Cleo Daschbach is a curious six year old who lives with her parents Gina and Toby in Rockland County, New York and Franklin Avenue, Ocean Grove, New Jersey. They were here on Memorial Day, so Cleo and her Mom were doing a holiday project. Cleo wanted to write a “letter of peace” to the soldiers, but she wasn’t sure how to do that. A number of options were considered, but Cleo decided she wanted to put her message in a bottle. So they took a bottle and put the letter inside. Then they sealed it with candle wax.
Cleo and Dad went down to the beach, by the south jetty, where Dad threw the bottle way out into the ocean. Cleo, who just completed kindergarten, was a bit unsure of her geography. On her last day of school, she was able to tell her class that Dad threw the bottle across the sea.
Before they launched the bottle, Gina and Toby had gotten Cleo her own email account, so the letter gave that address.
On June 16, Cleo received an email from Abigail Birkett and family, who said that they were “walking as a family along the seashore in a small town in southern Great Britain when we saw something bobbing in the water, and to our surprise, it was a message in a bottle.” They were impressed that the message of peace that came their way was from a 6 year old child.
Their email went on, “We hope that you continue to be a caring, concerned citizen and that you achieve all that you set out to do in life.” Then they put the message back in the bottle and placed it back into the water. “Hopefully you will receive another message.”
–Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger. I can’t help but feel nostalgic about the connection between America and the English Channel, especially when Cleo’s note was found by an English family just 10 days after the anniversary of D-Day, when thousands of Americans crossed the Channel to land at Normandy and help defeat the monster which was Nazi Germany.
In a way, Cleo’s note, launched on Memorial Day and intended as a message of peace for soldiers, did achieve her goal because the memory of those American GI’s who got on those boats that day will always be there, near where Cleo’s bobbing bottle landed after traveling 3,500 miles from Ocean Grove. It’s a connection between a sweet six year old American girl in 2013 and those brave American soldiers who gave their all that day–June 6, 1944.
Thanks for all the great comments and thanks Paul for sharing our Cleo’s story and adding your poignant commentary. We would have been amazed if the message landed in Belmar!
What a great memory of Memorial Day 2013!
“Dad” – agreed. It is a great story and I believe the bottle traveled so fast because the message of peace was urgently needed in many parts of this world. Great job Cleo!
Thanks for this story…I love it:)
Let’s not get confused. It wasn’t Cleo that set the world record, it was the bottle! And regardless of the time it took, (or didn’t take for those non-believers) it truly made a 6 year happy that her message of peace was received!.
She may have set a world record too (?). Avg speed of the gulf stream is 4mph according to NOAA with max speed less than 6mph. Team rowboat record is 43 days and change. Maybe she caught one of those hurricanes.
20 days. The Queen Mary can do it in one week.
What a great story.
Great story! One question though, did the bottle travel 3500 miles in 20 days or 385 days?