NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After being away for three years due to the pandemic, the Ulster Project returns to Hutchinson in July of 2023. Emily Anderson is a Hutchinson host teen.
"I thought it would just be like, really cool to have someone from a whole other country come to your house and live with you for a whole entire month," Anderson said. "Not to mention, it looks really good on college applications. It's obviously been really, really fun so far."
The project brings Catholic and Protestant youth from both Hutchinson and Portadown, Northern Ireland together to find common ground and build fellowship. For Northern Irish teen Ronan McComb, it's been a good experience.
"I just thought it looked like a lot of fun and I could meet new people that I would never have met," McComb said. "For example, I would never have met Lola (Morton, fellow Northern Irish teen) if I didn't do the project, because our communities are so segregated."
The Ulster Project was started in 1975 by Rev. Kerry Waterstone, a priest in Northern Ireland, in order to provide a safe place in North America for Northern Irish teenagers to discuss the climate of “The Troubles” that was facing them at home. For Morton, she will take a new perspective home when they leave later this week.
"It's really nice to get along with everyone," Morton said. "I think, as I go back home, I think you should just treat everyone with kindness, like we have been treated here. The host families opening up their home and welcome us in for a month, it's just, it's wonderful."
Tanner Weathers is a Hutchinson teen whose brother had done the project before, but even with that background, he wasn't sure what to expect.
"On the first day, when they first came into the home, I was kind of worried," Weathers said. "I didn't know if we were going to be the right match or not, but after that first day, we kind of just clicked together. We've been having a great time ever since. We've been going on our own adventures, being our own little family."
Ulster Project Hutchinson board member and former Ulster teen Keith Neill said that getting started back up after COVID was a challenge, but that Hutchinson has been so supportive of the teens, just like they were before the pandemic.
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