Curious about wind current, 12-year-old Connor Lasco released a heart-shaped Mylar balloon at his home in Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon, where it was grabbed by a strong-moving jet stream and bobbed some 500 miles northeast before dropping down in Auburn.
Twelve-year-old Evy Bilodeau found the balloon at the end of a family snowmobiling trip later that day, three-and-a-half hours after Lasco set it adrift.
This ordinary Mylar party balloon swept across Pennsylvania, New York and New England at about 100 miles per hour.
Lasco had tied a note to the balloon, hoping someone would find it and respond to him, and Bilodeau did. That evening.
They struck up an immediate friendship by email, and shared this fun adventure with their hometown friends at their respective middle schools on Monday.
It’s a remarkable little story, not only in that the balloon traveled so far and was found so soon after it was released, but remarkable in that Lasco and Bilodeau probably learned more about wind currents, the jet stream and friendship in real life than they could ever have learned in the virtual world.
That’s not to say computers don’t have an important teaching role in our schools and our homes. They do.
But, every once in a while, there’s a real lesson in getting out there in the real world. With real people, real stories and real smiles.
The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.
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