The balloon, released on the 17th of November 2007 as part of opening celebrations for the Old Clee Children’s Centre in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was recovered by a Swedish couple out walking in the mountains near Vilhelmina, Lapland on the 26th of October.
“We were extremely surprised when we found out one of our balloons had been found,” Jacqui Illingworth from the Old Clee centre told The Local.
One hundred balloons were released last year during the opening day festivities, all of which had a message explaining where they had been sent from.
“The couple were walking in the mountains when they saw the balloon. They read the note attached to it and sent the balloon back to us at the centre,” explained Illingworth.
Staff at Old Clee received the parcel last week:
“Inside there was a letter from the people who found our balloon. They said that it had been ‘a beautiful sunny day’ when they found it. They sent us lovely photos of where the balloon was picked up and asked if we could reply with photos of where we are in the UK.”
Out of the one hundred balloons released last year, the one found last month in Lapland has so far been the only balloon recovered.
Fortunately one of the staff members Old Clee centre is Swedish, so a letter of reply is being written up ready to be sent back to Lapland, complete with photos of Grimsby.
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