Evening star., 1945-04-01
roope $1O for Schools While Salvagng Paper for War
BY Howard P. Bailey

BY Howard p. Bailey
More than 1,l00 stacks Of old news.
papers and magazines, each as high q,
the Washington Monument, have beer
collected at the schools Of Washington
and Montgomery County to be passed
on to the hungry mills which have
manufactured the waste into an infinite
variety of articles and containers Vita
to the prosecution of the war and, as
an exceedingly welcome by product
more than $l0l 900 have poured into
the treasures Of the various PTA. Home
and School and other organizations CO.
operating in The Evening Star-PTA
Salvage-for- Victory fund.
Back on December /, 1941, six days
before the Japanese made their sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor, about 100 school
children took part in the opening days
campaign to get in wastepaper. Alto
gether, they brought in about $500
pounds to some half dozen schools in
Southwest and Southeast Washington.
But small as their initial effort was,
they were pioneers in a movement
which was destined to spread through
out the country, leading eventually into
the creation of the Papertroopers Bri-
gade under the sponsorship of the War
Production Board.
The Papertroopers
Today in Washington, more than 30,-
900 children wear the Papertrooper in
sigma which marks them as having
qualified by bringing in Is pounds of
paper. Most of them wear one or more
chevrons to indicate advanced rank
each chevron representing 100 pounds
of salvaged paper. More than 625 of
them have become Supertroopers by COL
lecting 1000 pounds or more. One boy,
George Ntiros of Jefferson Junior High
School brought his total to more than
20 900 pounds and a school mate, Allen
Dinsmore, went beyond 10000 pounds.
The actual total collected through all
the schools passed the $4,000 000-pound
mark late in February.
Some weeks prior to the first collec-
ton, The Star set up the machinery to
help meet the wastepaper emergency
The Star had promoted a similar pro-
gram through the Fairgrounds during
the first World War and was convinced
that a shortage of even more serious
proportions was certain to come during
the present conflict.
Twelve Million Pounds
The city was divided into five dis
tricts and. with the approval OF the
Board of Education, the District Com
missioners and the school officials, the
work was started. December was largely
devoted to a test of methods and then,
after a brief rest over the Christmas
BY June, through the efforts OF the
Washington school children and others
who were quick to adopt the system or
a modified version of it, the wastepaper
market for a time became glutted and
collections we're dropped. However, by
midsummer, in 1943, it became ap-
parent that a new crisis was approach
ing, that the school children once more
would be called upon to help.
Early in october the collections were
resumed and have continued unbroken
since that time, some schools carrying
on through the summer last year and
the Playground Department filling in
the gaps where the schools were tenn
porarily not functioning.
In the 1912 drive, more than 4,000,-
600 pounds of wastepaper were collected.
In the resumed drive more than 12,000,-
600 pounds have been gathered in.
Fund Aids Schools
As this wastepaper has flowed in
and out of the schools week after week,
it has left behind 1t a golden residue,
which has been transformed into
great variety of equipment and i'm
provements which could not be financed
through regular school appropriations.
To school principals who have strug-
gled annually for additional books for
the school libraries, who have been dis
turbed by dingy curtains and back drops
on auditorium stages which have ma
terially damped the enthusiasm OF as
semblies, who have sought to improve
the exterior appearance of their build
ings as well as the interior, who have
urged numerous changes and additions
In order to increase the efficiency of
their schools, the revenue from the paper
has been a welcome windfal.
PareOts Have Aided
To parents who have worked hard and
long on cake sales, dinners and other
projects to raise funds which usually
were woefully inadequate the regular
monthly checks from the paper collec-
ton have been a revelation. The par
ents, incidentally, are deserving of
great share in the glory of the pres
ent accomplishment for it is no trif1ing
task for four or five mothers to weigh,
tie and pile three or four tons of paper
each collection day as is done in many
of the schools.
Throughout the program despite the
hard work involved, there has been an
unusual enthusiasm which stems from
more than just the desire to earn money
for the school, to meet great national
emergency, or to win out in competi-
ton with other schools. Possibly the
most frequently heard comment has
been 'it's fun"
Many Purchases Made
A few examples will indicate how
Importantly the revenue has figured in
the success Of the program. At the
Buchanan School, for instance, already
the following things have been pur-