catching up
Viv McWaters
viv at thereef.com.au
Sun Aug 10 23:57:54 PDT 2003
Hi Koos and others
> I also looked at the statistics. In my OSlist mailbox for 2003, there
> are
> now 1833 messages since the start of this year. That is an average of
> 8.3
> messages per day or 250 per month. I now understand why it sometimes
> becomes too much.
Without doing the figures, I too found the OSLIST just too much a while
back so I unsubscribed (I also knew that Brian Bainbridge would alert
me to anything really significant <grin>) - but now I'm back - and am
enjoying the list more than ever. Maybe a break from the list from
time-to-time is a good idea - for me anyway. It was easy to reconnect,
and I'm very sad that I won't be able to make it to Swenmark
(especially after having said I would be there) but I'm afraid life has
got in the way. So happy connecting everyone - and those of us not
there will be looking forward to some electronic connections at least.
Cheers
Viv
Viv McWaters
Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd
PO Box 665 Torquay 3228
Australia
(03) 5261 9498
0417 135 406
"Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to
think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. "
Schopenhauer
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>From Mon Aug 11 00:42:59 2003
Message-Id: <MON.11.AUG.2003.004259.0700.>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 00:42:59 -0700
Reply-To: chris at chriscorrigan.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Chris Corrigan <chris at chriscorrigan.com>
Subject: Re: Cherry Tree, 8/11/2003 (Please share with others) (long)
In-Reply-To: <200308110015_MC3-1-475D-705E at compuserve.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hey cool Doug...that reminds me of Chris too, Chris Weaver. Where is
Weaver these days? Soaking up summer in the Cherokee homeland I
suppose...
:-)
Chris
---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Douglas
> D. Germann, Sr.
> Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 9:16 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Cherry Tree, 8/11/2003 (Please share with others) (long)
>
> 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
>
>
> Wake-up, Brain ... it's morning again!
> (Brought to you by the InnovationNetwork)
> To subscribe to this weekly message,
> mailto:wakeup at thinksmart.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.
>
>
> ---end
>
> *
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