Strongsville Invented Paper Airplane Day -- Fact or Hoax?

If you were paying close attention to the Internet yesterday, you may have seen Strongsville come up in some news stories about National Paper Airplane Day.

The stories claimed that the unofficial holiday, celebrated every May 26, originated here back in 1944, when Strongsville High School students petitioned to get paper airplanes recognized with a day of their own.

According to hubpages.com, "the students have been celebrating ever since."

Uh, really?

"I've never heard anything about it," said Rich Principe, a science teacher at Strongsville High School.

Tim Ruese, a video and photography teacher who has been at the school since 1984, was equally baffled.

"If that's true, you'd think in 27 years, I would have heard about it and I haven't," Ruese said.

There were no paper airplane celebrations at the high school yesterday, and several SHS grads polled by Patch also were mystified by the claim.

Google "National Paper Airplane Day" and "Strongsville," and a Wikipedia entry comes up that claims to list Strongsville as the originator of the holiday. But call up the entry, and there's no mention. The entry was modified May 27.

However, several other sites picked up the story yesterday, crediting Strongsville High School students with creating National Paper Airplane Day.

"It's a nice idea," Principe said. "But I suspect it's misinformation."