To the Journal editor:

On Aug. 12, I read an article in The Mining Journal about an Upper Peninsula girl who tossed a bottle with a note inside into Lake Superior.

I am sure many people would think this was something spectacular that after seven years she received a response to her note.

My first reaction to reading this article was, this is something that should be discouraged, not something that should be publicized as an acceptable act.

Plain and simple, she littered and should be grateful she wasn’t ticketed for doing so. Who knows how long that bottle sat on the shore or floated in our beautiful Lake Superior? By chance, someone in Canada found the bottle lying in the shore rock and picked it up.

He picked up her garbage.

I hope that her story does not encourage others to do the same. I also hope Miss (Julie) Stark realized that we need to do everything we can to keep our Great Lakes, any lake for that matter and our lands, clean. I for one do not like seeing trash on our beaches and I am sure they don’t like it in Canada, either.

I do not see her actions in this situation as being something to brag about. Nor do I think that the local newspaper should have put some a spin on the story to make it sound exciting, taken almost to the point of romanticizing the act. I would hope that she sees that such behavior affects everyone that she loves to enjoy the outdoors, our waters, our beaches and our wildlife as well.

So I ask that no one of any age considers doing the same thing in hopes of one day getting a response from a stranger that is conscientious enough to pick up what you throw away.

Donna Turay

Ishpeming