- Help from
a Couple Dozen Irish Lads
- by George Everett
-
 (photo by Eddie McManus)
-
- Butte was built in large measure
by Irish hands and, for three
 weeks in
May thanks to Project Children, Irish hands have been
busy helping to update that effort.
- Project Children is a program
that takes Irish children and young adults out of their daily
environment of fear and violence and puts them in a more peaceful
place thousands of miles away. There, regardless of religion,
or other complicating differences they are given tasks that help
the local community at the same time they foster cooperation
and trust between the participants.
 They work hard at the projects
assigned to them but they also get a chance to socialize with
fellows from their country they may otherwise never meet. At
the same time, they learn more about the places where they work
by staying with host families.
Habitat for Humanity has a partnership with Project Children
that brings young adults who are learning construction trades
in Ireland to work together on projects in the United States.
-
- Butte, and, in particular, Habitat
for Humanity of Southwest Montana has received the benefit
of this year's group who provided great help by bringing their
skills and labor of two dozen visiting participants in Project
Children. For the second year in a row, the two programs have
teamed for their mutual benefit.
- (photo by Eddie
McManus)
 This
year, two dozen young men from various backgrounds in Ireland
have had the opportunity to see Butte up close and stay with
local host families in exchange for using their construction
skills to benefit housing projects in Butte.
-
- On the other hand, Butte has
received the better end of the deal, benefitting from the fruits
of their labor for three weeks. During that time, the lads, most
with training in the trades in Ireland, have built a garden wall
in the Central Butte Neighborhood, painted a home, and helped
to blitz a new Habitat home on the West Side.
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