Velvet Sparrow's Found Origami Project

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First of all, this is strictly for fun, a social experiment akin to putting a note inside of a bottle and tossing it into the ocean to see if anyone finds it. My own 'Random Act of Kindness'. No hidden corporate sponsers, it's not an ARG--no tricks.

In 1999, I suffered a fall down a flight of stairs which left me disabled and with limited use of my hands, even after surgeries and physical therapy. Wanting to keep my hands as limber, dexterous and strong as I could, I decided to take up origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. It worked well for me, as origami requires patience and time, but not large amounts of muscle. Since I was also spending a lot of time cooling my heels in doctors' offices, it made for a great way to occupy the time spent in the waiting room.

I started with one of the basic diagrams, the crane. I had read the story of the girl who wanted to fold 1000 paper cranes before she died, and the idea struck a chord with me and gave me a goal to work toward. I soon expanded my repetoire of simple models to include bunnies, doves and other shapes. More complicated shapes have so far eluded me, but that's OK.

2001
This was great and all, but after a while the darned things began to stack up. They were EVERYWHERE. I'd left some as little surprises along with the tip for the wait staff after eating at restaurants, but that didn't really put a dent in the pile. One day my husband gave me that look and asked, "So what are you going to do with all of these things?" Hmmmm...yeah. So after a bit of thought, I decided it would be fun to leave them in unexpected places as little Random Acts of Kindness. At that time I was spending a lot of time in various doctor's offices, and when you do that, you see LOTS of people passing you who are in great pain or ill, and could sure as heck USE a little cheering up. I started salting them in public areas like tables and perched on the edge of planters in the medical office complexes. It actually was great fun, as my goal was not to be seen placing them--I wanted them to be an anonymous gift for whoever found them. Standing back and watching the reactions of people finding them also gave me a great feeling and cheered me up. I added the quotes later in 2001, just as a little something 'extra'. Most are by famous people, but I've purposefully left the author's name off of them to give you a little something to dig up on the Internet.

OK, well and good. After a while though, I started to really wonder what people thought about finding little surprises like this, and how it may have affected them--did they like it, maybe get a smile out of it and cheer up--or think it was strange?

2003
How to find out how people felt about it? Hey yeah, a website! How to let people know about the site? That's where the little tags I added in 2003 come in. On the back side of every quote, I put the URL to this site, AND an individual, hand-written code. All someone had to do, if they wanted to be a part of the project, was to email me the details of the find, along with the code for verification. These details would in turn be posted here, in the 'Previous Finds' section.

So, did you find one? Want to contribute? Great! Click on 'Hey I Found One! Now what?' to email me with the details. Your email will NOT be sold or kept and will remain private, but if it worries you and you still want to join in, I suggest that you get a free, disposable email address via gmail, hotmail or similar free email services. I'm not going to sacrifice anyone's privacy.

Lastly...
Hey, cool idea! Mind if I do the same thing?
While I appreciate the kind thought, please, PLEASE find your own project and your own path. Sadly, I have already had someone blatantly copy this project and claim it as their own idea, right down to the layout of my website--and while unlike this other person, who apparantly is doing it for public acknowledgement, I prefer to keep my Found Origami Project true to it's original idea of being a Random Act of Kindness. Having someone do this after all my hard work is hurtful, to say the least. So please--DO, by all means, Random Acts of Kindness! But DO take a minute and create your own truly original idea--you'll be happier with yourself and proud of your imagination!

"Do the right thing, even when no one is looking."