Emporia ? It began as a craft project to honor victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now the work by three Emporia Girl Scouts will go into the annals of history.

Emporia Middle School students Sarah Richardson, 13, and Victoria Bond, 14, and Erin England, 13, who attends Chase County Middle School, were compelled to do something for those touched personally by the attacks. So, with the help of Connie Bond, Victoria’s mother and the Scout leader, the three girls discovered The Angel Project. The project called for craft-makers to send handmade angels for distribution to the families of victims, firefighters and others.

The Scouts then decided to do the project jointly with Presbyterian Manor, a local retirement home. The Scouts worked side by side with residents to make angels out of wallpaper, buttons, paint and paper.

A select few angels, one from each state, were hand-picked for uniqueness and sent to the Pentagon for a special memorial display. They will be documented by historians and kept permanently at the U.S. Historical Archives.

One of those was created by Troop 41, but the girls aren’t sure which one of the many they made was sent to the Pentagon.

“We made about 100,” Erin said, “of six different types.”

Among the crafts were button angels and sports angels of different ethnic backgrounds.

Organizers of the Angel Project had initially hoped to collect 5,000 to 6,000 angels, then thought to be the number of victims at the World Trade Center.

Instead, by the Dec. 7 deadline the project had received more than 152,000 angels from people all over the world.