Forty toy soldiers are floating through the air, and junior Jessica Brown is hoping they find their way home.

Brown “deployed” the soldiers Wednesday afternoon at Carnahan Quadrangle as part of a project for her sculpture class. Each solider had a brightly colored balloon tied to its leg and a note rubber-banded to its back.

The toy soldiers represent United States soldiers who have been deployed to serve in the military and defend our freedom, Brown said. She is asking whoever finds the soldiers to help them return home. The note includes an email address where people can send Brown stories and pictures of their loved ones that are overseas.

“I think everybody probably knows someone who is fighting over there,” she said. “I think everyone can relate and be like, ‘Oh, I would want my friend to come home too.’ I think that message is the strongest, that we all have someone we’re praying for.”

Brown received her first email Thursday, 24 hours after she released the soldiers. Brown said the respondent liked the idea, but has yet to reply to her follow-up email.

For Brown, an art education major, this is more than an assignment — it is an issue she holds close to her heart. Thirteen of her friends are members of ROTC and will be deployed after graduation.

Brown’s boyfriend, Tommy Nigro said Brown has expressed her feelings about soldiers even before the project began, so he knows she feels strongly about it.

“She got to see the transition they go through becoming soldiers,” Nigro said. “She got to see in real life how they go from being kids to becoming soldiers.”

Brown fears her friends won’t come home. Many of her past pieces of artwork deal with a larger concept she calls, “a loss of innocence,” and this project follows suit.

“The thought of what people go through to lose their innocence and how they can still cling onto it, even with all the craziness of the world,” Brown said. “I think that part of it is a beautiful thing.”

This concept is embedded in every artistic decision Brown made, saturating the project with symbolism. The number 40 represents a platoon of soldiers, and the brightly colored balloons they are tied to represent their innocence.

“So when they go off, they are going to be clinging onto innocence, and whenever they lose that, that’s when they’ll fall, without the balloon.” Brown said.

Brown’s teacher, Catherine Armbrust, was present for the deployment, and said she felt concerned — not for the toys but for the soldiers they represent.

“I think that it’s very brave of her to declare her intentions about this project,” Armbrust said. “It’s not specifically pro-war or anti-war, it’s pro-soldier, because she cares about the individual.

Brown says she wants to see at least half of the soldiers come home, but her eyes light up as she thinks about the entire “platoon.”

“I’m hoping, just hoping,” Brown said. “How awesome would it be if all 40 were found?”