Don Shrubshell photo

John Walpole places a lei of origami cranes on Scott Laws during a surprise visit from California by Laws’ former co-workers yesterday at the home of Keith and Sherryl Laws in Harrisburg.

HARRISBURG - As a thousand colorful paper cranes swayed in the light breeze, Scott Laws’ friends and family were hard at work trying to surprise him.

Velda Ogar, his grandmother, picked up sticks in the yard. Family friends set up a table to hold a white cake, gifts and a white sign with black lettering.

The sign read, "A Thousand Cranes for Scott."

Eight of Laws’ former Microsoft co-workers in Silicon Valley, Calif., visited Harrisburg yesterday to surprise the 30-year-old as he battles colon cancer.

Paul Saab, a former co-worker and a close friend since the eighth grade, occupied Laws a few minutes. He then walked Laws out of a basement apartment in the Laws home, shielding Laws’ eyes as about 20 family members and friends waited to spring the surprise.

When Saab lifted his hands, Laws opened his eyes.

"Wow!" he said. "How did all you people get here?"

"We pulled it off, didn’t we?" asked his mother, Sherryl Laws, as tears poured down her face. Earlier, she had explained the backyard arrangements to her son as preparations for a women’s get-together.

A graduate of Hickman High School and the University of Missouri-Columbia, Laws was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2004, when he was 26.

The Laws family had no family history of the disease, but Keith Laws said his son’s cancer had almost reached Stage Four by the time it was diagnosed. That meant the cancer had nearly spread to another organ.

After treatment, the outlook brightened for 2½ years. At Christmas, however, Laws learned the cancer was back, spreading to his upper intestines. Doctors told him he had a year or two to live.

Don Shrubshell photo

From left, Walpole watches Laws view snapshots with Paul Saab and Tony Stilling. The men worked together at Microsoft Corp., which paid for the visit to Laws, who is fighting colon cancer.

Laws, who worked on a Microsoft Hotmail troubleshooting team, moved in May from California to his folks’ home in Harrisburg and began receiving treatment at the Missouri Cancer Associates in Columbia.

The origami cranes in the Laws’ backyard originate from the "The Sadako Story," an account of an 11-year-old Japanese girl who contracted leukemia after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.

The girl pledged to make 1,000 paper cranes before she died. Sadako completed the project, and a statue of her stands in Hiroshima Peace Park. Since then, the origami cranes have become an international symbol of hope and peace, said Charmaine Lingerfelt, a former Microsoft co-worker of Laws.

It took Laws’ former Microsoft co-workers on the 103-person troubleshooting team about three weeks to make the cranes, said Glenn Beeswanger, director of Windows Live operations. "The traditional ways" of communicating with their friend, such as "sending cards or gifts, felt so impersonal," he said. "I wasn’t really sure we could" make the thousand cranes.

All team members were encouraged to take time out of their day to make cranes, said John Walpole, a program manager at Microsoft. Some team members had their families work on them at home. Walpole said he made sure that anyone who entered his Silicon Valley home made at least one crane.

The company also paid for the surprise visit to Harrisburg by Laws’ friends at Microsoft, Walpole said.

"When we found out what Scott was up against, we just wanted show how much he means to us," Lingerfelt said.

The surprise gathering around noon was just part of scheduled festivities. A get-together at a friend’s home was set for last night, followed by dinner at Shakespeare’s Pizza. Today, the group was to have a private showing of the new Harry Potter film.

Laws’ mother expressed concern whether her son could handle all the activity, as the cancer has made eating difficult.

After the surprise, Laws reminisced with his family and friends.

"It’s a small, tight-knit group of people that really care about Scott," Saab said. "Scott’s just a great guy. Never really an evil bone in his body. He’s always really thoughtful. Even when you disagree with him and hate his guts, he’s still one of the sweetest people."

Laws’ mother led a prayer before the group went indoors for lunch.

"We thank you" God "for Scott," Sherryl Laws said, fighting back tears. "We just ask you to bless this day."

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