CATHY PARKER

Published Oct 8, 2019, 3:00 PM

Cathy Parker was a bank employee, a wife, and a mother of 4 student athletes. She didn't have a lot of money, or power, and had ZERO knowledge of artificial athletic turf... but when her children called to her to watch a documentary about a  town in the northern reaches of Alaska, struggling to keep kids safe, engaged, and in school, she took action!

Cathy answered a whisper in her heart, which led to a whole lotta shouting on the sidelines! Her book, "Northern Lights" tells the story of how she was able to get an artificial athletic field, purchased, transported, and installed in a town with no roads in or out. And, how she changed countless lives in the process, but none so much as her own.

Northern Lights was my book club pick for August - check it out on my web site - and join us for this inspiring episode of LOVE SOMEONE with Delilah! ~ Delilah

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Hi there, Welcome aboard, Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. Maybe you're a listener to my radio show, or maybe you're just somebody who loves loves listening to podcast and uh, it's great that you can download these podcasts and listen while you're commuting or listen at your leisure. This podcast, Love Someone with Delilah is aimed straight at your heart. I'm doing this thing with a single focus to inspire you, to inspire your heart. Now, my radio show at night, a lot of times we talk about romantic love or people call in who are falling in love for the first time. That's not what this podcast is about, not that kind of heart. I am here to encourage your heart to make the world a better place. We've all heard the sayings follow your dreams and do what you're passionate about. But sometimes in the face of these well meaning motivational mantras, you can get overwhelmed. What is my dream? What is my passion? What's wrong with me that I can't figure it out? What I'm supposed to be doing? Does that sound like you? You're like I want to help, I want to make the world a better place, but I don't know where to start. Well, I'm here to take a little pressure off of you. I'm here to tell you that you matter. Whatever it is that you're doing matters, Whomever it is that you're connected to with that matters. And I'm here to encourage you to do just a little bit more, to step out of your comfort zone. Maybe nothing earth shattering. I'm here to tell you you don't need a giant bank accout out or connections with the Jets set. You don't need a law degree or a medical degree. The only thing you need is a heart that is willing to serve. My guest today, I love someone with the lyland. This podcast personifies what it means to follow the whisper in your heart. Kathy Parker was a wife, a mother of four student athletes, had a full time job in a bank, and was living in the southernmost state in the US in Jacksonville, Florida. She saw an ESPN clip on TV about a suffering town in Borrow, Alaska. In desperation, the town had formed a football club so that it's teenage boys could have some kind of healthful activity. These inspiring activities to help them stay focused, to help motivate them. Unfortunately, in a land of perma frost, their field was nothing more than a frozen patch of rock and gravel. When Kathy saw that little clip on ESPN, she was about to get moved off the bench, so to speak, and into the game. Kathy is on the phone lines and we're going to talk about her experience. But before we get into that, I want to take a moment to thank the sponsor of my podcast series, the Home Depot. Your Home Depot likely has the largest selection of new appliances in stock. That's helpful when you want to see all the options available to you. And every one of those appliances have a guaranteed low price attached to it, so you know you're getting the best deals. If you're in need of a new appliance, don't put it off. Visit the Home Depot. More saving more are doing. Hi, Kathy, Hi de La La. Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. Oh, thank you. I have been looking so forward to this, so I'm just thrilled. That's what my executive producer said when she called my executive producer of this podcast being my sister. You know, if your sister loves you and brags about you, then you're doing pretty good. Well, my sister loves me ferociously and fiercely and completely, even when I was a horrible big sister to her growing up. Well, there you go. You're blessed. Yes, I tell you. Since I had the privilege of being chosen for your book club my book Northern Life for August, and then people knew that I was going to be on your show, I have heard so many testimonies and I'm telling life changing stories to La La on how when people were going through a hard time, maybe through a divorce, and you know, it's not just women. And there was a man the other day. It was working on my website and he was retired military and he was like, Oh, I just loved Lalla. You've got a lot of fans out there. I tell people, when you hear something inspiring, something powerful, something that speaks directly to your heart and what you're going through, that's when God borrows my voice. When you hear me being jerky and egotistical, that's that's me taking back over that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Because I can mess up anything, but when I step back and let God work, it's pretty amazing what he can do and your book northern Lights. Throughout the book and everything, you give God the glory uh for this little miracle, not not little miracle, but huge miracle uh, that you got to orchestrate, or you got to be used to orchestrate. So let's start from the very beginning of your story. Cathy Parker. You wrote the book Northern Lights, which was our August book Club pick, but the story goes back a couple of years. What did you see that started this whole journey to Alaska? Well, the reason the book goes back a couple of years is I turned in the original manuscript with David Thomas, bestselling writer that was helping me, and the publishing company sent it back and they were like, now you're leaving out some stuff And I said what And they said, we want to know what has happened in your life that you would have such great faith. And it really took me back. I didn't really want to open up and be personal. I just wanted to tell all the good stuff. You don't want to tell any bad stuff. But it made me really think about that and I knew why, because God had healed helled me. He'd helled my marriage, a marriage that was really in trouble and given me hope. And that's what I was trying to do for these new friends in Alaska, give them hope. So that's why the book goes back to some of those struggles that I had early um in our marriage and then throughout just um in a family that was packed with a bunch of wonderful athletes and and just had been given great talent um and really um superstars in my family that God hadn't something for me too. So obviously you know a lot about the game of football going into this little project. Uh, you had sat on the bench or sat in the bleachers for how many years? Oh, a long time because my my husband played ball. We got married really young in college and he played, um you know, we're high school sweethearts. So he played high school ball, college ball, and then went on to play professionally. And then we had more children, three boys and our daughter, and they were all athletes and so they were all playing. So had spent a lot of time and I used the phrase that I raised my children at the ball field, and that is so true. We spent so much time and so much of our effort and money and everything else was spent at the ball field. Yeah, because it's not cheap. Those clubs are not cheap. I've got girls in volleyball, and I have sons that are older that played club soccer, and and that's not a cheap commitment. That is a choice. I need a new Washington dryer or I need to get my boys signed up for a club soccer. And then like you're talking about multiple children in a family that are all going in different directions. Oh yeah, yeah, it is. It is definitely something that you spend a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort goes to raising kids at the ball field because it's not just done for enjoyment anymore. It's it's it's a commitment, huge commitment, not just on the kids par but on the mama bear driving them. So, so you were you were watching ESPN because you come from the sports background or your how do you hated Ona? How are you watching? My kids actually were watching ESPN and they called my husband and I in and they said, mom, Dad, you've got to see this. And it was about very Alaska, the most northern American settlement with no roads going into it. It's on the frozen tundra. And if you don't know much about the frozen I knew nothing about the frozen tundra. Alaska to me was mountainous that with evergreens, but the tundra is not like that at all. It's very flattened and barren and no trees, no bushes, it's just um, the frozen tundra. And so they had started a football program there, and the reason why is because in this isolated community of less than five thousand people, they had a lot of social problems that came from kids not staying in school, and so their dropout rate was extremely high. A end their team suicide, as well as um drug use, just things that kids could get involved in when they had a whole lot of time on their hands, when they were not motivated, that kind of thing. And they had done a survey and asked the kids, well, what could we implement in the school. They were given a one time funding to implement a program that would keep kids in school, and the kids came back and said, well, if we had football, but it was it was extremely problematic because there's no roads going in or out the closest communities miles away. They have to fly to play every opponent or fly the opponent in, And then where are they going to play a game on the frozen tundra When it dolls with the ice during the wintering. In the summer months, it just turns into mush. So they played on this gravel covered field, and you can imagine the cuts and sprained ankles and all the things that came from that. So it was a real eye opening especial that we were watching. But I knew that that sport would work. I had seen what had done in our community. My husband was coaching, and I saw him mentoring young men and we'd have them over to our home and they stay with us, meat with us and all that, and I knew that it was something that could have a profound impact on that community. In fact, they even said to my husband, I said, I understand why people up in arms about the money that it's going to cost. I said, but that football program, it's going to save their lives. And my husband said, you're right, Well what do you do about that? So I had never been to Alaska. I didn't know anyone from Alaska. But my husband was overseeing putting in an artificial turf field in our area. And sunny Florida, And it was like God said, if your kids need this, how much? Just more? Did they need it there where they can't even grow grass? So I had this bright idea of raising the funds, giving them an artificial turf field like the one we had, and teaching them how to play football. Okay, I minister, I'll be right there for just a second, Cathy, hold on, we need to hear a lot more of this amazing story, but I also need to give some time to this message. So how soon after you saw this special on ESPN did you have this bright idea of, Hey, you know what, we're putting artificial turf in here in Florida, Let's just head to north to Alaska and do the same thing there. How soon after that thought came to you, did the thought come to you that this is gonna be a really hard, almost impossible task. Well, you know, I had this tendency of jumping off the cliff, you know, and I think that it was quite soon. It was that same day that we saw that special on ESPN. I announced to my family, what, you know, I felt like God had shown me and that what we were going to do. And they again, you know, mom, that's that's impossible. And my husband was the same way, and I kept trying to get him to let me talk to the turk company that was putting in our field, and finally he said, Okay, I'll get you a meeting, and I just kept talking about it and talking about it. I think that I really started realizing how hard it was going to be, but I was already well into the process. Now. I tried giving it away. I tried renigging, I tried everything you could do um to say of I've made a big mistake here, but just could not. It was such a burning in my heart that I just could not give up on it. And so when we held a press conference at our high school and announced to the world, that was probably the hardest thing that I had to do, because I knew then there was no going back. There was no going back. You're exactly right, there's no going back because you said it publicly and you can't take it back, that's right. And so that I was sick, I mean just literally sick to my stomach. But we did that press conference and the story just spread like all across the United States. We started getting cards in the mail from people all over, just ordinary people that would say things like, you know, athletics had a great impact on my children or my grandchildren. I want to be a part of this. We had a family whose son was killed on nine eleven in the World Trade Center, and it was the money from his estate. They said, he would love to be a part of something like this, and just people from all over wanted to be a part of it, and they started giving. And so that was extreme motivation to keep going. And yes, there were tremendous obstacles, so many times where we thought that it couldn't happen. We UM had six hundred and fifty thousand pounds of products transported out of the state of Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Canada into a place how many pounds into it over six hundred fifty thousand pounds, six hundred and fifty thousand pounds, taking it to a blaze with no roads exactly, and it went by every means of transportation. Ups was a huge component through the Lower forty eight through semis and trains and then uh tote a big barge company out of Seattle. I mean, just on and on and on, partnering together to see this come to fruition. So from the time frame, Delila, when we made that announcement in that press conference, that just you know, just made me so I was so afraid to do to watching them play on that bright blue it's bright blue with yellow end zones and sits just a hundred yards from the Arctic Ocean. It was less than six months, so it was just a tremendous miracle. So did you go to to Barrow before that trip? No, that was your first trip. Was actually delivering it first trip. We'd already sent installers there to work on it and to get it ready. I actually flew in with thirteen others from Jacksonville, Florida and national media to watch that first game. Wow. So you didn't go up there beforehand and meet the kids and meet the coach and get inspired that way, you just kept working diligently behind the scenes. Most of our communication was over the phone. Now, we did bring the team to Jacksonville during that time after we had made the announcement. Our head coach at the time in um in Jacksonville, Florida, Darryl Sutherland, just a wonderful, godly man, and he said, Cathy, it's not good enough. To just give them a field. We need to teach them what it's like to be student athletes. They need to come down, participate and spring practice with us, stay in our homes, and so we did that and that was life changing for us. You know how when you go and you want to do something for someone, you think I'm just so gonna bless them that you end up being the one so blessed. That was exactly what happened when the team came to Jacksonville and stayed in our homes. Our eyes were open the things we had taken for granted for so long, and just an amazing thing to be able to reach out and help that community and get a relationship with people that had really sort of been forgotten there on the outskirts on that North Slope Borough Um people of Indigenous people, their Native American people, and they have amazing cultures, amazing things that they hold strong too, like taking care of their neighbors and respect for elders, and just amazing kind of way of life living off the land, sea in the air and not taking anything for granted. And we had gotten far away from some of those concepts, and so making the relationship with these people and just seeing what wonderful, wonderful people they were. It was an amazing thing for us. It really really blessed us much more than we ever blessed them. And your kids, how did it impact your four kids when that was going on, Well, to be caught hotest. When it first started happening, they were like, mom has lost it this time, and she's really good to embarrass them. This is not going to be good. But that's our job, isn't it. You know it is. I constantly come up with ways to thoroughly embarrass my children just so that they will have a story. It's when they're older. I mean I rolled down the windows of the car and sing out loud at the top of my yeah exactly exactly. So they were very skeptical calls at first, but then when we ended up bringing the team and they go to share, you know, especially with with athletes. So I'll let you know, your kids, you spend so much time on your diet, your exercise, your performance, your workout, your your your you spend so much time on that. But to be able to take something that you're good at. My kids have been playing ball since they were babies, so to be able to take something that you knew how to do and teach someone else who had never played that game before. That was an amazing thing to see happen, and it was so rewarding for our kids to be able to transfer their knowledge onto this team who never played. Now, do your kids or anybody in your community that helped take on this challenge, did they still have relationships with the team in Barrel. Yes. In fact, I'm going in about a week and a half back to Barrow. I've been several times and the name has changed to the Chiavic and that the people are amazing. The relationships have grown strong. Now the young people that we've helped on that first team have grown up and we get to see what kind of husbands they are and what type of fathers they are. We went to that first game in two thousand and seven, and then seven years later I went on my second trip and we had a party and had a gathering of all that original team that could come just to see how they turned out who they were, Because, quite honestly, if these were young people who had not turned out to be great citizens and community leaders and and fathers and husbands, and there would there would be no story, because it would not have worked. It would have been a waste of money. But they were just in the with what had happened in their lives and the things that have happened through then being able to participate in that sport and to have home it was an amazing thing to see. So did they see did the school see like a change? Was there a drop in the dropout rate? Was there a drop in the suicide rate? Was there an increase in test scores? Did they see the direct correlation? Oh? Yeah, we had that data pretty quickly. Within two years of starting the football program. The graduation rate had been in the forties. It went into the high eighties, So it almost doubled in two years. We had tremendous data to pull from as far as what had happened in the school. I will tell you in two thousand and seventeen, just two years ago, that football team won the state championship, and I would have was very fortunate to be able to attend that game. And of course I'm just crying and thinking it cannot get any better than this. And then over the intercom they announced the highest g p A for the football teams in the state and they won that one too. Whoa, Yeah, So it didn't just didn't just it wasn't just a football game, right, It really had so much more to do about who they were and for other people caring about them. They became pretty well known throughout of the United States is that team, And they had a lot of publicity. They had ESPN, they had Sports Illustrated do something on them. They had the NFL network to a whole series about that team called Football Town. So they've had a lot of publicity that came from that, a lot of things that let them see that there were people who really cared about them, and they had fans all over that we're pulling for them. That all those things really helped them to become even more proud of their community and their heritage and their culture. And so it all worked to other people started really coming and supporting the games and the youth and putting back into the community. So it started prospering in every way. And is it still growing? Are other people continuing because the turf isn't gonna last forever and there's got to be other things done. Are other people continuing to build this this blessing? Well, I will tell you this and this was a really great example of the impact that has been seen in Barrow. There have been over a dozen artificial fulfilleds put in the state or high schools that are in a remote areas so other communities, and I've talked to some of the leaders in those communities and they say, when we saw what happened in Barrow and the change that happened there, we want that for our community. So they were just going forward with that. And it's just sewing back into the youth, Delilah, And that's how you make great change. Is just a community that has said number one, they admitted that they had some problems. They admitted that they had some things that needed to be corrected, and I think that has to be the first step. You have to admit that, Okay, we need some help here. And they let someone like me, an outsider, come in with these crazy ideas and partner with it. So it was an amazing partnership between the most southern community and the most northern community in relationships. And what would you, Cathy say to somebody who sees a story on ESPN, or sees the story on the news, or picks up a magazine and reads the headline. In my case, it was an email that I got where a lady said, would you adopt? My children were starving to death in West Africa? And I'm like, WHOA, what are you talking about? And three months later I'm on a plane flying to West Africa and adopting an entire refugee camp. Wow, what would you say to somebody who is in that situation? This is what I would say. I looked back on this project and I thank God that I didn't give up on this one, because I could have many times. It was very difficult, had tremendous obstacles, and I thank God that I just didn't miss it. I'm sure there's been many opportunities that I have, but now when i'm person, it was something I remember. I remember that I don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss it anymore. So who do you think reaped the bigger blessing out of that ESPN special? The community? How do you say their name now that they've changed it back to the indigenous name Kovik? Who do you think received the bigger blessing? The the community of us Kiovik or the community that you built in Jacksonville and the community that you're a part of. I think in my case, I feel like our community of Jacksonville got the biggest bood thing. That's the way I feel, because it opened up our eyes to so much that has continues to happen because everyone that was involved it built our fights so much and we started looking for other opportunities and we're able to start a nonprofit and help there, and they're you know, just in several different areas. So I think that it just continues to multiply. I don't know that it will ever stop, and I hope it doesn't. I hope it doesn't. I hope this thing continues to grow and that bridge that you've built between the northern most point and the southernmost point, that that bridge becomes a super highway of love. Absolutely, I agree with you because what an amazing story. And like you said, lives are transformed when the kids chooses to stay in school and chooses football over drugs. When a kid chooses to become are they do they have a cheerleading squad? Oh yeah, they do. So when those girls choose to you know, stay aff for school every day to practice and to learn to do the splits instead of dropping out of school or choosing a destructive path that changes lives. It does, it exactly does. So there's just a whole lot of things that have come from just an act of kindness and and from putting down our our prejudice and putting down our fears and just embracing one another. Amen. Well, thank you, thank you for writing Northern Lights. Thank you for not listening to your own fears or to those who would say, mom, what are you thinking. Blessed are the feet of those who bring good news and who bring artificial turf. I love that. Thank you, Thank you, Kathy. And let's stay in touch because I want to see how how God is going to continue to grow this highway, this this super highway of love and relationships. And you know there's a movie. There's a movie that is based off the book that is going to be start filming next year. Oh how exciting is that? I know? Do you get to play you? Or are they finding unlike an actress to play you? Yes, they're going after some A listers. It's a it's quite a large budget film. It's going to be directed by Andy Tennant, who was the director for Sweetholme Alabama and Pitch and in the King. So we've got a wonderful director and just going to be quite a quite a wonderful movie. So I'm looking forward to seeing who they choose. I don't know who they're going to choose, but I'm sure I'll be happy with it. I'm sure you will, and I'm sure I'll be happy to talk about it when that happens. Thank you, d La La, Thank you God, Bless you, God, bless you. Isn't it amazing what can happen when someone follows the whisper in their hearts. A wife, a mom, a bank employee somehow managed to raise five hundred thousand dollars and get an artificial turf athletic field transported and installed in the far reaches of the Alaskan Tundra. How about you? Where could you create some space in your life and your routine in order to brighten up someone else's day? Have you ever volunteered to pick up a few groceries for a friend or a neighbor that's been under the weather. We all do these things, and they all matter. But if you yearn to do more, to be more, I am here to encourage you to listen listen carefully to that whisper in your heart. The next time you're engaged in an activity that serves others, think for a moment on how you're feeling right then and there. If the answer surprises you in a good way, like Wow, this is amazing. I'm feeling happy, I'm feeling useful, I'm feeling energized, I'm feeling inspired because I'm not focusing on my own troubles, my own pain, Then you, my friend, have hit upon that passion. Didn't think out loud with as many people as possible on how delivering groceries to your friend in need might be expanded. Maybe you make a Facebook post and say, hey, neighbors on Helpful Street, I shop on Thursday afternoon and I'm happy to pick up a few staples for folks on my weekly run if you've had a hectic week, if you can't make it out, Maybe another neighbor chimes in and says, yeah, Tuesday's after work are my shopping days and I could help too. I don't know. Maybe it takes off. Maybe you find yourself delivering a carton of milk or eggs to a neighbor and you find out she's battling breast cancer, or you that his son just had his tonsils taken out and they don't have any help. Maybe you decide to organize a bit and figure out a better system. Maybe you recruit other neighbors, and before you know it, you're building community and you're helping people. Kathy that we just listened to was able to get a lot done and in her service, she was able to lift the spirits of dozens of people and encourage young men to heights they had never imagined. Who knows what can happen if you take the time to listen. Join me on my next podcast, where I'll try to inspire you further with another great story. Until then, my friend would take the time to slow down and love someone

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