1,000 Cranes of Hope

By Mike Cutillo - Finger Lakes Times

   Thanks to Jason Braverman’s dexterity and generosity — and the fact that his girlfriend has a small apartment in Boston — Clifton Springs Hospital & Clinic is going to be the recipient of a very special gift.
   Make that 1,000 special gifts all rolled intoone colorful 8-foot tall exhibit that soon will beon display in the hospital’s main lobby.
   One thousand origami cranes. All made byhand, that is, by Jason Braverman’s hands.
   As any cancer patient can tell you, 1,000cranes have come to symbolize hope for those with the disease — a takeoff of an ancient Japanese legend.
   Braverman, who will graduate from Hobart College in 2012, knows all about the legend. Unfortunately, he knows too much about cancer, too, having survived a bout with brain cancer that was diagnosed during his fresh-man year at Hobart.
   In remission since 2008 and a fan of origami,he made the 1,000 cranes, one by one, for his girlfriend, Betsy Dingman, a William Smith graduate whom he met while both were members of the Colleges’ Chorale.
   “I gave them to her on Valentine’s Day to celebrate our three-year anniversary,” he said.
   Betsy’s first reaction, jokingly: “I’m not sick, you know?”
   She actually loved the cranes, but Jason said the couple realized right away that the gift might be a bit too much for Betsy’s apartment.
   “Her bedroom is just too small to accommo-date them,” Jason said. “So we decided that it would be nice to donate them to an oncology office.”  ...

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