winslow Way with paper, instructions, and an open invitation to make cranes for peace.
April + May
Sakai students contribute hundreds of cranes, and additional folding tables welcome visitors at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.
May festival month
The cranes are displayed at the Chamber as part of the island-wide Asian Arts & Heritage Festival.
May 31 finale
The final 2,000+ crane display appears at the Waterfront Festival FINALE as a public peace ceremony.
After the festival
The 2026 project planned a later donation to the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial following its renovation and expansion.
Why it fits the festival
It is public art, peace-making, and community invitation at the same time.
This is a good example of the kind of work the festival can hold: something beautiful, participatory, intergenerational, and clearly connected to the island’s civic and cultural life.
- People can participate in a low-pressure way by folding a single crane or many.
- The work is visible in public throughout festival month, not hidden behind the scenes.
- The final 2,000+ crane ceremony gives Festival Finale a clear symbolic closing moment.
- The project continues its life afterward through donation to the Exclusion Memorial.