Monday, September 10, 2012

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Photos from The Witness, published by the Archdiocese of Dubuque

Last week I wrote about a message found in a 98-year-old bottle. That's not bad, but how about a message attached to an 11-year-old balloon?

That's the story with an Iowa woman named Abbie Steger. In 2001, when she was nine years old, her first Communion class at St. Mark's Church in Edgewood, Iowa, released balloons into the sky, each one carrying a poem and personal message printed on a laminated card (that's Steger in the foreground of the top photo). The balloons and their accompanying notes are often found and returned in short order, but Steger's never was -- until it recently turned up on a farm in Hatfield, Wisconsin, which is about 150 miles from Edgewood as the crow flies (or in this case, as the balloon flies).

The note was eventually returned to Steger, who's now a 20-year-old college student. That's her sitting on the right and holding her note in the second photo. Lots of additional details are available in this article (although they don't mention what Steger had written in her note -- disappointing).

Releasing balloons is a somewhat controversial practice these days, due to environmental concerns. Even so, this is a pretty great story, no?

(My thanks to James Breig for bringing this one to my attention.)

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