User:Elasticrobot

BALLOON THEORY

100th day of school Kindergarten students at Fredonia Elementary hold balloons Monday during an event to commemorate the 100th day of school. The celebration began with a parade through the school that eventually led all the grade levels outside. The students then lined up to spell a wiggly “100.” The kindergarten students released 100 balloons, each of which was tagged with information about Fredonia Elementary, the 100 days project, a special question written by an individual class and a request for the finder to contact the school. When and if a balloon is located, the students will mark the balloon’s final landing spot on a map.

Copyright 2011, The Daily Sentinel, Nacogdoches, TX | Terms of Use

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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- To Robin Hammond Briggs, Alyssa Alta Briggs, Shalina Suzanne Hammond and Hazel Wallace Hammond, we know what happened to the balloons you released that included poems honoring victims of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

You won't believe it.

And we at The Huntsville Times want to talk to you about it.

The balloons traveled more than 500 miles before landing this morning in Dunn, N.C. -- about 30 miles south of Raleigh.

Duane Martin found them after his dog, Shorty, began barking at the falling balloons this morning. Martin looked up and saw the balloons and followed them as they fell to the ground. He picked them up along with his boss, Kent Johnson.

"They landed about 100 yards from us in a cotton field so we started across the field after them," Martin said in an email to The Times. September 11, 2001

» 10 years after 9/11: Security has gone up in Huntsville, but so has patriotism

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» Redstone Arsenal security concerns after 9/11 terrorist attacks doomed southern bypass » Read more 9/11 stories from The Huntsville Times, The Birmingham News and The Press-Register September 11, 2011

(Martin, describing the chase for the balloons, also demonstrated a nice sense of humor: "It was still kinda early so everything was still wet in the field from the dew. Being the gentleman I am, I let Kent lead the way to knock the water off the cotton.")

When they arrived at the landing site, Martin grabbed one balloon and Johnson grabbed the other. They began reading the notes.

"I was getting teary as I read it, it truly touched by heart," Martin wrote in the email. "Nothing short of a miracle that it traveled from Huntsville, Alabama, to Dunn, North Carolina, with no protection, just bare paper and landed in our yard in perfect condition. We traded notes and I read the other one and was holding tears back again."

Martin was so impressed that he wanted the authors of the poems to know what happened to their balloons.

"This was an amazing, inspirational moment for me and we want the young women that wrote this to know where it landed and how much it touched us," Martin wrote in the email. "I will never forget 9/11 and I will never forget 9/13 when this miracle fell from the sky."

So to Robin, Alyssa, Shalina and Hazel, we're eager to hear and tell your story. And so is Duane Martin.

Contact Paul Gattis at paul.gattis@htimes.com, @paul_gattis, or at 256-532-4161.

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An Israeli promotional campaign involving balloons caused panic among Lebanese civilians Saturday when the wind carried them over the border into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese media reported that some civilians were hospitalized after inhaling the gas in the balloons.

However, the photographs published on the Web site of Hezbollah's TV station Al-Manar show green balloons from a promotional campaign for Ha'ir, a Schocken group newspaper.

Lebanese sources said the balloons reached the southern Lebanese cities of Nabatiyeh and Tyre, and the Lebanese army warned civilians not to touch them. Some were brought to Italian UN troops for examination.

Lebanon's official news agency claimed that they were "poisoned balloons" dispersed by IDF aircraft.

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100 000 balloons were released in Istanbul to mark April Fool's Day and celebrate the start of spring. No Comment | euronews: watch the international news without commentary | www.euronews.net/nocomment/

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcswtj_100-000-balloons-released-in-istanb_news

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