Western News readers help east coast boy learn about Montana

Thanks in part to the generosity and passion of some Western News readers, a North Carolina fourth-grader recently got an “A” on his social studies project about Montana.

Liam McConaughy, 10, a student at Charlotte Latin School in Charlotte, North Carolina, wrote letters to the editor of the Western News and two other Montana newspapers in early April. Addressed to the “people of the great state of Montana” and signed by Nicholas Smith — he used the pseudonym for privacy — he sought “firsthand knowledge” of the state from its residents to “help me learn more about the best things in your state.”

Help him Montanans did. Liam’s mom, Chrissy McConaughy, said he “was so excited that he received so much mail,” most of it from the Libby area.

“I was amazed that people had taken the time to hand write letters,” she said in a phone interview. “He got letters, pages and pages and pages, people just telling him their stories and where they were from and the way things used to be way back.”

Someone also invited Liam and his family to visit and stay in a family cabin, McConaughy said.

Talking via speakerphone, Liam ticked off some of what he’d received: Native American beads, road maps and hunting maps, “a bunch of magazines about Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park,” and jam, candy and other items made with huckleberries.

“We ate them one night with pancakes,” he said.

Among those who responded to Liam’s request was a group from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, an effort spearheaded by dispatcher Cait Faulkner.

“I put a box in the office with a note saying that I would send items to the student by the end of (April),” she said via email. “I received items regarding the Christmas tree, a Montana wildlife magazine, a few items picked up at the Chamber on things to do in Lincoln county and the postcards I picked up at the Capitol.”

“It wasn’t a lot of items, or even remarkable items, but it was something,” she wrote.

Liam’s class project kicked off in mid-March. He said he chose to report on Montana because “it just really sounded like an interesting state and it looked very beautiful.”

The class project culminated May 18 with a “State Fair,” where the fourth-graders displayed what they had learned about their chosen states. They also sang songs, and dressed up as a famous person from the state they reported on.

Liam wore a homemade costume depicting Butte-born Evel Knievel, whom he had learned about before the state fair assignment.

“I thought he was very cool because he jumped over like 14 buses,” he said.

Each student was paired with a fellow student. Chrissy McConaughy said Liam’s partner, Charley Meyer, received few if any items, but that “Liam got so much they were able to use what he had gotten.”

Liam’s teacher, Kate Hughey, said she brought the state fair idea from her previous teaching job in Boston when she moved to Charlotte about four years ago. She said Liam “got more than most kids” did.

“It’s just so wonderful,” she said, adding that he got an “A” “of course.”

Hughey said almost 100 fourth graders participated in the class project, including students taught by Liam’s father, Neil McConaughy

Chrissy McConaughy, who also teaches at Liam’s school, noted that the state fair project went beyond social studies. Art teachers created state flags, she said, and music teachers helped pull off “this huge music program” including songs from “all different parts of the United States.”

Even the librarians got involved, she said.

Liam and his mom said a trip to Montana is likely in their family’s future. Liam’s grandmother has always wanted to visit — it’s on her bucket list, Chrissy McConaughy said — and Liam’s father “has been talking for years” about driving across the country.

“(Visiting is) definitely something we all want to do,” Chrissy McConaughy said. “Especially since Liam has done so much research and learned so much. I think it would really be fun for all of us to do that.”

Liam’s sites are set on Glacier National Park, he said.