JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
The book signing of a brand-new novel detailing the history and stories behind the Paper Clips Program was recently held at Whitwell Middle School. Titled The Power of a Paper Clip and authored by Board of Education member Linda Hooper and former Whitwell Middle School teacher Sharon Shadrick, the book details the founding of the Paper Clips Program itself, as well as the various individuals and local businesses who helped turn the program into reality.
According to Hooper when asked about what the book is about, she explained that it is both a biography as well as a collection of stories from individuals who have Jewish backgrounds, while also having relatives who were victims of the Holocaust during World War 2.
“It’s a little of both. Most of it is stories and personal interview kind of things,” explained Hooper. One of such stories she mentioned was from a police officer from Texas who was of Jewish descent and how he told his personal account about his difficulties of growing up Jewish. Another noted by Mrs. Hooper, was of two survivors of the Holocaust who came to WMS from California to place four paperclips inside the memorial’s train car.
“They were my age when they came to the old school. They had flown from California to Nashville and driven from Nashville to Whitwell, Tennessee just to put two paper clips for his parents and two paper clips for her parents in that car because they had no idea what had happened to them,” explained Hooper. Ms. Shadrick explained that the program and memorial had a massive amount of support from the local community, the scope of which she noted could not be explained properly in person and that by reading the book can audiences truly picture the vast amount of support they had when first starting the program.
“Until you start reading the book, you don’t realize how many people in this community were involved. I mean there were people you wouldn’t even think about. People who housed the film crew in their homes, people who did the landscaping. I mean just all sorts of jobs that people did to make this happen,” explained Shadrick. The Power of a Paper Clip is now available for purchase across various bookstores and online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
