The student who wrote a message in a bottle found 32 years later reflects

NORTH FORK, N.Y. — The student who wrote a message on a bottle that helped a grieving family heal after losing their beloved father spoke to Patch this week about the story that touched countless hearts.

Last week, Adam Travis found a message in a bottle on the shores of the Shinnecock Reservation — part of a class project commissioned by Mattituck High School teacher Richard E. Brooks in 1992. Sadly, Brooks died in September, as did the younger daughter , just weeks later — but the bottle coming home after more than 30 years at sea feels like a “hug from heaven,” his grateful family said.

And now, Patch has tracked down one of the two students, Ben Doroski, who wrote the postcard in pencil and sent it on.

Benny Doroski, who lives in Mattituck and owns Custom Lighting of Suffolk, or CLOS, spoke with Patch about the message that went viral.

In Brooks' Earth science class 32 years ago. Students were asked to send messages to bottles to study ocean currents.

The message read: “Dear Finder, As part of a 9th grade earth science project, this bottle was thrown into the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island. Please fill out the information below and return the bottle 2 us. Merci, Gracias, Danke, Yours thank you, Sean and Ben.”

Students Shawn McGill and Doroski sent the message drifting out to sea, where it likely traveled around the world for three decades before returning to the East End shore.

Travis then posted about his incredible find on social media, first searching for the students and then on the Mattituck High School alumni page – where the story took on life and meaning with unprecedented fervor.

Doroski said it wasn't easy to remember the exact details of where the bottle was thrown in the surf. “32 years is a long time,” he laughed. “My memory is failing, but I don't remember exactly where we dropped that bottle in the water. But I remember the play itself — and it's so nice that it's come full circle.”

But he had no trouble remembering Brooks. “Mr. Brooks was classy. Definitely one of the best teachers I ever had.”

The media swirl around the story has brought a number of old friends back into Doroski's life, though he said he hasn't seen McGill in about two decades.

“I was friends with Shawn, but I haven't seen or spoken to him in 20 years.” Actually, Doroski said, he doesn't spend much time on social media, but when the bottle story first broke, he went on Facebook and found a sea of ​​messages from old and new friends. “It's been nothing short of amazing in that regard. To see all the friends I went to school with — people I haven't spoken to in 20-plus years — come closer because of this story 32 years later, is very nice.”

And nothing but positive memories have been shared about Brooks, she said. “Mr. Brooks was an amazing person and an amazing teacher,” she said.

Doroski said he didn't realize Brooks had died and that his family had also suffered an unimaginable loss with the death of their younger sister.

Brooks' son, John, told Patch that the message, found so soon after the deaths of their father and husband, was a balm for his family's broken hearts.

“This is definitely a positive note for the family,” Doroski said.

Doroski added that the message also unites the deeply connected North Fork community, where residents have known each other for generations. “It brings back that close-knit small-town feeling. This school was so small, everyone knew each other. And not just in that class, it was multi-generational.”

Speaking about Brooks, Dorosky said he was a teacher who truly cared about his students. “I would do something stupid, which was common for me in class, and he would call me out on it, not to make me feel less, but to make me a better person. He was definitely a guide.”

Seeing his 9th grader writing on the postcard, Dorosky said, “was hilarious,” especially when the two students said “thank you” in so many languages.

The fact that the bottle likely made it around the world before “coming home,” as John Brooks put it, is amazing, Doroski said. “That's the craziest part,” he added.

Travis told Patch that he found the old bottle, walking past it several times before stopping to take a closer look.

“At first, it caught my eye, but eventually I just picked it up. There was an older piece of paper in the bottle that was interesting,” Travis said.

Although he tried to open the bottle, he was unable to remove the paper on the beach. the top of the bottle was too small so he took it home. At first, Travis tried to use tweezers to remove the paper from the inside, but saw that it was starting to tear. So, as a last resort, he broke the bottle over a cardboard box. There was a blank piece of construction paper rolled up and folded, and at first, Travis thought any message could be erased because it was so old.

“But then the postcard fell out, still intact,” he said. “It was written in pencil and there was no water damage. When I unwrapped it, I thought, 'Wow,'” he said. “When I saw the date, October 1992, I thought, 'She's as old as me, I was born in 1991.'

Because Travis posted about his find on social media, Brooks' family was able to connect with the man who had brought them back a piece of their father, just when they needed it most — because their father and a beloved teacher so many, Richard Brooks, died recently.

John Brooks, Richard's son, spoke with Patch about the discovery that meant everything.

“This whole thing is unbelievable,” he said. “I'm surprised.” His father, Brooks said, “never sought the limelight. He didn't want recognition. Now, he's finally getting it.”

His father, he said, was an inspiration to generations of students. Earth science had great, deep meaning to a man who devoted his life to teaching young people.

“He was really involved and concerned about the environment 50 years before it became a matter of national consciousness,” Brooks said. His father, he said, used to take bottles and cans to Westhampton for recycling in the 70s. he remembers driving with the car full of aluminum bags. The cans would be sold and the money used for items for Brooks' classroom, his son said.

“It was intuitive for him, he believed we had to save the planet or we were going to be in trouble. That was the man,” Brooks said.

Although his father was asked many times to move into an administrative position, he respectfully declined, preferring to stay in the classroom, teaching. “He told jokes, sang funny songs, did everything to get the kids interested,” Brooks said. “That's where the message-in-a-bottle idea came from, so kids can learn about ocean currents.”

The bottles were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes, from the Cross Sound Ferry to Long Island Sound — and if a local resident was going on a trip, he'd ask to take a bottle and throw it overboard.

The bottles have been found all over the world over the years, one in the Azores, another near Ireland, one off the coast of Africa.

But the letter found last week on the beaches of the Shinnecock Reservation was priceless, in many ways.

“My sister Amy said, 'It feels like a hug from heaven,'” Brooks said. Another friend commented, “What a beautiful angel bump.”

The message, Brooks said, probably crossed the Atlantic, to the United Kingdom, and then went up to Long Island in the Gulf Stream. “He found his way home,” she said.

Since news of the bottle broke, the media attention has been incredible, Brooks said.

When asked how his father would react to the recognition, Brooks responded immediately and without hesitation: “He would say this was great for Ben and Sean, his two students, and he would take the credit and the spotlight. say, “That's great, that's why I teach these things” — let my students tell you more about it. That's what's so cool about it. He never sought any recognition and finally he gets it. And he deserves so much, he's been such an inspiration.”

The message in the bottle, he said, means a sign of hope for his entire family.

“We feel like it's a message to my mother and my sisters, and to me, from my father and my sister. They're the ones who say, “We're okay. Everything's going to be okay – and we're watching over you. Here's a little sign.”

Brooks said he plans to continue the trip. In the spring, when his daughter graduates from college, the family – Richard Brooks' wife, children and grandchildren – will gather on the beach on the Atlantic coast and throw a new bottle into the surf, a note hidden inside .

“We're going to do this in memory of my dad,” Brooks said. “So one day, 32 years from now, someone might find the bottle and say, 'What a great story! What a wonderful, full circle.”