A North Carolina girl’s message in a bottle recently made it into the hands of someone over 4,000 miles away in Morocco.
“Vivian Byerly, then a third grader in Susan Ferguson’s Greensboro Day School class, wrote the message in April 2019 as part of a class assignment,” according to UPI.
She and her classmates wrote their own notes and included their teacher’s email and the school’s address, then placed them in bottles that were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morehead City in May last year.
“I just thought it was interesting, but I didn’t think much would come out of it or that the bottles would just wash back up onto the North Carolina shore or kind of near us,” said Vivian’s mom, Faera.
Susan Ferguson used the project as a way to teach her students about the coast’s history, but she never expected someone to find one of the bottles.
“You always hope it’s a possibility because occasionally you’ll hear stories on the news of bottles being found,” she explained.
However, 15 months later, a Moroccan fisherman spotted Vivian’s bottle after it washed up on a beach near his village.
“I think it’s actually pretty amazing the bottle didn’t break,” Vivian said.
On July 26, Ferguson got an email with a picture of the bottle and the note along with another photo of the fisherman and his nephew, who translated the quote Vivian included in her letter, according to the News & Record.
“Be strong because things will get better. It may be stormy now, but it never rains forever,” the quote read.
The school has since received more photos and emails detailing their life in Morocco. Vivian has started a scrapbook to keep the items as a reminder.
“I’m so excited that my letter was actually found,” she said, adding, “I’m excited but still a bit surprised.”
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