Businessman Derek Jones is appealing for Bermudians to aid him in sending messages of hope and inspiration to the volunteers at Ground Zero.

Mr. Jones, who is from Bermuda but now lives in Boston, had his relatives on the Island help him to set up a charity called Message on a Bottle.

Since September 11, he has been sending bottles of water to workers at the World Trade Center crash site - complete with hand-written messages stuck to the outside in a bid to inspire and encourage their efforts.

And now, by registering his charity in Bermuda, he is hoping people on the Island will take up the opportunity of writing their own messages and sending them across the Atlantic for the volunteers.

The messages will be placed on the side of the bottles of water, which will then be hand delivered to the crash sites in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Jones said it was at the memorial service held at Bermuda's Victoria Park in September where the first messages from Bermuda were written.

Bermuda Red Cross had their own charity table set up at the candlelit vigil, and Message on a Bottle, which had already been launched in Boston, was invited to set up with them.

A six-year-old girl named Kelsey wrote a message that has now become the charity's slogan.

It is simply You Save Our World.

Kelsey's bottle, with her message, was not sent to Ground Zero, however.

Mr. Jones has saved it and plans to send it to President George W. Bush, instead.

He said: "We've had messages from around the world, including from an orphanage in Russia.

"These messages are amazing.

"They are going to the World Trade Center and going into someone's hand.

"The response from the firefighters has been very, very emotional.

"The first firefighter we gave one to said 'is there any way we can send messages back?'

"This mission to send messages is going to go on until they account for every last victim."

Mr. Jones has kept photocopies of many of the messages that have already been sent to Ground Zero.

One is from former New York Yankees pitcher Luis Tiant, and several have tried to lift the spirits of the volunteers by offering light-hearted, and even flirtatious, messages.

Mr. Jones added, laughing: "One girl asked if she could put her phone number on her message.

"She wrote 'if you're hot and single, call me'."

The innovative charity worker said he believed the Message on a Bottle idea had had such positive results so far, he was already looking for other situations where volunteers and workers could benefit from a simple message of hope.

All donations received by the charity go towards buying more bottles of water, as well as labels for children in hospitals and schools, so they can write their own messages.

Bermudians can make a donation or write a message for workers at Ground Zero by going into the Bank of Bermuda on Front Street in Hamilton.