Students find not-so-silly way to help U.S. troops

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. -- Students at St. John LaLande Catholic School know the common use for Silly String -- to squirt it at each other. It's a fun game, but the children at St. John LaLande have learned that Silly String also can save lives.

Soldiers fighting in the Middle East and Afghanistan shoot the Silly String to detect trip wires around bombs. Before entering an unknown structure, soldiers will squirt the stuff throughout the room. If it falls on the floor, there are no trip wires. If it hangs -- apparently in mid-air -- they know they have to find some other way into the room because a nearly invisible wire is there.

"Simply, a can of Silly String can save a soldier's life," said Connor Pace, an eighth-grader at the school. "We thought it would be cool to do a project where we collected cans of Silly String for the soldiers."

Jodi Briggs, assistant principal at St. John LaLande, said she heard of the collection effort shortly before Christmas. A New Jersey mother, Marcelle Shriver, started organizing a Silly String drive for her son, who is in Iraq.

"I wanted kids to think of the big picture," she said. "We have a couple of alumni in Iraq right now, and some of our staff have family members working with the military. I thought this would be something fun for the kids to get into while truly saving a life."

Each child who brought a can of Silly String to school received a dress pass. Briggs said the passes are "highly coveted" because students can use the pass on whatever day they choose and come to school in something other than their school uniform. More than 300 cans were collected during the recent drive.

"I was surprised when they told us what you could use Silly String for," said Abi Gaylord, a second-grade student. "I brought some Silly String because I didn't want any more soldiers to die or get hurt."

Katherine Gordon, an eighth-grader and student council president, said doing the project is important to show students that even young people can help others.

"Because the Silly String catches on the trip wires, it helps keep them safe," she said. "The soldiers are protecting us, and we want them to be safe doing it."

The next step was to ship the string to New Jersey.

"We focus on three areas at this school, our faith, service to others and education," she said. "Service is the foundation of our faith. This is who we are as Catholics."