When you were a kid, did you ever put a message in a bottle and let it sail away on a current? When she was 17, Niki Nie of Washington, D.C. did just that, only she did it from the middle of the ocean. Nearly two years later, her note was finally discovered!
Steven Amos is a conservation worker in Papua New Guinea. Part of his job is to collect and sort through any garbage that washes ashore on his island. One day, he was going about his usual business when he discovered an unexpected treasure.
“Oh, I was so excited. I was so excited. Because this is my first time coming across [something like] this,” he said. “Then I really wanted to find the owner of this and be a friend to her.”
So he took a picture of the note and had Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative post the photo on Facebook, hoping to get in touch with Niki. “We are calling on the power of the almighty social media to track down the sender of our #messageinabottle!” they wrote.
Meet Niki, she has been living on a #yacht with her family since 2012, sailing around the #pacific. We have tried to reach her on her email but with no success! Our #conservation #RangerSteven who found the letter has written his reply, and would love for Niki to receive it. So let’s share this #farandwide to see if we can #FindNiki!?!?!
The power of social media proved to be successful! Before long, Niki was replying to the post and was absolutely thrilled to see her letter had been found!
She first sent her note out in January 2019, during a six-year stretch where her family lived on a sailboat and traveled across the South Pacific.
When she saw Steven’s discovery online, she said, “I was actually just sitting on my couch working on homework for college, and I was like, this is weird. And I opened it. And it was just an image of the letter. I was shocked, I ran upstairs, I immediately started telling my parents.”
After messaging back and forth on social media a few times, Niki and Steven were able to meet on a video chat set up by ABC. They were thrilled at the chance to talk and further develop their unique bond. Steven even welcomed Niki and her family to visit him whenever they can!
Not only did Niki’s note travel more than 1,500 miles over the course of two years, but it also resulted in a delightful friendship. What a fun turn of events!
Don’t let the story stop here! Share it with your friends to see how many lives this message in a bottle can touch.
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