Monday, November 7, 2011

The Paper Clip Project


This weekend, Jim and I decided to take a foliage tour.  We live in such a beautiful part of the country and our colors were at their peak.  It was absolutely stunning.   It was a lovely day spent meandering along state highways and through a state park.  We are so lucky to live here.  The last small town we went through before returning home was Whitwell, TN.  Years ago I watched a documentary about this extraordinary project begun by a middle-school teacher and assistant principal trying to make an impression on their students about the impact of the Holocaust.  Trying to help them grasp the magnitude of the murders, they decided to collect paperclips to represent each person killed.  It snow-balled into an incredible project.  They were sent paperclips from all over the world.  Their crowning achievement was to acquire an actual railcar used to transport victims to the concentration camps for which the paperclips are now stored.  To step into this railcar is so moving, so sad, but so important.  What an incredible feat these educators mastered.

To learn more about the project, go to www.oneclipatatime.org.

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