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Ulster Project creates lasting friendships
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There was a mini Ulster Project reunion on March 16, as local teens who participated in the 2010 project gathered for a walk down memory lane. Reliving the good times were Brienne Seekford (left), David Timlin, Stacey Slagle, and Justin Campanelli.
By SARAH FOOR
Every July, two worlds collide right here in the Mahoning Valley, when 12 teens from Northern Ireland meet 12 Valley teens for a month of community service, teamwork and the chance to create lasting friendships.
This annual meeting of the minds is thanks to the Ulster Project, which began in 1975 to promote brotherhood between Protestant and Catholic groups. In Northern Ireland, the groups have shared great animosity, most notably from the 1960s to the 1990s. Northern Irish teenagers, always aged 15 at the time of the project, have been welcomed to America with the Mahoning Valley Ulster chapter since 1988.
The project nurtured a particularly close group during 2010’s Ulster project, where the 24 Irish and American teens became much like a family. Involved that year were local teens David Timlin, from Boardman, Brienne Seekford, from Austintown, and Stacey Slagle and Justin Campanelli, both from Canfield.
“We understand it’s a peace project,” Timlin said of the project’s participants, “and we discuss those issues, but, the politics fall by the wayside quickly. Mostly, it’s about making great friendships.”
“I feel incredibly lucky,” Seekford said of her involvement. “I heard a morning announcement at school last year, and that’s how I began the process. A year later, I have 23 amazing new friends, here and around the world.”
Friendships form fast in the Ulster project — the local teens and their Northern Irish guests spend nearly every moment together in the month of July, visiting local sites of interest, volunteering for the community, working on teamwork initiatives, and discussing weighty issues.
Seekford’s mother, Lynn Seekford, said she saw a wonderful growth in her daughter and her Northern Irish guest in that short month.
“By the time it’s all said and done, I must say it’s an exhausting month. But it’s beautiful to see so many diverse kids come together. I see a new tolerance and an opened worldview that Brienne would have never found without Ulster,” Seekford shared.
Almost a year after the project, Timlin, Seekford, Slagle, and Campanelli aren’t sure that they want to welcome another Irish teen, only because their summer together feels too perfect to touch.
However, their worlds have definitely opened up — many of the local teens are planning to visit Ireland this summer to reunite with their Ulster friends.
“It’s my first trip out of the United States,” Slagle shared, “but I’m so excited to be able to see Belfast with kids that actually live there.”
“Right before our project ended last year, one of the Irish teens said, ‘This isn’t the end, it’s only the beginning,’” Timlin shared. “We all really identify with that — it goes so much further than one summer.”
The Mahoning Valley Ulster project is still accepting applications for local host families with teens aged 14-16. To get started, visit www.ulsterprojectmv.com or contact the host family coordinator, Robbie Crowe, at mommacrowe@gmail.com.