Cathy Parker knows all about making dreams real and so do the people of Barrow, Alaska.

Barrow is America’s northernmost town, located on the Northern coast of the Arctic Ocean. The town is accessible only by boat or air. For 67 days a year the sun doesn’t rise. For 247 days of the year the mercury doesn’t rise above freezing.

The town’s isolation and poor weather have contributed to an unusually high rate of teen depression and suicide. Drug and alcohol use among Barrow’s youth is common.

Cathy Parker was living a normal life as a bank executive, wife and mother of four teens in Jacksonville, Fla., when she watched a segment on ESPN with her teens about Barrow’s efforts to start a football team to help the town’s youth overcome their mounting problems.

As she watched the ESPN segment, Cathy noticed these teenagers were practicing on permafrost, the Arctic landscape comprised mostly of rocky soil. Their desire to play and learn the game under such conditions brought tears to her eyes.

After Cathy attended church that day, she announced to her teenagers an Arctic-size vision: Give those Barrow Whalers a football field, as in an artificial turf field.

Everyone but her daughter laughed at her announcement. “That’s just impossible,” one of her sons said.

He was more right than he knew. Just how do you move 650,000 pounds of material into a town with no roads leading into it? This was just one of many unanswered questions that awaited Cathy as she began to research her project. Where would the money come from for such a herculean project?

At the suggestion of her boss, Cathy hired a public relations firm for guidance and advice. The firm advised her to begin speaking to civic groups to share her dream. Rotary was suggested as one of the groups she should visit.

Transportation was going to be the major component of the project. Figuring out how to get all the materials into Barrow would be one of the major hurdles to cross. The public relations firm Cathy hired sent an email to Phil Voss of the West Jacksonville Rotary, knowing he had some connections. Phil passed along the name Tommy Grimes, past Rotary district governor, member of the downtown Jacksonville Rotary Club, founder of The Grimes Company.

Tommy Grimes pulled in Rotarian Ike Sherlock, vice president of The Grimes Company, to work on the project. All the shippers Ike contacted told him shipping that much material to that location could not be done. That’s when The Grimes Company stepped in to take on the project.

Many of the key leaders of The Grimes Company are Rotarians who wanted to see Cathy’s dream come true. From the very beginning of the project, Rotarians were there to give the dream credibility and life.

The public relations firm suggested that Cathy hold a press conference to announce the dream of placing an artificial turf field in Barrow, Alaska, for the Whaler Football program. Ike Sherlock and Rotarian Michael O’Leary, president of The Grimes Company, attended the press conference, stood on the podium and announced their company would be overseeing the transportation of Project Alaska Turf. This gave the project instant credibility.

Cathy then set out to find additional support and spoke to many organizations and civic groups. A new club, St. Johns Rotary, had recently been formed in St. Augustine, Fla., and the club’s first president, John Covington, invited Cathy to be their first speaker in March 2007.

Following the meeting, Brad Hill, an architect, gave Cathy his card, telling her he might be able to help her with some details of the project. Brad had experience working in cold climates, actually having done work in Anchorage. Brad would later become another key helper for Cathy as specific architectural aspects of the project were addressed.

As a part of making dreams real that year, Cathy and the Bartram Trail Bears told the Barrow coaches if they could get to Jacksonville, the rest of their expenses would be covered. The Bartram Trail Football Team, where Cathy’s husband served as offensive coordinator and her son played quarterback, wanted the Barrow Team to come and spend a week with them to learn about football and experience life in the Sunshine State. The team did not have the resources. Yet at the last minute, an Alaska businessman stepped forward with $40,000 and paid their way to Jacksonville. The Rotary spirit had found its way all the way to Alaska and dreams became real.

Cathy was amazed at the generosity of men and women who wrote checks and helped make Project Alaska Turf a reality. Like the Apostle Paul, Cathy and others were busy helping the weak, demonstrating they understood the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35 (NIV)

Three months after Barrow Whalers football team returned home, they began practicing football in the crisp Alaskan August air. During this time Cathy worked the phones and the Internet. She spoke with company executives, logistic companies, and an artificial turf company. The total cost of Project Alaska Turf escalated to more than she ever imagined, $800,000. Yet with each donation from individuals, civic groups, companies, churches, and other organizations, the field her sons told her was impossible to build and logistic companies told her was impossible to deliver began to make its way from Georgia to Alaska under the careful planning of Ike Sherlock.

By truck, rail, boat, and plane, it had finally arrived in Anchorage, but time was running out. There was about a two-day window left to get the materials into Barrow before the weather would no longer be adequate for the installation of the field.  

Then the project hit a major snag. The government agency that promised to help with the last leg of transportation backed out at the last minute on advice of its lawyers. Sherlock was on vacation when he got the news.

Most people would have given up. Most would have said, “I’ve done all I can do. I’m on vacation. We’ll have to try next season.” But Ike, with the spirit of a Rotarian, placed others ahead of himself. He spent the day on the phone, coordinating rival trucking companies to haul the materials until he got them all the way to Dead Horse, Alaska. However, the project wasn’t dead. The owner of a small private airline made more than 20 jumps across the bay to transport the materials.

All this transportation from Anchorage was done by people free of charge. Everyone donated his or her time, equipment, and resources to help make this dream become real. The Rotary Spirit was alive in Alaska — “Not for Self, but for Others.”

Not only did the Barrow Whalers get their field; they got their field in time to play their first football game on Aug. 17. Cathy Parker was there to receive her well-deserved praise from the team and the city. Ike Sherlock was there along with architect Brad Hill. By kickoff, Project Alaska Turf had received attention from television crews from around the country. The Rotary flag was displayed on the fence in the end zone.

Rarely does a sporting event in Alaska make national news, much less one in a town of less than 5,000. Yet there was Cathy Parker on the NBC Nightly News being lifted on the shoulders of the Barrow Whalers as they walked onto their new turf field.

The nation didn’t know it, but Cathy had already been lifted on the shoulders of Rotarians in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, St. Johns, and in many other parts of America. Thanks in large part to Rotarians and the Rotary Spirit displayed in other people, the dream that God gave Cathy one Sunday morning became real and the Barrow Whalers have an artificial turf at the top of the world.

Cathy and her Rotarian friends were driven to make this dream real because they knew the youth of Barrow, Alaska, were in trouble and needed help. That’s why, with every obstacle, a way was found to overcome it, because those youth of Barrow needed to know someone cared.

Seeing the Rotary Spirit displayed and working was enough to convince Cathy to become a Rotarian herself. She became the first female member of the St. Johns Rotary Club.

Today the club is still dreaming. Cathy, Ike, and Brad, all Rotarians, went on to establish Athletes to Champions, which helps at-risk youth through the power of athletics. Their new projects can be found at Athletes2Champions.org.

What dreams are you helping become real?

n

The Rev. Michael Helms is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Moultrie.