BrainStorm changes the way the world works. And as an employee, BrainStorm has changed my life.
See, I have long had a dream of finding a way to find my family in Ireland. Early in 2016, this dream started to become a reality, thanks to BrainStorm and the BOOM campaign.
The BOOM campaign is a sponsorship award that was created by BrainStorm to give employees opportunities to live their dreams and do things they might not otherwise have the chance to do. You can learn more about it below.
My father was placed for adoption at an orphanage in Dublin, Ireland in 1950. He has always wanted to connect with his birth family, but only had his birth mother’s name: Phyllis Deacon. My father had tried several times to make contact with the Deacon family in Ireland, only to find the search coming up short.
I decided to apply for the BrainStorm BOOM campaign. My idea was to travel to Ireland in search of my grandmother and extended family and capture the search and the journey in a documentary film. Not long after, I found that my idea was selected!
After learning that BrainStorm was going to help make this dream a reality, I began a more intensive search for my Irish family. I came across an obituary for a Phyllis Deacon who had lived in Bree, County Wexford, in southeast Ireland. I knew that this was my last chance to make contact with my family while my father was still in good health and able to travel.
On May 16th, I posted a simple message on a Facebook group page in hopes that the obituary I had found might actually be my grandmother’s:
Exactly a month later, on June 16th, 2016, I received a return message from a Wendy Deacon in Dublin. She let me know that she knew my grandmother and that the Deacon family would love to make contact with our family!
It’s been a joyful time for our family, to say the least. We’ve been able to leverage Skype and other technology to connect with a family that we’ve never known—and now we get to travel to Ireland and meet them face-to-face.
I’m so grateful to BrainStorm for this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And because I want to share every moment with you, I’m taking over the BrainStorm Instagram account (@BrainStormTeam) as we travel to Ireland and meet our family. I hope you’ll follow along and join me in the adventure!