From Indiana to Ann Arbor: The tale of a bundle of balloons found near Wheeler Park
With 3 co-workers celebrating a birthday, Deb Heed felt pretty lucky Wednesday when she found a bundle of 19 helium-filled balloons on a North Fourth Avenue sidewalk near Wheeler Park in Ann Arbor.
At first, she said, it looked like a pile of trash.
Upon closer inspection, the bundle also included about 3 dozen shredded balloons — and a note asking the finder to give a call and report how far they’d traveled.
Deb Heed with the traveling balloon bundle.
Courtesy of Deb Heed
As Heed says: “I thought of the millions of times when I was a kid” that she’d wondered what it would be like to send a balloon with a note or find one, and sharing it with someone on the other end of its journey.
She’d sent similar balloons on similar journeys.
“But I never heard from anybody,” she said.
Heed and co-worker Kerby Smithson took the bundle — with its 19 intact balloons and a note in a Ziploc bag asking the finder to make contact — back to their office of the Clean Energy Coalition on North Main Street to make the call.
The sender turned out to be the Graber family, who live on Graber Road in Grabill, Ind., near Fort Wayne.
Heed was told that the family’s kids got out of school on May 16, and as part of the celebration that day, all of the children sent up a single balloon with a note. The Grabers brought the balloons and a helium tank, and ended up with leftovers of both.
“They had to return the tank today, but it still had a lot of helium in it, so they filled up as many as they could,” Heed said.
That totaled 54. They bundled them together and sent them up with a single note at about 11 a.m.
Two hours and about 130 miles later, the balloon bundle was on an Ann Arbor sidewalk along Heed’s path from the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market.
Heed wants to send photos of the balloons to the Graber family, but the Amish family doesn’t have an Internet connection for email. She’ll probably end up mailing them.
In the meantime, she thinks it’s fun that a lunchtime walk resulted in the chance encounter with the balloons.
And the co-workers who were celebrating birthdays — Lisa Warshaw, Joel Baetens, and Kevin Bush — all got to share in the event.
“When I first walked in the office door with the balloons, they assumed I had bought them for the party,” she said, “and thought I'd gone a bit overboard.”
Comments
jns131
Fri, May 27, 2011 : 7:17 p.m.
Isn't it illegal to do this? I thought it was. O well, guess someone got away with littering again. But, yes, it is a nice hear another balloon story.
andys
Fri, May 27, 2011 : 1:42 p.m.
When I saw the headline I knew that launching balloons would be condemned as not eco friendly. We did this over ten years ago, at the end of a New Years Eve party. The balloons were found by Amish children in Pennsylvania, who responded by mail with a nice letter. This article reminds me to find that letter and show it to my 9 yo and 8 yo daughters, they love that kind of stuff. I now see a similar balloon launch in my future. Thank you annarbor.com! (I know, I know, but I'd better do it before helium costs $50 / balloon, and its against the law. Life's too f'ing short people.)
Ann English
Fri, May 27, 2011 : 12:03 a.m.
I suppose the notes said, "Call collect," like one I found decades ago well wrapped (its string was) around a bush branch. It was a red balloon, and a student from a St. Joseph School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin had sent it into the air. It took more than two days to come down. Wauwatosa is just west of Milwaukee, which is right on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Lola
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 8:12 p.m.
Just to add to the Debbie Downer vibe here......Haven't the Amish heard that there's a helium shortage? I know that sounds like a joke but it's not. Enjoy your helium balloons now folks, because in the near future you'll be lucky to be able to afford just one for your party.
Dave
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 6:59 p.m.
Imagine if this wad of balloons had gotten caught in a jet airplane's engine.
David Spence
Sat, May 28, 2011 : 7:06 p.m.
O.K. I imagine the balloons would have been pretty well destroyed.
chapmaja
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 6:47 p.m.
If people read the article it pretty much says where the other ones ended up. The bundle included 19 ballons and 3 dozen shreded ones. They were likely all still together in the bundle. I have no problem with someone doing this as a one time thing. It's interesting to see how far and how fast they can fly. It also shows just how unstable the weather can be around here like it was in recent days. It takes a lot of enregy to send something as light as those ballons as far and as fast they went. That same energy is what is involved in the strong and severe storms that have it the area recently.
Tom Whitaker
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 5:51 p.m.
Fun story, but I have to agree that I too am tired of finding balloon remnants and non-biodegradable ribbons strewn across the beaches of Lake Michigan. They aren't usually the result of a one-off experiment like this, but more likely from mass releases of individual balloons like the one this family had just taken part in (how many of those were found?). If you think I'm exaggerating, just take a long walk on any Great Lake beach this summer and see how many you find. Along with plastic bottles and cigarette butts, they are surprisingly numerous. Ten seconds of fun watching a balloon float away is not a good trade for permanent litter or worse, the death of a shore bird from ingesting a ribbon or balloon fragment. If you must, at least use latex balloons and don't use a string which keeps the balloon from reaching a high altitude where it will pop. And don't use curling ribbon--it never, ever goes away.
sloppySam
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 5:50 p.m.
Latex balloons are 100% bio-degradable unlike their mylar counterparts. When exposed to outdoor elements they are completely consumed by soil or water micro-organisms at a rate quicker than that experienced by an oak leaf under identical conditions. In much the same way maple syrup is harvested from the maple tree, the production of latex balloons contributes positively to the preservation of tropical rain forests. They do pose a choke hazard for young ones, though. I think if you are out hugging trees & find one, my advice would be to eat it ...
leezee
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 5:14 p.m.
Oh, for Pete's sake! Just enjoy the heartwarming story. Why turn everything into a political/eco issue?
Rork Kuick
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 4:51 p.m.
Please never send up ballons folks. It's littering. Condemn it when you see it. I'm sick of finding balloons in the woods. Where do I send hate mail?
Homeland Conspiracy
Sat, May 28, 2011 : 11:55 a.m.
Hate mail huh WOW You must be soooo much fun to be around...NOT
grye
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 5:50 p.m.
Every party needs a pooper....
Wolf's Bane
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 4:39 p.m.
Excellent story. Nice to hear stuff like this still happens.
Phil Dokas
Thu, May 26, 2011 : 3:48 p.m.
65 mph for those balloons! Not too shabby.