Exchanging ideas

MIXING HAPPILY Michigan State University Students who have been working with Communities in the Tóchar Valley Network area pictured at their presentation evening in Mayo Abbey. Front, from left: Eva Reiter, Gina Magizi, Allison Czarnik, Anne Fishbeck, Claire Robinson, Emily Flynn and Sarah Gladstone. Back, from left: Brendan Sammon, Chairman, Tóchar Committee; Bernadette Conway, Secretary; Terry Gallagher, Sister Maureen Lally, CEO; Dale Elshoff, Diane Doberneck from Michigan and John Tiernan, Tóchar Valley Committee. Pic: Frank Dolan

Exchanging ideas

Emer Gallagher

“Host families and rashers and Cadbury’s roses, abbeys and rainstorms and going to discos, brown bread and biscuits with butter and jam, and loads of sambos with coleslaw and ham.”
These were just a few of the ‘favourite things’ that seven students from Michigan State University (MSU) sang about in Mayo Abbey last Tuesday night as they remembered their six-week stay in Co Mayo.
As part of the ‘Community Engagement in Rural Ireland’ programme, co-hosted by MSU and the Tóchar Valley Network (TVN), the undergraduates have been living with families in south west Mayo since mid-May and working with their host communities to develop the local area.
This is the fifth visit from students in MSU and this year they stayed with families from Ballyglass, Carnacon, Clogher, Islandeady, Killawalla, Manulla and Tourmakeady.
The all-female cast gave a dazzling presentation of their projects to an enthralled audience in the Mayo Abbey Community Centre on Tuesday evening. Each of the students presented the project they have been working on for the last six weeks.
The projects ranged from a directory of local amenities to the development of a heritage trail. Throughout the presentations the students continually acknowledged the help from their host communities and the hearty ‘Céad Míle Fáilte’ extended to each of them upon arrival.
The audience consisting of host families, mentors, university staff, committee members and new friends, received the students’ insights into Irish rural community life with laughter and acknowledgement. 
Gina Magri, who was based in Tourmakeady, described the importance of Global Positioning System (GPS) co-ordinates to assist emergency services in the area. The irony was not lost on her when one of her fellow students mentioned the bush telegraph already in place in Co Mayo.
“I was literally only a minute’s drive away from my host family when I met a neighbour on the road. By the time I reached the house the family was out waiting for me. Word was out that a visitor was on the way,” explained Allison Czarnik.
Sister Maureen Lally, CEO of the Tochar Valley Network, heaped praise on the American students. “It is wonderful to arrive on this day and see the regeneration of rural communities that are currently under threat. The students are the inspiration that will stimulate the revitalisation of Co Mayo,” she said.
Brendan Sammon, chairman of the TVN, was also impressed. “To date 44 projects have been completed. It’s incredible. The calibre of the projects has improved immensely over the past eight years.”
As a novel gift to all those who made the trip possible, the seven students ended the evening with a song they composed about their experiences of rural community life. Sung to the tune of ‘My Favourite Things’, the visitors entertained their audience with their references to ‘hayfields and silage and sheep-herding dogs’.
Since 1998, the Tóchar Valley Rural Community Network has partnered with MSU on a variety of rural community development initiatives. The idea for the programme came about when representatives from MSU met TVN founders, Sister Maureen Lally and Terry Gallagher, at a cross-border community development conference in Northern Ireland.
Through this and subsequent conversations, the idea to bring students to Ireland to become involved in TVN projects grew and the first group arrived on a pilot programme in 2002. The project continues to benefit both the Mayo communities and the Michigan State University to this day.