A children’s book has inspired students at a California elementary to help their classmate’s family pay for his father’s funeral.

“Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” was released in 1977 but 35 years later it has inspired something great within a new generation.

On Sunday, December 16, Luis Merino’s father passed away after a battle with liver cancer. He was just 53 years old. Luis and his family were left not only struggling with the loss of a loved one, but also struggling with funeral costs.

Luis and his classmates at Lakewood’s Craig Williams Elementary School has recently read about a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima during World War II. The non-fiction book tells how the girl developed leukemia as a result radiation from the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. military in WWII. While at a care facility, Sadako recalls a Japanese legend and starts making paper cranes in the hope that once she reaches 1,000, she’ll be granted a wish. In the end, she falls short of her goal after, but her family and friends take over and after her death, lay her to rest with 1,000 paper cranes.

The children at Luis’ school found relation between his father’s death from cancer and Sadako’s death, and wished to help as Sadako’s friends had tried to help her.

On the class’ FundRazr page, teacher Monte Weiss wrote, “My students and I have committed to folding 1,000 origami paper cranes in honor of our classmate’s father. The cranes will hang in our classroom all year long. We are asking that anyone who can, sponsor the folding of a crane with a donation of any size, $1, $5, $10, $20, or more. Please consider helping the family of our classmate and friend.”

If you would like to sponsor a crane, visit the class’ FundRazr page here.