Cutting through red tape to get Silly String sent to Iraq

After months of roadblocks and red tape, the wait was finally over.

Marcelle Shriver headed to a Deptford warehouse Monday to watch a truck pick up an unusual, low-tech cargo intended to save the lives of American soldiers in Iraq.

"I have butterflies, I'm so excited," said the 58-year-old Stratford woman. "I was going to buy a bottle of champagne and hit the truck with it."

With donations from people across the country and help from a North Brunswick, N.J., shipping company, Shriver sent about 80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops, who use the foamy substance to detect trip wires on bombs.

"It's a little emotional," said Shriver, who shot off a couple of cans of Silly String in celebration. " . . . I know this will save lives. The soldiers need it."

Shriver got the idea for her Silly String campaign nearly a year ago from her son, Army Specialist Todd Shriver, a combat engineer who sometimes dismantles bombs as past of his job in Ramadi.

Silly String is not standard issue with the military, which is used to using more costly, high-tech devices such as robots to deal with bombs.

Marcelle Shriver sent some cans to her son, then started collecting it - from many sources - for other soldiers.

"I asked parishioners at my church to donate it and when others found out [through the news media and Internet], I was inundated with phone calls, e-mails, cards - and Silly String," she said.

"I lost count of all the newspaper interviews and radio shows I did. And I was also on Good Morning America and Inside Edition."

Last January, Shriver sent off a shipment of 40,000 cans through the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove in Pennsylvania, but the installation wasn't sure it would be sending more flights to Iraq.

McGuire Air Force Base declined to take a shipment but Fort Dix took a supply of Silly String from Shriver and has been providing cans to the soldiers.

The troops can shoot the Silly String 10 to 12 feet across the room - and if it drapes in mid-air, it's hit a trip wire.

"Most of the booby traps are triggered by cell phones or other electronic devices but (Silly String) can be used to find trip wires," said Carolee Nesbit, a spokeswoman at Fort Dix. "We have handed it out to units as they leave for Iraq. We still have some left."

But Shriver had more than a little Silly String.

She had tens of thousands of cans of Silly String from donors - more than she had room for at home.

So she got permission from a business friend in Deptford to store the cans at a warehouse there while she figured out how to ship them overseas.

Because Silly String is in an aerosol can, it's considered a hazardous material. Only certain companies are allowed to ship it.

After a story on Shriver's plight appeared in the New York Times, she said, she got a call from Thom Campbell, one of the founders of Capacity LLC, a North Brunswick company that ships hazardous materials.

He wanted to help. "It seemed like the right thing to do," said Campbell. "We're quite lucky to have an opportunity to help her."

The cans of Silly String were packed in boxes addressed to individual service members, placed on more than a dozen skids, and picked up Monday by a company called Yellow Transportation.

The cargo was headed for Capacity LLC's storage facility in North Brunswick to be inspected and then probably delivered to the U.S. Postal Service for shipment along with packages and letters for Iraq.

"I'm thrilled," said Shriver, whose son is due home in December. "The soldiers improvise. They figure out what works for them. I'm just trying to help out."

She said she didn't think the troops would mind her shooting off a couple of cans of Silly String on Monday to celebrate. "There's still 79,998 cans left."