PORTLAND – There is something extraordinary even in what might seem like the most ordinary of lives.

That’s the premise behind i’monair, a collaboration between two women from southern Maine who have joined forces to find and tell those stories, and in doing so, to encourage their audiences to discover the out-of-the-ordinary qualities of their own lives. I’monair is a contraction for the phrase “imagine your story on air.”

Patsy Wiggins, 55, of South Portland, a longtime television reporter and producer, and Kathleen Alfiero, 56, of Scarborough, a former high school substance abuse counselor, started the i’monair project almost five years ago with the formation of their production company I.M.

Since then, they have brought stories of people in Maine and from around the country to television audiences and, more recently, to live audiences and are searching now for a way to reach larger audiences, again through the medium of television.

The venture had its beginnings during a five-hour lunch. The two women had known each other professionally – Wiggins had interviewed Alfiero on several occasions regarding her substance abuse work in the schools – but knew little about each other outside that setting. They were both reaching an end to one phase of their professional lives and were searching for what the next stage would bring.

“We were on parallel paths,” Wiggins said in a recent telephone interview. “We had both been hearing people’s stories in very different ways and sharing them. We wanted to continue to gather these stories and to share them, but in a different way.”

A way, Alfiero added, that also allowed them to include “our thoughts and vision as well as the stories of the people we met.”

The process is a true collaboration which has involved “a lot of laughter” as the two women discover not only new stories, but their own new skills and talents. Wiggins stepped away from her familiar role in front of the camera to serve as videographer, while Alfiero handles the interviews. Editing is a joint venture.

Their first i’monair program debuted before an audience at the Mariotte Hotel in South Portland in 2003. Laura Bush also was speaking at the hotel that day and the duo was gratified to see that much of the buzz in the lobby was about i’monair.

The show was well received and led to development of a short series for PBS titled “The Maine Collection – Stories of Extraordinary Ordinary People.” This year, they have moved to a live format that brings their subjects on stage to generally small audiences.

The subjects of their shows include a wide variety of people from Maine and beyond – an 8-year-old girl, a 70-year-old African-American woman, a teacher who spent 30 years in the schools giving back each day what he felt had been given to him.

They also hope to present the ordinary lives of people whose lives are seen as extraordinary. They already have interviewed Doris Roberts, who played Marie on the “Everyone Loves Raymond” series, and are working to arrange an interview with Whoopi Goldberg.

“We really have a mission to articulate that we are all gifted and talented in our own ways,” Alfiero said, “and that we all have something to offer the world.”

The tag line for each show is “I learn more about myself when I learn about you,” and the shows encourage audience members not only to participate, but also to reflect upon what they have seen and heard.

Wiggins and Alfiero are now working to find the right format that will keep the show intimate and still make it available to a larger audience. They have had preliminary discussions with producers regarding a package for a national audience, but need a financial sponsor to back the project in order to get it into production and on the air again.

“We know it works,” Wiggins said. “We know we’re on the right road, we’re just not sure where it’s taking us yet.”