Ark Valley News - Message to Mississippi

Chisholm Trail Elementary School students participate in a September balloon launch. One of the balloons released in the annual launch found its way to a soybean field in Mississippi.

Message to Mississippi
By Matt Heilman
Last Updated: March 28, 2013

Balloon launch connects local kindergartner with Mississippi farmer

From his tractor on farmland in Chatham, Miss., David Whitehead could see the card waving in the wind on the edge of a soybean field.

The retired farmer who spent his career working in the agricultural chemical business said he was "99-percent sure" from his tractor seat that he knew what he was looking at.

Any uncertainty was erased when he saw a deflated pink balloon attached to the card.

"I knew immediately what it was," Whitehead said.

He had found a similar card attached to a deflated balloon on his land in 1984. On that card was a note from a child who had released the balloon in Oklahoma. This time, the note was traced to Peyton Henderson, a 6-year-old kindergartner at Park City's Chisholm Trail Elementary School, about 600 miles away.

Henderson released her balloon with about 500 fellow Chisholm Trail students in late September. Whitehead found the card waving in the wind in February.

He stopped his tractor, got off the machine and walked toward the card and deflated balloon. The note read, "If you find my balloon please let me know where it landed and a little bit about you and your town."

It didn't take long for Whitehead to respond. A few days after finding the note, he mailed Peyton a package consisting of souvenirs from Roy's Store Cabins and Campgrounds, a popular spot for area residents in the neighboring community of Glen Allan, about 150 miles southwest of Memphis, Tenn., and about a five-hour drive north of the Gulf of Mexico.

Of about 500 balloons launched from Chisholm Trail Elementary School, only three retrievals were confirmed, said Peyton's mother, Christie Henderson, who works as an instructional coach at the school.

She said Chisholm Trail takes part in a balloon launch every year. Responses are rare and the flight paths usually take the balloons north before they hit the jet stream and travel west, Henderson said.

"I don't know why this one went east," she said.

The balloon's flight path worked out well for the Hendersons, who had time off during spring break and had planned a trip to Mobile, Ala., to visit Christie's family. Christie's husband, Heath Henderson, is a teacher at Wichita West High School and an assistant football coach at Wichita Heights.

With the family headed southeast, Christie conducted a Google search of Glen Allan, Miss., and found that the small community was located near the route to Mobile.

On March 16, Peyton met her pen pal. The Hendersons met Whitehead and his wife for lunch at Roy's Store and were shown where the farmer found the balloon about three weeks before.

Peyton said she didn't know where her balloon could be headed after its release, and she was glad it was found. She said she was excited when she received the souvenirs and was looking forward to meeting Whitehead before the March 16 detour on her family's vacation.

"We had a nice visit," Whitehead said after the meeting.