News : Second graders send messages in a bucket; hope for response in future

Mr. Frazier and his students prepare to send their messages....

...the students hope someone will find these buckets of letters and reply to them.

Mr. Frazier's class watches a bucket full of letters fall into the river.

Everyone has heard about messages in a bottle -- notes secured and tossed into the water, and found much letter far away.

The second graders in John Frazier's class at Tilford Elementary sent messages like that yesterday.

But they used buckets instead of bottles.

After visiting the Vinton Fire Station for Fire Prevention Week, the students accompanied Mr. Frazier to the middle of the Cedar River bridge. They dropped to plastic buckets into the river. Each bucket contains letters from the students. The lids contain the message: Open me.

Frazier told the students that the water is flowing at approximately two miles per hour. He said that if the buckets do not get hung up on the river bank, they should reach Cedar Rapids in a couple of days. The students will wait to see how far those buckets go, and if they receive a response from whoever finds them.