Every summer Jo-Ann Muir and her husband, Warren, travel from their home in Washington D.C. to their summer residence in Wolfeboro. They bring with them their three boys, Daniel, 16, Gregory, 18, and Michael, 20. But sometimes, enough just isn't enough.

For the past 14 years the Muir family has welcomed into their home two adolescents who traveled a little further than up Interstate 95.

As part of the The Children's Friendship Project for Northern Ireland, a completely volunteer organization that was started 20 to 25 years ago, two kids, one Catholic, one Protestant, have crossed the Atlantic and joined the Muir family in their summer activities.

Jo-Ann Muir is a lawyer turned teacher and considers herself socially conscientious.

But the events going on in the world were far away from her home and her ability to help. Then she noticed a small ad in her church bulletin that said if you had an extra bedroom and would like to help the kids of Northern Ireland, come to a meeting.

"I looked at my husband and said, 'We should do this,'" she said. "It's like, you can bring peace to the world with a spare bedroom."

When the Muirs first started participating in the program, the stay was for six weeks and they would usually have Irish girls. But as the program moved on, the stay was reduced to four weeks and as their own sons got older, the Muirs started hosting boys.

This year they are hosting Conor O'Keefe, 17, and Stephen Neill, 17, both of County Fermanagh.

To participate in the program, the boys had to fill out college-like applications about why they wanted to participate. When they were accepted, it was the job of the coordinator to match up a pair that was compatible. Muir said both O'Keefe and Neill were bright boys that would head 'to university.'

After being accepted and paired up, the two met with each other six months before coming to the United States. They had to show the ability to get along with their partner.

"If they think they are just coming to the U.S. for a vacation," Muir said, "they won't buy into the experience."

That experience gives two teenagers, of different religions, contact with each other that they wouldn't get back home.

"It's not that I wouldn't make friends with Protestants," O'Keefe said. "It's just that the bigger schools are divided by religion. So, I go to an all Catholic school, so all my friends are Catholic."

The result is a "snowball" affect according to Jo-Ann Muir. She said the families of the boys are worried about their children and so they talk to each other. Then when the boys get back to Ireland their friends can mix and it creates awareness.

The rules for hosting a pair are that they must share a bedroom and they must have adult supervision during the day.

"They have to share a bedroom because it is believed most of the bonding happens at night," Muir said.

"They can sit around and talk about the crazy things this crazy family did during the day and share the experience."

The Muirs have found tennis to be a unifying experience for the long line of host pairs they have had over the years. It makes the kids play together and cooperate and just be kids, regardless of religion.

In the past, Jo-Ann Muir has even entered some in Wolfeboro tennis tournaments and would have done the same for O'Keefe and Neill, had they not been on a flight back to Ireland today.

The Muirs were the first family in N.H. to host a pair from Northern Ireland through the C.F.P.N.I. organization but now there are five host families throughout the state. The Muirs had them all at their home last Saturday, July 23, for a barbecue.

"We are always looking for new host families," Muir said. "It's nice that they have their experience as pairs with their host families but they really like when everyone can get together in a group."

It is the job of the N.H. coordinator to organize events such as a trip to Water Country in Portsmouth, so the five pairs can be together as a group. Through this program, there are 80 to 90 pairs of Northern Ireland kids in the U.S.

For these two boys the experience seems to be beneficial.

"It is good to mix the two sides together," O'Keefe said. "I have really enjoyed my time in America."

"It's been great," Neill said. "We've been playing tennis and doing water skiing on the lake. I think this experience will make me more open to volunteering for similar opportunities back home. I will definitely come back to Wolfeboro some day."

It seems, perhaps, you can change the world one spare bedroom at a time.

Permission to print this article has been given by Granite State News and by Adam Coughlin, author and photographer.