On Our Way

After years of thinking about going in search of the 12 young adults from Ireland and Northern Ireland who came to Missoula more than 13 years ago, John Twiggs and I are on a plane to Belfast, Northern Ireland.

During the summer of 1997, my wife Pattie Corrigan and I worked with Jon Agner who was then the Montana coordinator of Project Children to produce a half-hour television program called "Building Bridges" chronicling the time the Irish folks spent in Montana working on Habitat for Humanity projects and learning about each other. The program aired in January 1998 on MontanaPBS across Big Sky Country.

I haven't been able to find all of the "kids" but we have shoots set up with many of them. Some are very excited to be a part of this follow-up television documentary. Others are going back and forth.

When I first started this search, my best contact source became Facebook. I'm still on the hunt for the last three or four people, but we'll be telling the stories of these "kids" who are now in their 30's. Some have children. Most are working; and there's one world traveler who we met up with last week in Missoula.

It's just minutes into a long day of travel. I'm both excited and frightened. I haven't been abroad since I was in college. And this time I'll be driving--on what I consider the wrong side of the road. But I'm really looking forward to this international experience made possible by the University of Montana, School of Journalism, Greater Montana Foundation and MontanaPBS.

(By the way, the picture is of our first church, St. Malachy's Church of Ireland in Hillsborough near where we're staying.)