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The Newsletter of Northern Ireland Children's Enterprise

Rick Becker and Don Murphy

     On behalf of everyone involved with the NICE program, thanks to everybody who worked so hard to make this outing so exceptional. We hope to see you all again next year.

Host Family Update
Children arrive from Belfast June 29
     In just a few weeks the bus will arrive at Kennedy High School filled with youngsters from Northern Ireland ready to begin their American adventure. The children will be an equal mix of Catholics and Protestants, aged nine to twelve, here for a visit of five weeks with host families in New York and Connecticut.
     Although they may live nearby one another, for most of them the trip to America is their first opportunity to meet someone from the other community. In Belfast, they go to separate schools and they live in separate neighborhoods.
     This year we will have two new chaperones accompanying the children. We welcome Adrianne Magill and Conor Bradly to the summer program, and hope that they enjoy the experience as much as the children do.
     We will have our annual picnic at Putnam County Park on Saturday, July 7. This is a wonderful opportunity for the families involved in the program to get to know each other. The New York Yankees have once again generously donated a block of tickets so our families can enjoy a game together in mid-July.
     After the children return home, they have opportunities to meet again for a weekend at our Ballycastle center, or in the Belfast center throughout the week.

Date Set for NICE Golf Tournament in Ireland at Portmarnock Golf Club
    Great news from Ireland! Trevor O'Rourke of the Irish International Group is organizing a fundraising event at the prestigious and exclusive Portmarnock Golf Club in County Dublin. A golf outing, under the auspices of The Irish Youth Organization, will be held for the benefit of NICE. We'd like to thank Bill Cullen and Ian Young for all their efforts. Our group will play on the original course on Monday, May 20, 2002.
     This is one of the premium links courses in the country. In the past Portmarnock has been the host for both the Irish Open Amateur Championship and the Walker Cup. We plan to field thirty teams. While we expect it will fill to capacity from within Ireland, if you are interested in golfing with us next spring, give us a call at 914-666-6656 - soon!

2001- Our Golf Odyssey
     We began our 2001 golfing year with the second annual Bear Lakes outing in West Palm Beach, Fl. It was a tremendous success this year on a warm and sunny day in mid-February. We are grateful to our co-chairs, Drs. Patrick and Maeve Hillary, who are ably assisted by Pat Rooney, Mike Gibbons, and Joe and Eileen Cornacchia, for all their efforts. Congratulations to Tom Killarney, John O'Sullivan, and Ken and Todd Doro for being the big winners that day.
     At the fourth annual outing at Pelican Marsh in Naples, FL, Jack Jordin and Amby Redmond did a super job of putting together a great group of golfers. The auction became particularly spirited as the Pelican Marsh group bid against the Quail Creek crew.
     Coming next is Mount Kisco, with CBS commentator and NICE spokesman David Feherty beginning the day with a clinic to aid and inspire all. This is our oldest tournament, now thirteen years of age, and always has a great group of golfers. Be sure to ask Mike Del Priore, who has chaired this event for the past several years, about his recent trip to visit the NICE facility in Ballycastle.

David Feherty's clinic at the Mount Kisco
tournament is always a highlight of the NICE golfing year

     John Gallagher and everyone at Loomis Sayles & Company are well underway with preparations for the ninth annual Greater Boston tournament at Wollaston Country Club in Milton, Ma.
     Invitations are already in the mail for the tenth annual outing at Mahopac Golf Club on Monday, July 30. Give us a call if you'd like to play. Our most amiable co-chairmen Dick Talty, Jerry McCarthy and Jim Keane will be happy to arrange a slot for you or tell you all about the sponsorship opportunities.
     Fall will be here before you know it, and our Philadelphia friends will return to Waynesborough Country Club, home to the PGA Tour's “SEI Pennsylvania Classic” for the third annual NICE outing. Mark Sullivan, Mike McCloskey and John Andress round up the crew at Chartwell Investment Partners for a great day of golf on one of the most challenging courses on the eastern seaboard.

Rita Griffin and Marilyn Redmond did a
great job on the raffle at Pelican Marsh

     Last year the Presidio sold out weeks before the event, and we expect the same at the second annual outing in October. Bill Norris did such a great job of organizing the outing last year that he inspired the first annual tournament held in Silicon Valley last month.
     These events are a terrific way to have a great time while meeting new friends and reacquainting ourselves with old friends. The primary reason for the outings is fundraising, and they are very successful in that regard. The annual budget of the NICE program is over $300,000 per year. In the year 2000, our net profit after all bills were paid for seven tournaments was nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The tournaments are a terrific way of funding the trips the children make from Belfast to America each summer, as well as running two facilities with programs for children through adult in Belfast and Ballycastle. The NICE Foundation, created to continue the work of NICE in perpetuity, is now our greatest fundraising challenge.
     The outings are also a great way of letting people know not only about the NICE program, but also about the current situation in Northern Ireland. Carmel always gives a wonderful update on what's happening there, and gives us a real sense of the mood of the people.

Find old friends at NICE golf outings
Don Murphy and Bill Quinn, friends since high school,
are pictured above at the Bear Lakes outing in West Palm Beach, FL.

     This year, eight tournaments across the United States kept us hopping. Next year, we'll begin taking this fundraising vehicle to Ireland, and possibly Texas and Louisiana. We hope to see you at one - or more!

Report from the Executive Director, Northern Ireland by Carmel McCavana
     Greetings from Belfast, where the weather has been the main topic of conversation for the last few days, with temperatures in the 70's. This is very warm for us at this time of the year!
     We have local and national elections taking place on the 7th of June so these have dominated our press. Things at a local level are still in a state of upheaval. Sporadic violence continues, and there have been many murders and incidents of sectarian intimidation, but this has been a settled period for us on the whole.
     I have returned recently from Los Gatos, CA, where Rick Becker and his committee organized a fantastic golf tournament for us. In addition to the money raised at the tournament, Rick also managed to persuade those present to part with $36,500 to purchase a new minibus for us to replace our 11-year old (no power steering!) model. Needless to say he was extremely popular with our volunteers when the news spread around, and we are involved in the happy work on deciding on make, model and color, maybe a CD player… electric windows……… a heater that really does work ….. oh, the choices to make!!! We send sincere thanks to all who contributed.
     Kenny Baxter has joined our staff, taking over from Bobby Halliday who resigned in February. For the last few years Kenny has worked in community relations and has great experience working with reconciliation programs. He will be a tremendous asset to NICE. We had a farewell dinner for Bobby to thank him for the last four years and a good night was had by all. We wish him all the best in his new job leading up a team of residential social workers in the Ballymena area.
     Gráinne has been busy recruiting our new group of youth volunteers, who are made up of 16-18 year olds selected from local schools. We were inundated with applications and finally ended up with a group of thirty-two. We will train them in all aspects of volunteering and they will help us out during the summer and throughout the winter, organizing programs for the younger children. It is also an opportunity for them to meet and debate with young people their own age from a different school, community, religion and/or social background. A vital part of the work we do with this group is in helping them to begin the process of getting to know one another and asking difficult questions of each other in an atmosphere where they feel trusted and respected. We were very surprised to find out that we are providing the first opportunity for many of these young people to meet with others from another religion or political group. Last year's youth volunteers went to Stormont and met with Seamus Mallon, the Deputy First Minister - see the picture on page 4. Unfortunately our visit to Dáil Eireann (the equivalent in the Republic of Ireland) had to be cancelled because of the foot and mouth crisis, but we hope to make the trip with this year's group.

Carmel in California

     The foot and mouth crisis has also meant that we have had to cancel a couple of weekends in Ballycastle as a farm only eight miles from our Center had an outbreak. Thankfully the situation never reached epidemic levels and things are almost back to normal. Our weekend programs continue to develop and we have now a well-established reunion group meeting at the Center in Belfast. We have to continue to work hard to recruit volunteers to keep up with developments and have had six new adult volunteers join NICE in the last few months. They are certainly very welcome! News snippets
     Richard Ferguson and Sean Bowers, two of our volunteers, completed the Belfast Marathon last month on behalf of NICE. Richard hopes to compete in the New York Marathon later this year, so we are hoping he gets a spot when the lottery draw takes place. Watch this space for sponsorship opportunities.
     Jonny Baxter, one of last year's youth volunteers, has been awarded a Spirit of Enniskillen award and will be going on a study visit to Germany this summer. These awards were set up in the aftermath of the Enniskillen bomb in 1987 as a positive way to remember those killed and injured. Each year young people are selected to travel to different countries to experience how others in conflict situations live. Jonny has also been accepted to the Raleigh International Scheme and will be going to Namibia on a work camp, so he is going to be busy during the next few months.
     Representatives from the MIL Institute in Sweden visited us in Belfast. They met with some of our youth volunteers and enjoyed getting a young person's perspective on the situation in Northern Ireland.
     We had two students on placement from the University of Ulster Youth and Community Degree Course with us for three months, Alvina Boyd and Julie Devlin. They were a big hit with our young people and we wish them well in their future studies.
     One of our past chaperones, Sharon Lynn, is getting married on 31st August, so good luck to Sharon.

Are you planning a trip to Ireland? Why not stop in to visit our facilities in Belfast and Ballycastle? Call us at 914-666-6656 for hours of operation and directions. We know you'll be impressed!

Children, volunteers, and staff from the NICE program
meet with Seamus Mallon during a visit
to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont Castle in Belfast

Schedule of Upcoming NICE Events

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