Cherry Tree, 8/11/2003 (Please share with others) (long)

[Douglas D. Germann, Sr.]

Hi--

Got this from a list I am on, and it seemed that it uses OS principles, and
it reminded me of Chris.

                              :-Doug. Germann

----Forwarded Message(s)----

 Sb: Cherry Tree, 8/11/2003  (Please share with others)
 Fm: INTERNET:INTeam--234946 at autocontactor.com


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Cherry Tree's Field of Dreams

State Highway 59 winds south out of Stilwell through the gentle Oklahoma
hills. This is heartland America: a person-to-person place not much
concerned with high tech problems and international feuds. The two-lane
blacktop cuts through farm fields and pastures fringed with buck brush and
scrub oak woods.

However, the serene, muted beauty of the countryside belies the troubled
history of Cherry Tree, a community just off the almost- deserted highway.
It is familiar territory--a poor, rural community plagued by drugs and
alcohol, crime and a sense of defeat. Kids with nothing to do; adults with
no hope ... more of a cluster of misery than a community. But, Cherry Tree
had something special ... and it did something remarkable.

Most of Cherry Tree's 300 residents are members of the Cherokee Nation, and
by 1990, The Nation had participated in several uniquely successful
community development programs under the leadership of then-Chief Wilma
Mankiller. Hearing of their successful programs, the Cherry Tree parents
who were tired of losing their kids to drugs, crime and alcohol thought
there might be a way to solve their problems. They approached Chief
Mankiller for help but her schedule was already over-booked so she
volunteered her husband, Charlie Soap.

"I remember the first time we met in 1990," recalls Soap. "The parents came
and asked me to help them do some youth projects. They didn't know what to
do or how to get started." Charlie Soap's life is deeply etched in his
strong, dark face. His voice and eyes are gentle and protective as he
speaks with passion about the Cherry Tree Project.

With that first group of parents was Ron Gonzales, father of three boys.
For years Gonzales had gazed across the pastures and scrub oak, but instead
of seeing the northeastern Oklahoma hills, he saw a baseball diamond and
players in white uniforms standing on an emerald green field. He heard
shouts and cheers of families and friends. He saw a community of people
playing together. But, the vision had always faded into the reality of
trees and weeds.

When Soap asked the parents what they wanted, Gonzales immediately replied:
A ball field.  "I was amazed," stated Soap. "They had all these problems --
vandalism, drugs, school drop-out ... an amazingly high suicide rate. And
they wanted a ball field. So I asked why."

Gonzales had an explanation, "The kids don't like each other. They're
fighting all the time and always getting in trouble. If we could form a
baseball team, or several teams, throughout the community, they would
become teammates. They'd support each other and become friends. They
wouldn't be fighting; they'd be playing ball together."

The underlying principle of the community development process used by Soap
is that everything comes from the community. If they wanted a ball field,
it was his job to help them organize and build a ball field. The group
formed a Youth Council and began to hold fund raisers. The kids were
excited about the possibility of playing ball and they started pushing
their parents to help even more. A temporary site was found and work
started with some of the kids working from early morning till late at
night.

But, change doesn't come easily.

Several young bullies delighted in tearing up the field as fast as Gonzales
and his Youth Council built it. Gonzales is a quiet, patient man and he
kept the kids calm. He would say, "Don't get mad. Don't retaliate. Let's
just fix it back up and then ask them to come play." But the bullies
refused to join them and continued to vandalize the ball field.

The turning point came when the Youth Council was offered tickets to a
Texas Rangers game. No one in Cherry Tree had ever been to a professional
baseball game. The kids were all crazy to go, but they looked at their
bigger goals and decided to share some of their precious tickets with the
bullies ... who accepted this offer. The trip made the bullies part of the
group and they became champions and protectors of the project.

After that trip, momentum started gathering and more and more people wanted
to be involved. In the group meetings, people began to think bigger. They
wanted something more than just one temporary ball field. They wanted a
permanent place where everyone could play ... from the little kids to the
adults. Someone remembered a plot of land owned by the Cherokee Nation
currently being used for cattle grazing but big enough for a recreation
area for the entire community.

They approached the tribal council with a proposal and suddenly Cherry Tree
had 115 acres to develop. Gonzales' vision flickered back to life.

Of course, it's one thing to design something on paper and quite another to
make it happen. Without tractors, bulldozers, or a building loan, Cherry
Tree's field of dreams didn't look very promising. However, almost everyone
in the community showed up with their garden rototillers, hoes, shovels,
spades and rakes. Painfully, rock by rock and root by root, they carved a
ball field out of a cow pasture.

Today, if you take State Highway 59 south from Stilwell and turn right at
the Cherry Tree Head Start center, you can follow a dirt road through the
woods till it opens up to a broad expanse ringed by oak trees. If you're
lucky, Gonzales will come down from the brand new community tractor and you
can sit on the bleachers facing the first ball field and listen to him
describe the rest of the Cherry Tree Project: three additional ball fields,
a t-ball field, a walking/jogging path through the woods, a bicycle
motocross designed and built by the little kids, a gymnasium, a wellness
program, and a Cherry Tree Project store.

And the bottom line? Local law enforcement officials report that before the
ball field project, 50 percent of all the calls they received were from or
about Cherry Tree. Today, Cherry Tree generates only 5 percent of the total
calls. Each member of the community "owns" the Cherry Tree Project and
there is a lot of pride in what they have accomplished and what they intend
to accomplish. Cherry Tree has become a community with a future ... a field
of dreams with very real results.

Charlie Soap spells out his basic rules of community development, rules
that apply to all organizations and to all transformation efforts:

-- Definition of the problem and all potential solutions have to come from
the people.

-- Participation has to be voluntary.

-- Find a way to involve the holdouts.


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