Local business owner Bob Su recently put his free time to good use, creating origami ornaments to sell at his restaurant, Lieu’s Peking, and giving the proceeds to the local Boys & Girls Club.

The idea came about when a customer came to the restaurant and donated some origami paper to him, he said.

“A customer came in and donated some origami paper to me and I didn’t know what I was going to do with it,” he said.

Then, another customer offered another suggestion.

“Another customer suggested that I do something for an organization, and I decided to make items to sell and donate the proceeds to the Boys & Girls Club,” he said.

The choice to donate to the local organization was an easy one, he said.

“I decided to gear it toward a local organization that was in need,” he said. “I thought that the Boys & Girls Club didn’t get many donations and I could help.”

Su was only able to sell $69 worth of origami this time around, but he’s hoping that he’ll be able to sell more and donate a larger sum next time.

“The paper that is used for origami is expensive, but if I could get some other papers donated, I could use it to create more origami and raise more money for them,” he said.

Origami is a noticeable facet at the local restaurant.

Anyone who has ever been to Lieu’s around Christmas may have noticed Su’s origami-decorated Christmas tree.

Su said the hobby is something that he picked up when he was growing up in South Korea.

“It’s something that you learn as you grow up in Asian countries,” he said. “We would make toys out of paper and play games with them. We would make frogs that could jump and race them. We also made other things that were used in war games.”

Su lived in Pusan, South Korea, until age 9 and then moved to Iowa before moving to Milledgeville in 2003.

Su said he didn’t pick up the hobby again until he became the owner of his restaurant.