Over the weekend, organizers of Washington's first annual Shred-A-Thon encouraged people to turn their bills and other personal documents into confetti — a change from the typical strips produced by paper shredders.

The reason? Identity thieves are getting desperate.

A Seattle Times article about the event reported that some identity thieves spend hours taping or pasting strips of paper back together in order to get information needed to steal someone's identity.

And thus the shredders came out. According to the Times, about 5,800 people showed up to 29 locations for the Shred-A-Thon, where different document companies donated staff members and trucks to cut up the paper on-site.

Besides positive community awareness events like this one, the only way to outsmart the thieves is to become more aware of the problem.

Students, who are typically financially unaware, need to take the initiative to protect their finances and identities.

First of all, learn to keep track of finances through balancing a checkbook or using a spreadsheet.

Secondly, take the advice of the experts: Turn your important documents into confetti and either use it for that upcoming party or sprinkle it in the recycle bin (and hope the thieves don't start pasting that back together).

Third, with all the junk mail and e-mail being sent lately, be aware of which online forms you're filling out and what credit card offers you're tossing in the trash.

With Washington among the 10 worst states in the nation for identity theft rates, students here need to be proactive in learning financial safety skills.

Maybe the UW even needs to start offering freshmen a basic skills class that includes finances.

As identity thieves get more desperate, people need to be willing to do what it takes. Who knows?

Maybe next year we'll have the first annual Incinerate-A-Thon.