An American boy with a newfound connection to Donegal is hoping to visit Ireland soon with the help of supporters around the world.
Sasha Yonyak (14) from Maryland, USA, is making headlines across Ireland, the UK and the States after his ‘message in a bottle’ washed up on a far-flung beach in Donegal.
Sasha tossed a bottle out to sea in 2019 and it travelled an incredible 3,000 miles across the Atlantic to the north coast.
Belfast couple Rita Simmonds and Ciaran Marron were on a New Year’s Walk on Magheraroarty Beach when they made the exciting discovery. Inside the bottle was two US dollar bills and a note from Sasha. Rita and Ciaran immediately embarked on a search to reach out to their new pen pal and ensure he finds out that his bottle had made it so far.
After an appeal on Donegal Daily and plenty of social media searching, they eventually connected with Sasha’s father on Facebook. Very soon they formed a virtual friendship with the family and news outlets all over the world were taking an interest. Rita and Ciaran have been promoting the beauty of Donegal’s beaches in many of their interviews across the States.
A bittersweet side of the story soon emerged when Sasha revealed that he had been fishing with a good friend and neighbour, Wane Smith, when they first discovered a bottle in the marina at Ocean City, Maryland. The message in that bottle asked the finder to ‘pass it on’, and Sasha and Wane were happy to follow the instructions. Sadly, Wane passed away last year at the age of 64, never knowing what became of their project.
Sasha is now hoping to visit Ireland in memory of his friend, Wane. An online fundraiser is underway to raise enough money for Sasha to visit Rita and Ciaran and return to the special place where the bottle washed up in Donegal.
Visit the GoFundMe campaign here: https://gofund.me/603265f8
You can hear Sasha’s story in his own words here: