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thedrifter
12-15-06, 07:16 AM
Meijer donation of spray-can string not so silly

Associated Press

December 14, 2006, 1:09 PM CST

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Meijer Inc. is donating thousands of cans of a Silly String-like product to a New Jersey mother's effort to collect the stuff for her son and other troops in Iraq to use for detecting booby traps.

The Grand Rapids-based retailer contacted Marcelle Shriver at her home in Stratford, N.J., on Wednesday and told her to expect to receive 6,000 cans of Magic String.

"Meijer's contribution is awesome and, when they called, I was just floored," Shriver told The Grand Rapids Press. "It is a wonderful thing for them to do, and God bless them for this."

Shriver said donation calls have come from around the country and as far away as England and Peru since her campaign started last week. Her one-car garage is filled with more than 3,000 cans of Silly String or similar products, she said.

"We saw the effort Mrs. Shriver was making, and it's such an easy thing to do to help protect our soldiers for a relatively low cost," said Stacie Behler, a Meijer spokeswoman. "This is creative and ingenious, and the innovation of our troops deserves to be applauded."

The neon-colored gel is manufactured under several names, the most common being Silly String. Shriver's son, Army Spec. Todd Shriver, 28, whose tour of duty in Iraq started in October, told her about how he and other troops use it during building sweeps.

Before entering structures, troops squirt the plastic gel -- which comes out in liquid form but dries in mid-air into strands 10 to 12 feet long -- across rooms to detect booby traps. If the strands remain suspended, the almost-invisible trip wires can be detected.

Shriver said when her son first asked for Silly String, "I thought he was nuts," but she quickly came to realize how important it is to soldiers to use whatever it takes to make them safer.

The military is reluctant to talk about the use of Silly String, saying that discussing specific tactics will tip off insurgents. But Army soldiers and Marines are not prohibited from coming up with new ways to do their jobs, especially in Iraq's ever-evolving battlefield.

Meijer officials became aware of Shriver's efforts to collect cans of the product and have it shipped to U.S. military personnel in Iraq after hearing about it on a morning radio program.

Kevin Matthews, weekday morning radio host for WLAV-FM, said the radio station is challenging the community to match Meijer's donation.

Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, www.mlive.com/grpress

Ellie