Little Girl's Message In A Bottle Makes Transatlantic Journey From New Jersey To Ireland

RANCOCAS, N.J. (CBS) -- For 47 years, headmistress Nora Dunfee has been coming up with creative ways to teach young children at the Rancocas Friends School.

Since 1987, she's included a field trip to Barnegat Light, N.J., tossing messages in bottles into the ocean.

"We talk about where the wind is coming from and where our bottle might go because of that," says Dunfee.

Typically the bottles never float beyond the Jersey Shore, but one of the bottles, thrown into the ocean this May, ended up across the ocean.

4-year-old Lila-Rose Lepore, with her father Michael and mother Danielle, threw their bottle into Barnegat Inlet and had no idea it was about to embark on a Transatlantic journey. "They were excited to throw something in. I never expected it to reach Ireland though. It's amazing!" says Danielle Lepore.

The letters in the bottles ask the finder to mail them back to the school with information about where it was found.

Lila-Rose's letter made it to Carrickfinn, in the County of Donegal, Ireland – with the stamp and post mark to prove it. Dunfee is trying to get in contact with the Margaret Gillespie who found the bottle.

"It was like a dream coming true because the bottle actually went someplace far, far away that we never expected," says Dunfee who hopes this isn't the last bottle to reach a foreign shore.