When she picked it up, she discovered a note of encouragement from pupils in Georgia regarding the Sept. 11 attacks.

The surprised girl went inside and showed the message to her mother.

''I couldn't believe it," Laurie Coughlan said. ''Of all the states, it landed in New York."

That's exactly what students at West Chatham Elementary had hoped for.

The day before, pupils in kindergarten through fourth grade at the Pooler school near Savannah launched 110 balloons with paper butterflies and notes of encouragement about the terrorist attacks.

The pupils felt good releasing the balloons, but they really didn't expect them to get all the way to New York. Neither did fourth-grade teacher Jocelyn Schilling, whose class led the project.

Mahopec is 50 miles north of New York City, and 853 miles from Pooler. The note took about 24 hours to reach Mahopec.

Steve Lyons, tropical program manager for the Weather Channel, said such a balloon journey is possible, but unusual. As balloons rise, they expand, and often burst before traveling very far. Although they can reach the jet stream and travel at speeds of 50 miles per hour, it doesn't happen often.