Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/24/97   Dear World, Stay in Touch   It's bright blue, weighs 15 tons and has captured the hearts of West Seattle schoolchildren, 400 of whom cheered yesterday as the cargo container nicknamed the "Boomerang Box" was hoisted onto a ship at Terminal 5.   Students from West Seattle’s Holy Rosary School examine the cargo container they helped decorate before it is carried by ship to Japan.   "This box is going to connect us to people who we never would have met," said Barry Joyner, a 17-year-old West Seattle High School senior. "It's going to be seen by people in other countries and bring us all together."   Joyner and other students, from seniors to kindergartners, from public and Catholic schools said they can hardly wait to log onto the Internet to track the 40-foot container's 10 month journey to Pacific Rim countries.   They gave the Boomerang Box — decorated on the outside with 70 pieces of their artwork — a rousing send-off as a 100 foot crane gracefully perched it on top of dozens of other containers on the freighter President Truman.   "I think it's a really cool idea" said Sophia Rodriguez, and 18-year-old West Seattle High School senior, whose drawing of a dragonfly adorns the top of the box. "Now when I wipe my nose, I know where the paper came from, and that it's being shipped all around the world." Rodriguez was one of a group of students and teachers who recently flew to Lewiston, Idaho, to see paper products being manufactured at the Potlatch Paperboard and Lumber company. When the Boomerang Box leaves Seattle tomorrow morning bound for Yokohama, Japan, its first load will be milk carton stock.   Students bid goodbye to the cargo container called the “Boomerang Box” as it is hoisted aboard the freighter President Truman.   "The boomerang, when you throw it, travels around the world and comes back,"said Thais Gray, a 10-year-old Concord Elementary student. "That’s why we’re calling it the Boomerang Box."   Although Gray was excited about the project, she said she wasn't "too sure" yet what world trade is all about.   But 10-year-old Malina Hubler, a Pathfinder School student, already has a definition: "It's sending something to people far away and having them send something back."   She eagerly pointed out her drawing of a Japanese temple on the side of the box.   The drawings are in the shape of oversized postage stamps that were enlarged and applied to the container. They depict everything from the Space Needle and Northwest scenery to a yin-yang symbol.   The Port of Seattle, one of the sponsors of the project, has helped set up a Web site that will provide reports on the container's progress and answer questions submitted by students on both sides of the ocean.   As the container docks at more than a dozen Pacific Rim ports, students will study the geography, culture and economy of those regions.   "We want them to know we’re more than just business partners — we’re friends," said Tracy Cook, a 17-year-old West Seattle High Senior.   Other sponsors of the project are the American President Lines Shipping Company, King County's Magnuson Center for International Transportation & Telecommunications, and the Sound Schools, a coalition of schools and community groups in West Seattle.   Home Journey Log Trade Topics People Profiles Index Ask the Eagle