Showing of award-winning documentary “Paper Clips” at Berea College Sept. 10

This free, public showing begins at 7 p.m. in Berea College’s Phelps Stokes Auditorium, and will be followed by a question and answer session with Linda Hooper, principal of Whitwell Middle School. Some of the students involved in the project will also be present.

The principal launched the project to help her students open their eyes to the diversity of the world beyond their rural community of two-thousand people who are almost exclusively white and Christian. What happened would change the students, their teachers, their families and the entire town forever… and eventually open hearts and minds around the world.
The paper clip is important because Norwegians, who invented it, used it as a symbol of solidarity against the Nazis. During World War II, Norwegians were prohibited from wearing any buttons with the likeness or initials of their king on them. In protest they started wearing paperclips, because paperclips were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to bind together. Despite the fact that the students had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips that stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.

This program is presented as part of the Brushy Fork Annual Institute. Since 1988, Brushy Fork Institute has worked to develop strong leadership in Appalachian communities throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. An outreach program of Berea College, the Institute offers leadership training, organizational development workshops and technical assistance to communities working for a better tomorrow. The Annual Institute builds the capacity of nonprofits and community-based organizations in central Appalachia, specifically in rural communities such as Whitwell, Tennessee.

For more information about this event contact Jane Higgins, Brushy Fork Institute Associate, at 859-985-3436 or email .

This event is sponsored in partnership with Berea College’s Appalachian Center, The Idea Project of the Campus Christian Center, Center for Excellence in Learning Through Service, and GEAR UP.