Fiji Roll Number 78

Steve and Sandy Koehler collected another roll of Duct Tape for the collection. This one from Fiji. He and his wife were working to build a Habitat house there. Standing in front of the finished house built for a local family. A World Duct Tape Coin number 78 (1 of 200) and the roll of Duct tape he got for the collection are also in the photo.

Here is a picture of the family that the house was built for. The mother works at a local resort and the father is a farm labor making less than $50 a month. Three of the children are in school the others are at home. 

Steve says he always seems to find Duct Tape at stationary stores in the countries he visits. Many of the hardware stores do not stock the kind of Duct Tape we use in the US.

The roll from Fiji was purchased in a small town outside the capital city of Nadi near the job site of the home building project.

A local wood carver near the building site caught Steve's attention as the "head crackers" he was carving reminded Steve of the Chi Lambda battle axes we carved to pledge the fraternity at Stout. The Fijians were cannibals many generations ago and a fierce tribe of people. Many have great wood carving skills. This carver told Steve he made his tools from broken chisels he could find.  

  The World Duct Tape collection continues to grow. This photo shows the rolls that I have received over the past few months. Soon I will have to place them on the map with the rest of the rolls in the collection for display. The goal is to have 100 rolls in the collection by the time of the 2108 OM World Finals in Ames, Iowa this year. For an up to date list of all the rolls in the collection click on this link. ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com Good luck and keep traveling and an eye pealed for Duct Tape for the collection. Send me a roll and I will send you an engraved (1 of 200) World Duct Tape Collection Coin.

Two rolls in one day !

The collection continues to grow. Roll number 76 -  This summer Barb Folley's grandchildren from Greenfield, WI came to visit. Barb brought them to Darlington to see the log cabin I was building. One thing lead to another and I showed them the World Duct Tape collection and explained the Challenge Coins I give to anyone that gets a roll for the collection. They said that their neighbors Pero and Stoya Lakic were from Serbia and were going back for a relatives wedding soon. Kya and Griffin (Barbs grandchildren) talked to their neighbors and got this roll from Serbia for the collection.

Barb Foley with the roll from Serbia and the engraved Challenge Duct Tape coin.

The very same day, in the mail, I got a package from Dr. Barb Rothlisberg from Merrill, WI.

I had a good feeling about this being Duct Tape...

And sure enough it was. Maybe not the gray type that we are used to but close enough. The yellow one in front will be put on the map and the others stored. You can see the World Duct Tape coin and a list of rolls in the collection in the picture. I will send the coin out to Dr. Barb as soon as I finish this posting. To see the list of rolls I have in the collection to date click on this link. ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com

Two rolls on the same day! This roll/s were bought by Winnie Mucherah, Phd. Professor of Psychology at Ball State Univ. for 180 KES ( $1.75) (Kenyan Shelling  1 USD = 103 KES  1 KES = .009 USD) Winnie knows Dr. Barb Rothlesberg, a fellow professor. Barb is the sister of George Rothlisberg in Merrill, WI. I know George from working with him in the 70's at Darlington HS. And that's the story of roll #77 from Kenya.

Duct Tape from Malta

And the story goes:

Roll number 75 is from Malta. So in March of 2017 the word goes out that the Timber Framers Guild is going to build a 90 foot bridge at this years conference being held in Madison, Wisconsin and they are looking for help. As a member and having a keen interest in bridge building I get involved and help out.

To check out the bridge project here is a link and go to the 5/23/17 post bridges2thefuture.blogspot.com

The bridge designer Richard Latrobe-Bateman from England and his son Will are in Madison and while working on the bridge we get to talking about the World Duct Tape Collection. Imagine that! Will says that he is going to friends wedding in Malta in a few weeks and he will get a roll for the collection. When he gets to he castle (no kidding) he remembers the duct tape mission but everything is closed. But resourceful person that Will is he sees the DJ at the wedding reception using duct tape to hold down his wiring and Will makes a connection to secure the roll and a new friend. Great story Will and thanks for adding roll #75 to the collection. To see the list of all the rolls I have to date click on this link.  ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com


Maybe you or someone you know can get a roll for the collection and send it to me. When I get your roll I will send you one of the 1 in 200 red brass coins pictured above. It will be engraved with the countries name, date and roll number.

#74 Iceland added to collection

Eric "Gracy" Gracyainy took on the mission to get a roll of Duct Tape from Iceland and did it with gusto! Here he is standing outside Brynja (http://www.brynja.is/) a local hardware store in Iceland. A visit to Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik's State Street got the job done. Looking at their website shows that have an impressive line of tools and Duct Tape!

And Gracy will soon have his own one of a kind ( 1 of 200 ) World Duct Tape coin #74 to prove it.

Gracy and Chris at Brynja in Iceland with the prize. Gracy says he also had another mission and that was to get a shot glass from Iceland to add to his collection of almost 200 of them! So here's to Gracy.

If you are traveling or know someone click this link. ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com to see the list of world countries I already have in the World Duct Tape Collection. Get a roll from a country NOT on the list for the collection I will blog your story and send you a Duct Tape Coin.  126 countries to go.

U.A.E. roll add to collection

This roll #73 came from Dubai one of the seven emirates that make up the U.A.E. (United Arab Emirates) . Last year during the World Finals in Ames, Iowa Meg Rauth saw the World Duct Tape collection on display and told Lorraine and Rob Lowrie about it. They were their working as officials.  Their son Nathan was also there. They are all from Lebanon, PA. Nathan sent the tape to me from his business Fine Line Automation. They bought the tape and sent it to me with the receipt. It was interesting to note that the name of the cashier that waited on them was printed on it.

Did a bit of research on Dubai - They are 9 hours ahead of CST in Wisconsin. Dubai is a city and emirate in the U.A.E. known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively night life scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m tall tower, dominates the skyscraper filled skyline. At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. On artificial islands just offshore is Atlantis, The Palm, a resort with water and marine animal parks.

I have engraved a Duct Tape Coin for the Lowrie's and if I don't see them at this years World Finals in East Lansing MI I will mail it to them.

To see a list of all the countries I have rolls of tape from please click on this link
ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com

Star Wars Day Special

This roll from Iran arrived on May 4th 2017 the 72nd roll to be added to the World Duct Tape Collection.

Steve Koehler and his wife were traveling this spring and went to Hungary and Iran. In the picture you can see Steve with the shop owner buying the roll. Getting gray cloth backed Duct Tape is somewhat difficult to get in Iran with all the conflict going on (there was some discussion about drown repair and terrorists) so he had to settle for this type. He also sent a sample of the money used in Iran a 50,000 rial note (about $1.54 US). Pretty impressive security built into the money they use. Steve says his next trip will be to Africa he will be on safari. Hope he can bag a roll of tape from a new country not on the list.  If you want to see the list of all 72 countries in the collection click on this link  ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com

New roll from Hungary

Jerry Winslow got this roll while on a trip to Budapest, Hungary  He went to a local hardware store and the clerk signed it. Cost was 1500 Ft. That's Forints the currency of the country. It takes 3 Forints to equal 1 U.S. penny. So the cost was about $5.00 The cost of everything is marked in Ft.'s so the numbers are pretty big. If you went to the Apple Store to buy a new $1600.00 Mac the price tag would show 480,000 Ft on it! There money has a lot of zeros on it. Will get Jerry his Duct Tape coin soon.

If you want to see the list of countries I have rolls from click on ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot then try to get a roll from a new country for the collection and I send you a Duct Tape coin.

New roll from Trinidad

Steven Koehler went to Port of Spain for Carnival with another XV John Jelinek and the wives. Ever on the hunt for Duct Tape and Steve got this roll from a local supply store in Trinidad. Way to go Steve. Have added your roll to the World Duct Tape Collection list and will be sending your Duct Tape coin out in the mail in a few days. Way to go Steve!

If you would like to see a list of the countries I have signed rolls of Duct Tape from to date just click on link here  ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com 

Latest roll #70 in the collection from Trinidad. Southernmost island of the Caribbean. Located just north east of Venezuela. Thanks Steve.

Trying something new a Duct Tape List link

I think I have figured it out. As the collection grows people that read this blog and want to help collect rolls need to see a list of the countries I already have. The list has to be up to date. To do this I have set up a separate blog page that just lists the countries I already have signed rolls from. Now every time I post information and the story about a new roll added to the collection I will end the post with this message and link:

To see the most current list of countries in the collection click the link below

ducttape2thefuturelist.blogspot.com

I will be working with the Wisconsin OM State competition again this year as the problem captain for Problem 1  Catch us if you can. The first round of training is being held Sunday, Feb. 26th at MATC in Madison. I have invited a few of my past team members to help out at the competition. It has been almost 10 years since they graduated and it will be good to get together again. They had a good time when they were participating and are excited to be back into OM again. I will be bringing them up to speed on the World Duct Tape Collection. Some of them were a part of this when I started it back in 2004 trying to collect a signed roll of Duct Tape from each of the 50 United States! 

Hello Guatemala roll #69

Just got the mail today and had a great surprise.

It came from Chi Lambda fraternity brother, Steve Kohler.

Steve picked up this roll of Duct Tape while on a mission trip in Guatemala. More on this later when he fills me in on the story.

Steve included some nice back ground photos of him getting the roll to add to the World Duct Tape Collection. I have engraved a Duct Tape coin with the country name, date and roll number for this roll and mailed it off to him. Thanks Steve and happy, safe future travels.

Also I have sent a Duct Tape coin to Apollo 13 engineer, Ed Symlie for the roll he sent me in the early days of the collection. He sent a nice note that he received the coin.

I have set a milestone goal to have country 100 in the collection by the end of this years 2017 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. To that end I sent a coin to Jimmy Fallon and the challenge for him to add a roll to the collection. No word back yet, but will keep followers posted on progress I make.