1000 hours

Purcell Soccer Park, Marysville

Never underestimate the power of passion!  

I remember a conversation with Pete Campbell, Andy Gray, Paul Daprocida and Mark McKinley a few years ago. I listened while they described  their dream of a high-quality, multi-field soccer park, able to accommodate major tournaments. We were standing on the site, surveying what was then a small softball/soccer combination, with more weeds than grass. I loved the idea and the concept, but honestly I could not fathom that a workforce of volunteers could actually get this monster project going, let alone done. It needed, massive amounts of fill, many many hours of heavy equipment time just to carve the plateau so that instead of accommodating one field, there would be enough room for three full soccer fields. It would also need a ton of grader time, just to level all this dirt, let alone fine- tune the soccer field to just the right angle.  At first glance, I had a hard time imagining how this could get done... the equipment time alone was in the tens of thousands of dollars, let alone the cost of the underground sprinkler system, the time to trench all the fields, and the time and cost to seed. It was a massive project that boggled my mind.  And then they described their vision of the timberframe clubhouse, with massive deck and large rock landscaping, overlooking the fields. I was having a hard time imagining this stuff. I even remember city council commenting after being briefed on the project, "It seems rather ambitious" came the cautious reply from council.

Soon enough, various key players in Kimberley were involved - including Teck, who just so happened to be looking for clay for Cow Creek and was willing to pay for the heavy equipment to move it. When I heard of that stroke of good luck from Pete Campbell, I realized that this was no pipe dream - it was going to happen.

 Fast forward to this past spring and summer. Volunteer work crews spent countless evenings and weekends on site at Purcell, digging out trenches, cutting and gluing irrigation pipe, weeding and raking, planting hundreds of huge trees... the list of things to do seemed endless. Volunteers appeared out nowhere, even members of council showed up ready to work. My mother-in-law even made fresh Huckleberry pies for all the crew one Saturday - a hit with all the volunteers!

The fields have grassed- in beautifully, the trees love the drip lines that Pete and Andy hooked up to them, and plans are in the works for major soccer tournaments, starting with the Julyfest tourney next summer and continuing on with high school soccer. The Purcell soccer complex is already a much talked about success story, and it hasn't even  been used yet.

Last month I heard Pete talking clubhouse again... it doesn't end! (and -I'm sure- it will get done)

Something that hasn't been talked about is the volunteer time. In a small town, if you want to get something done you just go do it, regardless of time. That's the can-do attitude, for sure. I know that Pete and Andy each put in massive amounts of time in this project - as much as a thousand individual hours. Now that's mind boggling...but not surprising - this is Kimberley and these are very passionate people, after all!

Well done you guys!

Darryl Oakley