The Sacramento State chapter of Circle K International sold about 250 origami flowers in its third annual fundraising event to help eliminate a disease, maternal and neonatal tetanus, which affects mothers and their babies.

According to The Eliminate Project’s website, “This deadly disease steals the lives of nearly 60,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year. The effects of the disease are excruciating – tiny newborns suffer repeated, painful convulsions and extreme sensitive to light and touch.”

Circle K International sold three styles of origami flowers for the past few weeks to raise funds for The Eliminate Project and raised about $350.

They sold flowers made from two types of paper: origami and crepe paper. It ranged from $2 to $3 each depending on the intricacy of the flower. The colors mostly represented Valentine’s Day with red, pink, white, orange and blue.

With its most recent elimination in Madagascar during 2014, the project’s goal is to completely eliminate tetanus from the remaining 24 countries by the end of 2015.

The organization has had a partnership with UNICEF and Kiwanis International for five years.

“Before [this project], a baby died every five minutes. Now that we’ve helped spread vaccinations, the statistic is now one baby dying every eleven minutes,” said Seng Khang, junior humanities and religious studies and anthropology major.

Kiwanis Family Chair Khang asked freshman criminal justice major Albert Chiem to collaborate on the event. They started planning the event in December and making the flowers in January with the help of their members.

“Circle K fundraised a total of $120 million in the past five years in an effort to get rid of tetanus,” said Lawrence Sahagun, sophomore english major. “The flower fundraiser is just one of the many examples Circle K does to serve and fundraise for good causes.”