Middle school students attended an origami making event at the Glen Rock Public Library on Sept. 14.

John Blackman hosted Celebrating Origami, an event which invited middle and high school students to learn about the paper-folding craft.  Blackman has been practicing origami for years and wanted to spread his passion.  The event was also co-hosted by Morgan Taylor, teen librarian.

Blackman said that origami can help clear a teen’s mind and mitigate pressure.

“You’re doing something very basic, which is folding paper, and almost everybody can do that.  You’re concentrating on that rather than other things,” he said.

Blackman relayed one of his participant’s comments that the craft really “really relaxing.”

Blackman believes that origami can be a good distraction from a busy day at school because it’s a simple task that is enjoyable and the end product is fun to look at.

The four middle schoolers in attendance laughed and joked around while folding their papers. When their products were complete, they lined up their origami penguins.

This is not the last event that will happen at the public library.

“John will be teaching different models that represent different cultures,” Taylor said.  The library is hosting this event because it wants to expand learning about different cultures.  

Once they finish with the model John is teaching, the origami students can decide whether they’d like to donate their models to decorate the library.  The hope is to fill the library with different models of origami.

The library will be holding the event on Oct. 12, Nov. 2, and Dec. 7. To find registration information for each date, please click this link.