NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After being away for three years due to the pandemic, the Ulster Project will return to Hutchinson in July of 2023. The event for parents and teens interested in hosting is this weekend.
"We have an event coming up on Sunday," said Keith Neill with the project. "That's October 16th at First Presbyterian Church at 210 East Sherman at 6 p.m. If all the families and the students who are freshmen, sophomores and juniors want to come to the information night. They can pick up application forms, they can hear a bit about the project if they don't know much about it and get the process going."
The project brings Catholic and Protestant youth from both Hutchinson and Portadown, Northern Ireland together to find common ground and build fellowship. The students usually come to Hutchinson at the very end of June and stay for about a month.
"It's a church based project and we're really looking for families and young people who are active in their churches," Neill said. "We go through an interview process and we hopefully pick people who are really going to get something from this."
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. Neill was among that first group of teens to come to Connecticut.
"You know what it's like when you live somewhere and everybody thinks it's boring?" Neill said. "All these kids arrive from another country and think it's the most wonderful place in the world. It just sheds a different light on things. It's all about them being together. They are together 24-7 and it's just an awesome experience."
Applications are currently available and must be in by Nov. 3 with interviews happening shortly after.