by Jenni Carlson
Edmond North and Roosevelt students go over field plans during a recent visit. BALTO Week, Edmond North’s fundraising campaign, will be getting new athletic fields at Roosevelt. [Photo provided]
Cameron Cato will be exhausted the next few weeks.
These are the final days of a massive fundraiser at Edmond North High School called Bringing A Light To Others. As one of BALTO’s co-chairs, Cato will have early mornings and late nights. Details must be finalized. Fliers must be distributed. Events must be overseen.
But when Cato wears down, she will think about Lizabeth or Mercedes or any number of other kids at Roosevelt Middle School. They aren’t just the beneficiaries of this year’s fundraiser.
They are friends.
“That keeps us going every day,” Cato said of everyone in BALTO’s leadership. “I know this is going to make a difference.”
BALTO is raising money to rebuild and renovate the athletic fields at Roosevelt, which sits opposite the airport along Interstate 44. It has become known as a problem school, a place where teachers allege all sorts of terrible behavior from students. It looks like a place time forgot, its sign out front missing letters, its fields in back so overgrown and pockmarked that twisted ankles are way more plentiful than games.
A bunch of teenagers from Edmond are aiming to change that. They live in a place where an immaculate field springs from every corner. Their school district plans to build a football stadium at every high school. They know the benefits of sport, the way it motivates kids and brings the community together.
They want the same for Roosevelt.
And as cool as that is, the connection that they’ve made with kids from Oklahoma City’s southside has gone deeper. It has gone beyond what anyone expected.
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Cameron Cato, Emily Humphreys and Katie Cheap poured over applications from 30 non-profits that wanted to be BALTO’s recipient. The fundraiser’s co-chairs loved a bunch of them, but very early in the process last summer, they felt drawn to Fields & Futures.
The girls wanted their BALTO year to be different — and they felt Fields & Futures would be unlike any other charity that the fundraiser had ever adopted.
Fields & Futures is the brain child of Tim McLaughlin. He went on a tour of Oklahoma City Public Schools a few years ago and realized how lacking the athletic facilities were. Fields were overgrown. Locker rooms were outdated. Stadiums were dilapidated.
When McLaughlin heard district athletic director Keith Sinor’s master plan to renovate all the high school and middle school fields and provide mentors for every coach and athlete in the district — increased participation would lead to better grades and higher attendance — McLaughlin decided Sinor needed a booster club.
McLaughlin jokingly says created the booster club, then self-appointed himself to be president.
Along with wife, Liz, he started Fields & Futures in 2012 with the goal of rebuilding 44 athletic fields and facilities in the Oklahoma City school district. It would require millions of dollars. It would take years to accomplish.
None of that deterred McLaughlin.
Over the past three-plus years, Fields & Futures has raised millions of dollars rebuilt more than a dozen fields. By the end of this year, it hopes to finish its 20th field.
But much like Sinor needed help with his vision, McLaughlin has needed help with his. Fields & Futures has raised funds in myriad ways, from golf tournaments to private parties, but last summer, it decided to try a new avenue and apply to be the recipient of the BALTO fundraiser.
No one could’ve known what would bloom from that seed.
* * *
Sinor was the girls basketball coach at Edmond North once upon a time, so he saw BALTO up close and personal.
He knew what great work the program had done since its inception in 1995. It gave money to some of Oklahoma’s most worthwhile causes. The Children’s Center. Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Hospital. Make-A-Wish of Central Oklahoma. On and on the list of notables went.
But Sinor knew if BALTO picked Fields & Futures, it might cause waves. Edmond North would be raising funds and giving money to another school — one that was probably within a half hour’s drive.
Could they do that?
Could they give money to another school?
Some parents did ask such questions of the BALTO leaders, who realized that choosing Fields & Futures might affect their fundraising. Generous benefactors might not be so giving. Others might stay away entirely.
But the day McLaughlin took Cato, Humphreys, Cheap and Co. on a van tour of some of the Oklahoma City schools sold the BALTO leaders on Fields & Futures. They started at schools with fields that had been overhauled, including the massive and impressive renovations at Capitol Hill. Those even wowed the kids from the land of athletic complexes that are massive and impressive. The weather was beautiful. The fields were immaculate. The positive vibes were everywhere.
The tour finished at Roosevelt.
A school with a student body that is largely Hispanic and free-and-reduced-lunch eligible, its fields for football and softball, baseball and softball have been badly neglected. On the way to Roosevelt, McLaughlin tried to prepare the BALTO leaders for what they were about to see.
“You’re not going to know it’s a field,” he told them.
There were no bleachers. No concessions. No locker rooms. But the issues were really more basic than that. There weren’t even lines indicating where one field ended and another began. The only indication that teams practiced there were a few old tackling sleds abandoned in the knee-high grass.
Cato and Humphreys and Cheap and the rest of the BALTO leaders knew they’d found their beneficiary.
And it was them.
* * *
Fields & Futures had pitched a unique idea to BALTO — not only would they be giving their funds to Roosevelt but they would also interact regularly with kids there. Mentor. Encourage. Teach.
Most of all, inspire.
It was unlike anything Fields & Futures had ever done before. Yes, the group helps provide mentoring to coaches and athletes, but it had never asked any of its donors to also give of their time at the school. McLaughlin and lead fundraiser Dot Rhyne weren’t sure how it would go or what would come out of it, but they felt there could be a powerful bond.
The first time BALTO students visited Roosevelt kids who were in the school’s leadership enrichment program, the Roosevelt Leadership Academy, it was a bit awkward. The Roosevelt kids didn’t know any of the students from Edmond. They were standoffish, probably even a little bit skeptical.
They see people come into their neighborhood from time to time who are extremely well intentioned. They are excited to help a community in need. They are enthusiastic to spur change in an area that is hard working but still hard scrabble. At least they are at first.
But then the energy wanes. Many never come back.
Would this be like that?
The second time the BALTO students went to Roosevelt, the vibe changed completely. There were smiles and high fives and even hugs.
“It was like we were all family,” Cato said.
Humphreys said, “The kids have been really into it. It’s exceeded our expectations.”
Cato, Humphreys and Co. have returned to Roosevelt numerous times in the past couple months to talk about leadership and fundraising and volunteering and all sorts of other things. Snapchat messages have been exchanged. Future plans have been discussed.
Who knows what could come of this?
Sure, there will be short-term benefits to the fields being fixed at Roosevelt, but there will be future generations that coming through the school playing there, too, not to mention little league teams from all over the area who can use the space. And national statistics show as more kids play sports, they improve academically. Grades go up. So does attendance.
“So often, we just think about the fields and complex that’s going to be built,” BALTO co-chair Katie Cheap said, “but it’s lives that we’re changing.”
That’s not just happening because of the fields either.
Roosevelt principal David Clark calls that area of town an island. Kids there rarely venture more than a few miles from home, but when BALTO Week starts on Feb. 8, the Roosevelt students will there. They’ll be front and center. They’ll be helping with events. They’ll be attending assemblies, including the final one on Friday when the fundraiser’s grand total will be announced.
Last year, it was over $605,000.
The Roosevelt kids will be off the island, swimming in a sea of school spirit.
“They see that somebody outside their community sees them and wants to help,” said Felix Linden, who oversees the Roosevelt Leadership Academy. “That ultimately is what they will take away and that they, in turn, can go out and pay it forward to somebody else.
“You don’t’ get a lot of win-wins, and I think this is one of those where everybody wins and feels good at the same time.”
* * *
The student council room at Edmond North — ground zero for BALTO — buzzes with activity. Some students talk over something on the computer. Others grab huge signs and head into the halls to post them.
Cato and the other co-chairs flit from one group to another. So much work. So little time. Still, everyone knows everything will come together.
“We call it ‘BALTO Magic,’” Cato said, smiling. “Somehow, it all happens and it all works.”
It has to. Their friends at Roosevelt are counting on it.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or [email protected].