Paper Clips

               It took me a little while to watch this movie.  There it sat with the rest of the mail waiting for me to pick it up.  Most movies I watch pretty quickly, but for some reason I thought Paper Clips was going to be a dreary fictional piece.  Right now I am not up for dreary.  When I finally put the film in I realized I had been quite wrong.  Not only was this not dreary, but it was a documentary.  Where I got the idea it was fiction, I do not know.  The point is, instead of dreary I got a positive and uplifting documentary.  

                A middle school in a small town in Tennessee is the focus of this film.  With such little diversity in the school, the administration and faculty became concerned and decided to start a program about differences in people.  They did this by teaching the students about the Holocaust.  When the students were informed about the six million Jews killed, the students could not fathom that much of anything.  They decided to start a project where they would collect six million of something in order to see this amount for themselves.

                During their research, the students discovered the symbolism of the paper clip during that time.  They figured this would be the best thing to collect.  The students wrote letters explaining their project and asking for paper clips.  Letters were sent to other schools, politicians, and celebrities.  It took years, but the project received great notoriety and it grew beyond their wildest dreams.  People from around the word responded and with them came stories that are not to be forgotten.

                While the students received letters, they were also given another honor.  A group of Holocaust survivors heard about their project and came to the town to tell their stories.  While everyone was already changing due to the project, these personal stories added another element.

                What started out as a good lesson turned into more than anyone could ever imagine.  While the main project ended, the impact did not.  I will not tell you what they did with the paper clips.  You will have to watch the film to find out.