WELL-WISHERS FLY PAPER BALLOONS FOR FUNDS SICK CHILDREN AND GULF SOLDIERS BENEFIT.(Local)

Byline: Grace O'Connor Staff writer

Cardboard balloons, originally introduced in area bars to raise funds for sick children, are now serving a dual mission.

They have so far raised $5,500 to help hospitalized children at Albany Medical Center and, at the same time, are being imprinted with messages for men and women serving in the Persian Gulf.

Howard Gross, and a dozen other volunteers from Albany County Friends of Childrens' Hospital at the medical center, distributed the cut-out balloons to 25 taverns where, for $1 each, customers could write a message of their choice to be exhibited in a display area set aside by the owner and/or manager. …