Tape in all forms for World Duct Tape collection

This "roll" from Morocco came in the form of a strip of tape that was given to the Sonsollas while on a trip in 2015. It was attached to a card by a merchant at the market in Marrakesh and signed in arabic. Roll number 67 for the collection. This was their 8th roll for the World Duct Tape Collection!

Steve Koehler, a Chi Lambda '75 fraternity brother from college got roll number 66 while on a mission trip to Nepal helping rebuild after the April 2015 earthquake there. He had his picture taken with the owner of the store where he bought it.  In the picture you can see the photo, Duct Tape coin, Log book entry and his roll. I sent the engraved coin and a list of all the countries we have to date to Steve this week so he can keep the collection in mind as he and his wife travel.

Here is a picture of the back side of coin #58. This one was engraved and will be sent to Deana Holvorson in Dodgeville. My wife attends the same church as Deana and they had an exchange student living with them in 2015 and had him get this roll sent to him from Finland.

So if you are reading this blog or know of a friend that is traveling check out the listing of countries I already have in my May 29, 2014 blog post. Send me a roll of tape from a new country for the collection and I will send them an "official" (one of two hundred) World Duct Tape coin.

Duct Tape Coins

They are about the size and weight of a silver dollar and way cool!!! On the back side is the blog address  ducttape2thefuture.blogspot  so that people that get one of these can go to the blog and see pictures of new rolls added to the World Duct Tape Collection. Also there is a place to write the name and number of the roll.

My idea is now that I have signed rolls from 65 world countries I will engrave the country and roll number on the back of a coin and give it to the person that got that specific roll for the collection. This will continue forward as rolls come in to complete the collection of all 200 plus countries of the world! Want a coin? Check the list and send me a roll from a country not on the list.

As always the list of all countries I have rolls from is printed in a previous blog post of 5-29-14.

Tape from Zambia

Some weeks have passed since I last added a roll of Duct Tape to the World collection. Hardly a week goes by that I don't use or think about Duct Tape. Sometimes I am rewarded with a nice surprise in the mail, as when Gail Edwardson, PA State Problem #2 captain sent me this roll.

Gail goes to Africa every June for 2 weeks and always carries Duct Tape with her! Gail gave this roll to Margaret Meg) Rauth  who sent it on to me to add to the collection. Thanks ladies, way to go! Great OM'er spirit.

65 world countries gown 135 + to go.

Duct Tape from Happiest Country in the World

That would be Bhutan!

Roll number 63 (a full list of the countries I now have is printed in the second post to this blog) was sent to me by Karma Choden. I saw a report on Sunday Morning about Bhutan, the happiest country in the world and thought it would be neat to try to get a signed roll for the World Duct Tape collection from the happiest country in the world. After a Google search I found the Yangphel Adventure Travel and in their information on hiking trips mentioned emergency kits. I asked if by any chance Duct Tape was a part of the kit? Karma said yes! After a few emails to explain the World Duct Tape collection Karma said a roll would be signed and sent to me.

I took the collection to the Odyssey of the Mind World finals last week in Ames, Iowa and got the word out. I met team coaches from Indonesia and Togo and will be working in the next few weeks to get signed rolls from their countries to add to the collection. Wish me luck.

Also got a roll from China. This was to clear up the confusion over the first roll I got for the World Collection from the team from Hong Kong. So now the list will show roll number 64 as coming from Hong Kong. My OM roommate from N.C. Ernie A will be happy to see the correction.

Duct tape display on wheels

Did some work on the World Duct Tape display this past week. Rigged up a pulley system to raise and lower the two halves from the back wall of the pole shed. Also added some more backing to hold the screws used to mount new rolls of Duct Tape. Mounted and ran strings for the last new rolls received - #58 Finland from Deania Halvorson - #59 Croatia from Kay Reader -  #60 Zimbabwe from Sarah Ahrems-Balwig - #61 St Martin from Dave Langer - #62 Romania from Zoli Akacsos. Then put wheels on the unit for easy transport.

Took the collection on the road to display it at the Our Town chamber of commerce show in Darlington. It was a nice way to present the collection and tell the story of how this all got started and keep it growing. Handed out new up dated lists of the countries now in the collection.

Duct Tape a Battle Axes go together nicely so I took the collection to the Chi Lambda fraternity 60th anniversary at UW Stout this past weekend 4/23/16 and set it up there. The Traveling Battle Axe has been circulating since 2001 and Chi Lambda alumni have been signing it and the log book telling what they have been doing since graduation. Then they put it back in the shipping box and mail it to another fraternity member that they know. It has been going pretty slow so I thought I could get the word out at the 60th anniversary dinner and spur it 's travels on. The instructions in the box call for each person that gets the Axe to email me and then I will post it on this blog so others can also learn and keep updated on it's travels. Time will tell how it goes.  The dream is to have every living Chi Lambda fraternity member sign this axe by the 75th anniversary in 2031 !

Hope to also take the collection to this years OM World Finals in Ames, Iowa

Roll # 61 St. Martins

Collecting rolls of Duct Tape from all 200 + countries of the world requires patients (and friends that travel a lot). It has been a while but world traveler Dave Langer from Madison, WI got this roll for the collection while he was on his 2015 Christmas vacation in St. Martins.

Dave writes, "The island is divided into parts (Dutch) St. Maarten and (French) St. Martin. I was in a town called Grand Sase on the French side. I went to a store called Simply Market, mostly groceries but did have a few hardware items. Flavio was the clerk who sold it to me. I asked him what is the main use of duct tape here on the island and he shrugged and said, ""Hey its St. Martin, everything breaks here and this is how we fix things."" And that seemed to be true, a beautiful island but basics such as plumbing and road conditions are not what we would expect. Glad to be of help. I only collect countries as this now puts me at 123. So I will be bringing you more."

Way to go Dave. Happy travels this summer.