Tag: Features

2015 Panther Run

Brutal fun at The Ridge

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Michael Callahan
and Graham Hadley

Starting with a yell and a cheer, the participants in the 2015 Panther Run at the Ridge were ready to face just about any obstacle.

It’s a good thing — because there were more than 30 of them between the runners and the finish line at the specially designed course on a Springville mountaintop in St. Clair County.

Normally an off-highway vehicle, nature and outdoor park — sometimes even a concert venue — the Ridge is converted once a year into a long, winding obstacle and mud-run course that attracts fitness enthusiasts from near and far, with some competitors coming from all over the country.

For that one day, July 13 this year, the Ridge, which is most famous as a top destination for off-road vehicles, is closed for riding and open for running (and climbing, crawling, rolling and whatever else it takes to get over the obstacles).

The Ridge started hosting the Panther Run three years ago, said park owner Jason White. What started out as a small event has reached epic proportions. With every entrant slot for the race sold out last year, they added more for this year.

And sold out again.

“We sold out. We sold out last year, so we added about 50 more slots, …” he said. “We had 800 tickets we sold, plus there were around 30 volunteers, and then there were spectators, too.”

White estimates they topped 900 to 1,000 people in the park for the race.

The Ridge is normally run by a handful of people — mostly White and his family and close friends — but it takes a small army of helpers and volunteers to get the facility converted from an OHV park to the grueling 5K mud and obstacle course that has made the Panther Run such a big draw.

“It takes over a month to prep the course, including building the obstacles. It takes a lot of work, but anything worth doing is worth doing right,” White said.

Particular attention is paid to the obstacles. Organizers spend days looking at what has worked at previous races, what has worked at other venues, and then they group brainstorm all of those ideas into what unique obstacles they can feasibly — and safely — build for the Panther Run.

“Everyone gets together and brainstorms. There are six of us whose job it is to go over all the ideas and weed out the ones too hard to build or that are too complicated,” White said.

“Though we look at what other courses do, we tweak their ideas, then make them different to try to make them unique to us. We want everyone to experience something different when they come here.”

That attention to detail, their location and the facilities at the Ridge create a special experience that White credits with making the Panther Run so widely popular.

“I think it has reached out to people. We are piling in runners from all over the Southeast. Word of mouth and positive reviews online and on social media are pulling people from farther and farther out,” he said. “We have been compared to big events like the Warrior Dash and the Tough Mudder.”

The competitors

One of the key components to the success of the Panther Run is that everyone who competes is a winner. The fastest man and the fastest woman get special recognition, but everyone who takes part receives a medal and shirt, regardless of when they finish or if they were able to complete every obstacle on the course.

And there are different difficulty levels, from beginner all the way up to special endurance passes that let those runners continue lapping the course as long as the event is going on.

“We had the unlimited pass at this race. We sold about 20 of those where they get to keep running the course. I don’t know why they did it, but they did,” White said.

Some of the runners come alone, but more often they are part of groups — many times made up of experienced obstacle runners, traditional runners and beginners.

First-timer Shawna Stokes of Birmingham smiled, pointed to her teammates, Alania Stokes, Miranda Fohner and Wendy Thompson, and said, “I thought it would be fun to watch, and then I got sucked into running it.”

Miranda said they were going to work together as a team, especially since not everyone had done this before — “We are not going to be pushing anyone down.”

Though Shawna said she had a more competitive perspective on things. “You’re not pushing anyone down,” she clarified with a smile, adding, “I tried to do this a couple of years ago, but none of my guy friends wanted to do it.”

A number of local businesses were on the scene to support groups of employees and staff. CrossFit and other exercise centers from Alabama and surrounding states were particularly well represented.

Jay Stackhouse from Priceville and Staci Clemons from Summerville were there, both running in the early elite heat. Then, they helped other competitors they brought from the gym where she is a fitness trainer.

“It was pretty brutal, with some extremely challenging obstacles. The netting was particularly hard,” he said.

“The two of us came as a team to compete; then we came back to the course to help everyone we have with us. They may hate us while we are pushing them to finish, then they love it.”

Pell City-based Northside Medical Associates had around 40 runners in the race, something they said was a good way for the co-workers to have a day out together while promoting the importance of exercise and fitness.

“This is our first year out here organized as Northside,” said Ronnie Harris, human resources manager for Northside, speculating that Laura Gossett and Dr. Michael Dupre would end up leading their heats.

As much as the Panther Run is a competitive event, the underlying theme is for everyone to come out and have fun — and for many runners, that meant costumes.

One team, the Incredibles, sporting outfits from the Pixar movie of the same name, was made up of four family members and two friends.

For Majesta Bishop of Huntsville, who learned about the event on Facebook, it was her first race, though she is a hobby runner. One other member of the Incredibles team had done the obstacle run before.

As they donned their costumes and got ready for their heat, the team kept pumping each other up with encouraging words — a common theme for the day.

Sporting brightly colored hair and face paint, John Archer from Albertville said he was there with Sand Mountain CrossFit. John, who did competitive swimming for nine years, said, “This is my first run and I am very excited. The face paint and the hair, I did it because I thought it would be fun.”

Another group of runners were facing off along more traditional Alabama lines — in friendly fashion — made clear by their team name: Three tigers and an elephant. Larry Turner, Cambria Ware, Sidney Ware and Brandi Turner were all there to support each other, though there would be some friendly internal competition.

After the race heats, the tired but happy runners gathered for food and company along the various paths at the Ridge.

Buddy Spidle, a loan officer from Birmingham, said his experience was “outstanding.”

This was the first obstacle race for the physically fit former U.S. Marine. “It certainly tapped all my physical resources. It was very demanding; it was very thorough. It was fun, and I will be back,” he said.
More to come?

The Panther Run has become so successful, White is considering doing another race in the fall.

“We might do a second race — not necessarily the exact same thing, but we are definitely looking at some kind of race in the fall.

Whether it is putting together that race or preparing for next year’s Panther Run, White said none of it can happen without all the volunteer help they receive.

“I want to say thanks to all the volunteers — from people who help build obstacles to volunteer fire departments. This would not be possible without everyone coming together,” he said, adding that many of the people helping make the Panther Run a reality are former participants who have stepped up to keep the event going.

“We build relationships with people, become friends with people who want to come out here and see the park stay open and the race happen,” he said.

One of those — Billy Findeiss of Odenville (sporting a kilt for the run) agreed. He is one of those runners who also volunteers his time to make the event happen.

“I have been here every year, every year helping build the obstacles. These are great people, Jason and everyone are great people,” he said before having to go make sure one of the water-wall obstacles was working properly. Then, he took on the Panther Run himself in one of the later heats.

Check out the Panther Run and The Ridge online and on Facebook

The Panther Run

91 photos

Features

Mud Racing

A whole new kind
of racing comes to
St. Clair County

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Michael Callahan
and Graham Hadley
Video by Graham Hadley

From private parties to massively popular competition racing, Beaver Creek Offroad Park is St. Clair County’s place for fun in the sun with mud.

When Allison Morgan and her husband, Jason, inherited St. Clair farmland near Vincent that has been in the family since 1823, they knew there was one thing they did not want to do with it — farm.

She is a teacher, and he is an engineer, and while they loved the outdoors and spending their time with their kids outside, they had no desire to plant crops and till the soil.

“I grew up learning to work in the fields, but we don’t have time to do that. We had a garden for awhile, but before you knew it, it was overgrown,” Allison said.

Then one day, while driving to Walmart, like lightning, an idea struck: The property, with an abundance of wet springs and good terrain, would make the perfect outdoor park, complete with a massive serpentine competition ORV mud track with steep banks, a long straightaway and deep mud holes.

“It was an idea that we, me and my husband, had on the way to buy groceries. I was looking online, and all our friends from Pell City were going all over the place to drive in the mud,” she said.

Beaver Creek Offroad Park was born, and mud racing had officially come to St. Clair County.

“We had come up with something that provided family time where we could have fun, and we wanted the public to come out and enjoy the outdoors the way I did growing up. This was a good fit for us,” she said.

The project started out modestly, with just a simple muddy area for riders, but has steadily grown since then.

“The first time we opened, it was just basically a mud hole, but we had 800 to 900 people out here.

“Then we posted on Facebook just to see if people would be interested in having something like this track. We ended up with 40 people on our doorstep who wanted the park. The racers just showed up at 9 at night and asked if we would build them a place to race,” Allison said. “We did not know what they were talking about, so we researched online.”

From the word “go”, the park was a success — and since both Allison and Jason were new to the sport of mud racing, there was an admittedly steep learning curve.

“We started on the track in August and worked through September and October 2013. Then the racers showed up, and we had our first race in April 2014,” Allison said. “We had an excellent turnout. We were kind of shell-shocked by the number of people who came out. We were understaffed; we had no clue what was coming.

“Since that day, we have learned a tremendous amount about running these kinds of events and this sport.”

On average, they can easily see 800 people at the park in a single weekend, with bigger events drawing even more.

Those big events can include truck racing, ATVs, side-by-sides, sometimes combined with a music fest where they play everything from country to hip-hop. The music events are taking on a life of their own, with an emerging style of music that actually combines those two disparate music styles becoming especially popular with the mud-racing crowd.

Allison says the park is making money, but they are not pocketing the profits. She has put her teaching career on hold to run the park, while Jason works as a plastics engineer supporting the family. The extra money the park earns goes into expanding the park and building on the already solid business foundation.

“It is a work in progress. I don’t know if we will ever be finished in our eyes. We are always working on something,” Allison said.

“I put my dreams as a teacher on hold for this, but it has been a success. We are still in the process where we are growing and expanding, so every dime we make at the park is turned around and invested in the park. I believe 100 percent it will be a financial success, but we are not calling it that yet because we are still investing in making the park the best it can be.”

Family Fun

A key to that success is the family-inclusive nature of the park, with a focus on providing a place where people of all ages can experience the outdoors. Allison and Jason want a place where they can have fun with their children and where other families can do the same.

“Family time is important. It’s kind of our motto: This is a family place. We want to be able to bring our kids out there,” Allison said.

“It took awhile for people to realize our dedication to the family environment. We have been fortunate that we have not really had any problems. The fans respect what we are trying to do. The people show up, respect our rules — they have an amazing time. It is turning into a great thing.”

Race Day

That family atmosphere was pervasive at one recent mud-racing event April 19. Everywhere you looked, people were out riding around the park with their kids, cooking out with their families and watching as the specialized trucks raced against the clock and each other through the track, several areas of which were full of many feet of water thanks to days of heavy rain.

For the Morgans, they were hard at work as a family supervising everything — a busy job for Allison, who was running the concessions, and Jason, who was down in the pit area keeping the drivers and their crews organized.

And many of those teams were family and friends themselves, often racing against each other in different trucks.

Eddie Blevins from Shelby, Ala., said he just started racing last year.

Pointing to the stands, he said, “I used to be up there watching. Now I have not missed a race here.”

With pit support from his son Cale, Blevins had a solid showing with his truck Never Satisfied — “We did pretty well, won two and lost one” of the races.

At a previous race, they had won almost $1,000. For Blevins, that’s a win-win situation however you look at it. “You get paid to get out here and do something you love,” he said.

The winnings from those races can add up quickly — something that is important in a sport where the price of vehicles can hit the $40,000 range or more for the higher-end trucks.

But many drivers, like Blevins, are fielding much more affordable rides.

One young man who had just turned 15 was racing that day — and winning — in a truck he and his friends, with help from his father and family, had built literally out of spare parts for almost nothing.

David Matzke pointed proudly to his son Austin, saying, “He won his first race today. He turned 15 Friday. We probably have $1,000 in that truck.”

Austin grew up watching his Dad drag race. “He always wanted to race, so I taught him mechanics. We built this truck in two weeks.”

David said he is a huge fan of the mud racing scene and the family-friendly environment Allison and Jason are fostering at Beaver Creek.

“I love to see the kids out here doing this. Out of everything they could be out doing, this is a good thing to do,” he said.

Travis Perkins from Columbiana, who is also in his second year of mud racing, and Brian Johnson said the Beaver Creek track fills out the area perfectly. With two other regional tracks, Beaver Creek makes three. That lets them rotate venues every week or so without having to travel all over the Southeast to keep a regular racing schedule.

“We love it here. Allison and Jason Morgan, they are good people. If it was not for them, we would not be out here,” Johnson said.

While mud racing may be the big draw, with music fests a close second, the 150-acre park also has paths for ATVs and other off-road and off-highway vehicles, room for camping and other outdoor activities.

Allison says they are looking at finding a way to also eventually add rock climbing to the park. That’s not the people clambering up cliffs with ropes kind of climbing, that’s the specialized off-road vehicle clambering up piles of boulders kind of climbing.

“We are improving; we are expanding; we are making things out here that we need,” Allison said.

“I think this year is going to be great.”

The track is located at 139 Beavers Lane, just off U.S. 231 south of the Logan Martin Dam road
between Pell City and Vincent.
You can find it online @ beavercreekoffroad.com
and follow it on Facebook.

Mud Racing

76 photos

Features

Texas Longhorns

Welcome to Springville’s Lazy M Farm

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Wallace Bromberg

Mack Morgan greeted recent visitors to his Lazy M Farm with a huge, longhorn steer named Moonlight on a halter and lead rope, as if the steer were a horse and Morgan was about to saddle up for a ride.

“Keep an eye on those horns,” Morgan cautioned, stating the obvious. “Approach him from the side.”

It has become a tradition for motorists traveling U.S. 11 through Springville to stop at Morgan’s Lazy M Farm to take pictures when the longhorns are out. Lured by the horns that give the breed its name, they call Morgan to inquire whether he has sold them if they are in one of his hidden pastures. This tradition may soon go the way of the romanticized Old West that the breed symbolizes, however, as Morgan downsizes his longhorn herd in favor of the more profitable Brangus.

“The beef market has gone up 150 percent over the past two years, and longhorn meat is too lean for most folks,” Morgan explains. “It’s a matter of supply and demand. There are so many old farmers getting out of the beef cattle business and no young ones replacing them.”

Morgan has always had cattle. His father raised Herefords before him, and Mack began raising longhorns 30 years ago so he could practice his roping skills. Soon he started selling them to other ropers and rodeo companies. He held roping events at his own arena behind the trees on the north side of U.S. 11. “We held round robins, where every header (the one who lassos the horns) ropes with every heeler (the one who lassos the hind legs),” he says.

Born 56 years ago in a former plantation home reduced to its rock foundations years ago, Morgan lived in that house six months, until his daddy decided he wanted to be off the road. There were five slave houses around the property when it was a plantation. Look closely, and you’ll see the remains of one at the edge of the woods behind and to the right of the stone enclosure that Morgan now uses for pens and hay storage.

Morgan started out riding bulls when he was 13 to get out of doing farm chores. He hitchhiked to rodeos in Mississippi, Georgia and North Alabama before he was old enough to drive. “Five boys from the Springville area all started riding bulls together around 1972: Clayton Bromberg, Barry Long, Doug Downing, Mark Cousins and me,” he says. “We taught ourselves, went to bull riding school, too,” he says. He went into the sport to prove a point to his father.

“I worked for him and was cutting grass, stacking hay on the side,” he explains. “I went to a rodeo and thought, ‘I can do this, and if I can win, I won’t have to cut grass.’ And it worked.” He also went to saddle-bronc riding school, but his heart was in bull riding, which won him more money than the broncs.

“As a teenager and through my 20s and into my 30s, I could win enough on weekends to support my lifestyle,” he says. “I knew my limitations, though, and I knew the bulls.” The only major injury he suffered was a separated shoulder, but his arthritis reminds him of the ones he either wasn’t aware of at the time or that have faded into distant memory.

From bull riding, Morgan went to team roping and “did pretty good,” he says. “There were lots of Saturday and Sunday ropings around Alabama.” Rodeoing became an addiction, one that helped him preserve his farm all these years.

He hasn’t roped since his knee replacement a year ago, although a back operation the year before had already slowed him down. “It had become more of a hobby than competition by then anyway,” he says. “I can rope if I have to, though. I have a couple of Quarter horses. But the cows are so gentle they follow me across the road to the other pastures.”

Longhorns are known for their gentleness. Originating from an Iberian hybrid of two ancient cattle lineages, they are direct descendants of the first cattle brought to the New World by Spanish settlers in 1493. Their horns grow from the base, and their life spans are as long in years as their horns are in inches. Cows live into their 30s, bearing calves into their mid-20s. Steers live even longer because they don’t have the stress of calving.

Scalawag, 23, was a roping steer for many years, “back when I was good,” Morgan says. He has kept him around because of his 94-inch horns. “He won me a belt buckle a year ago,” he says. Horn length competitions, it seems, are quite common among breeders.

Steers have longer horns than the cows or bulls, because when gelded, their hormones turn away from muscle-mass and toward horn growth. Morgan’s biggest steer in terms of horns was Spike, who had a span of 104 inches when he died. “The world record a few years ago was 111 inches, but it probably has been beaten by now. It’s all about genetics and putting the right cow and right bull together.”

Due to their innate intelligence and gentle dispositions, longhorns are increasingly being trained as riding steers.

Moonlight, 16, who Morgan calls his “sweetest” steer, rides in area parades. “Sweet” is hardly the adjective most folks would use for a 1,400 pound animal with a horn span of six feet, but Morgan says longhorn steers are low-key and easy to handle. “Each has its own personality, and they come in a variety of colors,” he says. (The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America says there are no two alike.) “There are lots of speckled and spotted ones, solid whites, solid blacks, black-and-white ones, red ones, each with a different color pattern.”

Like the longhorns in Gene Autry’s Back in the Saddle Again, who feed on “the lowly Jimson weed,” Morgan’s herd will eat just about anything. They are a hardy breed, and will graze in hot weather and in the woods, even eating leaves. “But they won’t put on weight,” Morgan says. “Longhorns are the leanest of beef cattle, and not that tasty because they don’t marble. They don’t have the fat that other beef cattle do.”

Even though he doesn’t rope or ride any more, he keeps the cows because they force him to maintain the 380-acre farm that his father bought in the 1950s. Without the cattle, there would be a lot more bush-hogging, which would give him less time for his “real job,” that of landlord.

“I own two apartment buildings on Highland Avenue near St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, and I go to work every day,” he says. “I work all the time.” He cuts hay with only occasional help, and finds it stressful to keep all his machinery running.

“We’re real involved in the Springville Community Theater, too,” he says of him and his family. His sister, June Mack, is founder and director of the theater. Mack used to act there and still builds sets and whatever else his sister needs him to do.

“My wife and I have raised two boys on this farm, and it helped send them to college,” he says. One is at Virginia Tech now, the other is about to enter Nashville’s Belmont University. As to whether they will continue the family tradition, Mack can’t say for sure.

“One son is an Eagle Scout, and we kid him about turning it into a Boy Scout Camp when I’m gone.”

Features

Help Is On the Way

When Disaster Strikes

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Wallace
Bromberg Jr.
Submitted photos by
Ben Chandler
and Ellen Tanner

“Jesus is the hope that calms life’s storms.”

The marquee message at Friendship Baptist Church in Odenville one March evening seemed quite appropriate because, inside the building, a large group of people was learning how to help others recover from natural disasters.

Nina Funderburg of Talladega, who sat beside Pell City friend, Sandy Gafnea, excitedly looked forward to being part of faith-based disaster relief. “If Jesus is in it, I want to do it.”

Early the next morning, Funderburg would have to demonstrate safety and skill with a chainsaw by felling a tree.

Mary Parsons of Moody was completing her disaster relief retraining to do what she finds fulfilling. “I just like helping people,” she said.

After finishing hours of training and passing a background check, the men and women in the group would receive the Homeland Security clearance necessary for entering a disaster area.

With those credentials in hand, it would be official: each had earned the privilege of wearing the yellow shirt and hat of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Some of the attendees had traveled from as far away as Athens and Rainsville. After the weekend of training, they would return to their part of the state to attach to a unit in their locale. The individuals who attend a Southern Baptist church in St. Clair would become part of the St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief team.

Members of that team are ambassadors who dispatch on short notice to a storm-damaged area, bringing with them chainsaws, comforting words … and prayer.

Sometimes, they are the first and only contact people in crisis ever have with St. Clair County, Alabama.

“We’re kind of one of the best-kept secrets in St. Clair County,” said Glenn Pender of Steele, coordinator of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief.

In the beginning
In 2003, efforts to organize the team began and, the next year, the first volunteers completed training. Pender said it was also in 2004 when they embarked on their first mission — a rebuilding project in Flomaton after Hurricane Ivan.

Currently, 115 men and women — from ages 25 to 85 and from 22 Southern Baptist churches in St. Clair County – make up the unit. Nearly 30 of the members are chaplains, said Pender and Ben Chandler, director of missions for St. Clair Baptist Association.

Depending on the field of service they have chosen, the members might operate chainsaws, a Bobcat skid steer, bucket truck or shower trailer; give assistance with mud-out, cleanup and recovery, or provide administrative services, explained Chandler and Pender.

Some on the St. Clair volunteers have trained to care for children or to work in mass feeding. Both of those services are provided through the state-level organization, Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief.

Mel Johnson, disaster relief and construction coordinator for Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions in Montgomery, said members of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief number among the state’s 7,000 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers.

These volunteers are included under the even larger umbrella of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“We are actually volunteer missionaries with the North American Mission Board,” Pender said.

In the United States, 65,000 Southern Baptists are trained disaster relief volunteers, said Beth Bootz, disaster relief communications coordinator for NAMB. That makes Southern Baptists “one of the three largest mobilizers of trained disaster relief volunteers in the United States.” The other top mobilizers are the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Ellen Tanner, director of St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, pointed out that St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief has a crucial role in emergency response in the county. The team provides “vital” services, such as “debris removal on private property, which the county and cities cannot do.” Plus, the unit bears the responsibility of registering and directing volunteers and serving as coordinators in the Emergency Operation Center.

Tanner said the team members “are committed to serving God by serving others. Their actions and the love they show for people is often the act of unselfish kindness that can turn a person’s life around.”

During its 11 years, the disaster relief team has ministered in a long list of places, helping fellow Alabamians after floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. Just last year, the group spent three weeks working in Bessemer after a tornado.

In addition, the unit has assisted after natural disasters in Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and New York, according to James Dendy, a team chaplain from Cropwell.

When leadership of Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief is asked to help after a crisis in another state, “St. Clair is usually one of the first to mobilize,” Johnson said.

Ron Warren of Steele, a member of St. Clair’s unit, said its volunteers worked a total of eight weeks in damaged areas after Hurricane Katrina, 11 days following Hurricane Rita and two weeks on Staten Island, N.Y., after Hurricane Sandy.

At times, they have been in areas of martial law with no electrical service for a 100-mile radius. A mob would gather at the arrival of a vehicle loaded with food and supplies. People were so hungry that the situation was dangerous, said Warren, who is also state chainsaw coordinator for Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief.

“It is a stressful ministry” on many different levels, Dendy said. Seeing the despair of the suffering people and magnitude of destruction “gets to you. It can overwhelm you, especially for the new guys. It’s one thing to see it on the news. It’s another thing to see it on the ground.”

Their hearts ache, and they weep for the people in crisis, Pender said. “It’s not an easy task.”

Because it is such an emotional ministry, Warren said chaplains are embedded in every team the St. Clair unit sends into a storm-damaged area.

The chaplains are present to attend to the volunteers, who hurt deeply for the people they are trying to help, Warren said. The chaplains minister, as well, to those affected by the storms – talking to them, addressing their needs, praying with them and, most importantly, telling them about Jesus.

Often, when the disaster relief team arrives and goes to work, property owners ask how much the services will cost. When the owners hear that it is free of charge, the answer almost always is met with surprise, Dendy said. The people find it difficult to believe that individuals will travel such a long distance to help strangers … for free.

As volunteers, the disaster relief members receive no pay. They cover the costs related to their training, as well as the expenses of traveling to an area of need. Often, they take time off work to assist in affected communities.

“If you ask why these volunteers travel such long distances, spend their own money to get to these locations and put themselves in harm’s way to help those suffering through the horrible circumstances brought on by disaster, they will respond, ‘God loves you; so do we. And that is why we are here to help,’” said Johnson.

“Our main goal is to carry the word of Christ – to let others see Christ in us,” said team member Jimmy Pollard of Riverside.

“The greatest pay is when we see someone come to know Jesus Christ (as Savior),” Pender said.

It is about “helping folks and being there when they need us,” said Ron Culberson of Springville, coordinator of St. Clair’s chainsaw-cleanup-recovery crew.

“This,” said team member Jim Thomas of Clay, “is what God wants me to do.”

Prepared and ready
Because of the financial support it receives from churches within St. Clair Baptist Association and from individuals, the disaster relief team has become one of the best equipped in the state.

Of the 54 cleanup-recovery-chainsaw units manned by Southern Baptists in Alabama, “St. Clair is one of the larger, well-organized teams,” said Johnson. “St. Clair has invested in equipment that allows them to serve in difficult areas with heavy equipment, such as a bucket truck, skid steer and shower unit.”

Warren said St. Clair was the first unit in the state to have a Bobcat skid steer and is the only one with a bucket truck.

As for the shower trailer, it is a “Cadillac” unit, Chandler said. It was the first of three built by the St. Clair team. The other two now belong to Southern Baptist disaster relief groups elsewhere in the state.

Designed by Pender and Warren, the trailer features six shower stalls, each with a locking door. One stall is handicap accessible. A laundry room boasts two pair of commercial washers and dryers.

Generally, the shower unit and laundry facilities are for volunteers to use. However, they also are made available to people in affected areas.

Like the team’s equipment, the capabilities and willingness of the members have garnered a positive reputation.

“The skills and abilities of the St. Clair unit are a testament to their ongoing training and commitment to respond for crisis mitigation,” Johnson said.

Even though the team’s focus is on ministering during a disaster, it stays busy throughout the year with community service projects.

The chainsaw crew frequently cuts trees that are deemed unsafe or are threatening nearby structures.

Also, during the summer months, the shower unit is in great demand as mission teams, such as World Changers and Mission Serve, come into the area to work.

Mission hits home
April 27, 2011 …

That 24-hour span was filled with sadness from beginning to end.

When early morning straight-line winds ripped through Moody, Pell City and Riverside, two lives were lost.

St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief quickly went to work in the Moody area, cutting trees and moving debris.

Hour after hour, tornados cut paths all over the state. More than 60 of them crisscrossed Alabama, leaving hundreds dead.

Then, just before nightfall, an EF-4 tornado tore through the Shoal Creek community of St. Clair County.

Under normal circumstances, the disaster relief volunteers — who had just gotten home from working all day in Moody — would have been sent into Shoal Creek at first light the next morning.

This time, however, the situation was dire. It could not wait.

Damage was so widespread and debris so thick that team members were sent immediately.

Through the night and well into the next morning, they cut a path for first responders to get into the valley to free the trapped, treat the injured and locate the missing.

Around 3:30 a.m. April 28, the chainsaw crew finally reached the end of the storm’s track.

Eleven residents had perished in the tornado. Two more – including a preborn baby – died in the next few days, said Carl Brownfield, chief of Shoal Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

Broken were the hearts of the residents.

Broken, as well, were the hearts of the disaster relief team members. All the past crises in which they had worked could not have prepared them for one so tragic. This time, team members were helping their very own. These were St. Clair people who were hurting; they were “family.”

Pender grows emotional talking about that night and the days that followed.

He chokes back tears and says there are some images from that time he just cannot allow to come into his mind because they are too painful.

“We don’t like to relive that,” Pender said of himself and other disaster relief volunteers who witnessed the death, distress and devastation the tornado left in its wake. “It was difficult for all of us.”

Some team members worked nine days straight, breaking only to eat, shower and sleep.

The unit continued its cleanup-and-recovery efforts for another four weeks after that. While some of the team remained engaged in those endeavors, other members moved into the rebuilding phase.

That June, the volunteers worked another three weeks.

“We had people rebuilding in there up until a year or so ago,” Warren said.

Giving back
After the tornado, Brownfield exited what was left of his house and entered a “nightmare.” He and volunteer firefighter Mike Blanton looked for survivors and cut through trees while trying to reach the rescuers they knew were working to get into the valley.

Several times in the weeks after the tornado, members of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief visited Brownfield. They talked to him; they prayed with him.

Those simple acts “lifted me back up and got my faith going again,” Brownfield said.

Time and again during those weeks, he encountered different team members and found them all to be “wonderful” people.

“I had seen how much they were doing in our community,” Brownfield said.

Although he had heard of the team previously, he had not realized the size of it or the scope of its ministry.

Two years ago, he joined the unit, starting out on the chainsaw crew and then learning to operate the skid steer.

This past spring, Brownfield completed training to become a disaster relief chaplain. He wants to comfort others in crisis.

Within a year after the tornado, Shoal Creek resident David Smith joined the disaster relief team.

For Smith, a volunteer firefighter as well, being involved in St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief is his way to give to others in return for all that his community received.

Features

Handing Over the Reins

Croyle children inherit
legacy of love

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

The house buzzed with the afternoon’s activities of five school-age girls.

Karen was learning to tune her guitar, and Rosa giggled as photos were snapped of her. Emmalee showed off her newly organized closet. Lorenza discussed her plans to build a Hobbit hole in Tennessee and work for Lifeway Christian Resources. With a big, thick book to read, Gail curled up in a comfy chair. Although time was drawing near for the group to leave for church, Tony and Rhona Osborne remained unruffled. They gently urged the girls toward the goal of getting to the Wednesday-night service on time.

The Osbornes have much experience in raising children. They have, after all, parented more than 52 children in the last 25 years.

“My wife and I feel like this is what we’re called to do — be parents,” said Tony. They have been houseparents with Big Oak Ranch for 25 years and have the same passion for it as when they first started.

The reason is “them,” Rhona said, pointing to the five young ladies growing up happy and healthy. Rhona has seen healing taking place in the girls’ lives, and it touches the mother’s heart within her.

“They, way too often, minister to me,” Rhona said.

The Osbornes are just one of the houseparent couples at Big Oak Girls’ Ranch near Springville. Theirs is one of eight homes at the ranch, situated on 325 acres of rolling hills, woodlands and pasturelands along U.S. 11.

Another house will be completed this summer, said Brodie Croyle, associate executive director of Big Oak Ranch that 64 children call home.

“We are never full,” said Reagan Phillips, Brodie’s sister and director of Big Oak Ranch’s childcare team. Big Oak will always make room for more children — always.

The Osbornes’ longevity is not unusual for Big Oak Ranch. Brodie said the Osbornes’ commitment is the kind of calling for which the administration looks when selecting houseparent couples.

Houseparents are the frontline warriors of the ranch, he said. They are with the children each and every day. These “moms” and “dads” exemplify what God intended for a husband and wife to be and the children see this consistently.

The houseparents show what “family” truly means and lovingly incorporate others into it, said Brodie and his dad, John Croyle, who is founder and executive director of Big Oak Ranch.

The family units live, work, play and worship together. They laugh together. They cry together.

The houseparents model the four promises on which Big Oak has functioned since its inception:

“I love you.”
“I’ll never lie to you.”
“I’ll stick with you until you’re grown.”
“There are boundaries; don’t cross them.”

Being in an environment where these promises are kept on a daily basis creates a sense of love, security and permanence for any child, but especially for a young person from a background of abuse, neglect or abandonment.

As further demonstration to the youths that the commitment is real and long term, Big Oak seeks custody whenever possible. This lets the children know that no one is going to send them away or walk out on them, explained John.

“They’re not bad kids,” he said. “They come from bad circumstances.”

When a need emerges, fill it

Years ago, John met a blonde-haired, green-eyed girl at a Department of Human Resources office.

Her name was Shelley, and she was 12 years old.

She was dirty and thin.

Her father had physically and sexually abused her while her mother held her down. Shelley had to undergo surgery to repair damage from the abuse.

John begged a judge to allow him and his wife, “Tee,” to adopt Shelley. The judge denied the request because Shelley would have had to live at Big Oak Boys’ Ranch, which was the only ranch in the Big Oak ministry at that time.

John told the judge that Shelley would surely be dead in six months if she were returned to her parents.

“I was wrong,” John told Discover Magazine. “It was three (months.)”

Shelley’s life story weighed on John’s heart. Then, in 1988, he was able to establish a ranch for girls needing a family and a home. It is dedicated in memory of Shelley.

Like its counterpart for boys, the girls’ ranch has multilevel homes in a secure community setting that includes a lake, pool and gym, as well as a barn for horses. Each ranch also has a “transition” home, where residents who are attending college or have entered the workforce learn to become independent.

In addition, the girls’ ranch is where Big Oak’s administrative offices are located.

The girls’ ranch is the second of three ministries for Big Oak Ranch and has been home to more than 600 girls thus far. The other two facets of Big Oak Ranch are in Etowah County – Big Oak Boys’ Ranch near Southside and Westbrook Christian School in Rainbow City.

All three grew from the calling John felt on his life as a 19-year-old.

That summer as a camp counselor, John met a boy whose job was to be “banker” and “timekeeper” for his mother, a prostitute. The boy listened intently to what John taught him and ultimately asked Jesus to come into his heart to be his Savior.

Through that experience, John sensed God leading him to open “a Christian home for children needing a chance.”

In college at the University of Alabama, John played defensive end under the coaching of Paul “Bear” Bryant. During John’s time at the Capstone, the football team won three Southeastern Conference championships and the 1973 National Championship. John was named to Second Team All-American.

Then, the NFL came calling.

John’s plan was to play in the NFL to earn the money needed to start a ranch.

When John told Bear Bryant his intention, the coach explained that a man does not “play” for the NFL; he “marries” it. Bryant advised John to forget the NFL and go build the home for children.

Just before the NFL draft was to take place, John was in a hallway where he was to be weighed and measured. It was there that he made his decision and told officials of an NFL team to use their draft pick on someone other than him.

People who believed in John’s mission – Bryant being one of them – gave financial assistance and, in late summer of 1974, Big Oak Boys’ Ranch was established.

Its name comes from the Bible verse Isaiah 61:3: “And they shall be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.”

John and five boys moved into a farmhouse on 120 acres near Southside.

Tee joined the family seven months later when she and John married.

During the 41 years that have followed, “2,000 children have had a chance at life that might not have had a chance,” said Brodie.

“Our first kid’s 58 now,” John added.

The boys’ ranch has since grown to nine homes. Currently, 55 children live there.

Together, the girls’ ranch and the boys’ ranch can accommodate a total of 144 children, plus 24 transitioning residents. The two ranches are supported exclusively through private donations. According to Big Oak information, about $12,000 is required to provide support for one child for one year.

In 1990, the ranch system added its third ministry – a school. For the price of $1, Big Oak purchased Westminster Christian School, renaming it Westbrook Christian School.

Approximately 700 students from 3-year-old kindergarten through 12th grade go to Westbrook. All Big Oak children attend Westbrook and account for 20 percent of the student body. Other pupils come from Marshall, Jefferson, St. Clair, Cherokee and Etowah counties. More than 500 students pay tuition to attend this private school, John said.

Tee, an educator for more than 30 years, teaches calculus there.

Westbrook has a 98-percent graduation rate, John said. Last year, the senior class garnered $2.2 million in scholarship offers.

As for Big Oak Ranch, “we’ve got 20 in college right now,” John said.

All in the family

When Brodie and Reagan came home from the hospital as newborns, they had 60 big brothers, Brodie said.

And the family progressively got bigger through the years.

“We had the perfect childhood, we think,” Reagan said.

Year after year, she and Brodie watched their parents live out their faith in Jesus and selflessly show love to hundreds of young people.

Reagan and Brodie also witnessed time and again the brokenness that had occurred in the lives of many children.

Brodie tells of a particular scene that happened when he was 5 years old.

A vehicle with a man and three boys inside pulled up at the ranch. The man explained that his girlfriend had given him an ultimatum – it was either her or his children.

The man said he was choosing his girlfriend.

The oldest of the three boys quickly decided that living at Big Oak sounded pretty good to him. The middle child bolted from the vehicle and ran away. It took ranch staff members three hours to find him.

The youngest child – a 6-year-old – clung desperately to the man. The child begged his father not to leave him like the boy’s mother had done.

Years later, Brodie would come to understand that what he saw that day as a kindergartner significantly influenced the mission he would have as an adult.

After high school, both Brodie and Reagan went to the University of Alabama on athletic scholarships. Reagan played basketball until a back injury ended her career. From 2002-2005, Brodie was starting quarterback for the Crimson Tide.

From there, Reagan became a model in Europe and Brodie an NFL player with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2006-2012.

Afterward, Brodie and wife Kelli returned to Tuscaloosa, where Brodie worked in real estate for a time.

Concluding that the “catwalk” was not the life she was called to lead, Reagan went back to Tuscaloosa to earn a master’s degree in counseling.

Brodie and Reagan grew to realize that all their earlier experiences — how they grew up, what they saw happen in the lives of broken children, how their parents cared so deeply – were molding, shaping and preparing them for a purpose.

Their parents’ ardent devotion to protecting and helping children had become Brodie and Reagan’s devotion as well.

As a result, Reagan – wife of John David Phillips and mother of three boys – came back to the ranch. She is now leading the childcare team, which is the ministry arm of the ranch.

Understanding that his heart was at Big Oak, Brodie returned there as well and assumed the leadership role of day-to-day operations of the ranch.

Brodie and Reagan say they are completely committed to carrying on the work their parents began.

“This is not a job to us,” said Brodie, father of two boys. “… We’re going to continue to do what God called our family to do 40 years ago. We will continue to be faithful.”

For more information about Big Oak Ranch, as well as the books John Croyle has authored, visit www.bigoak.org.

Features

Wild Game Dinner

Event attracts
more than 350 men

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Jim Smothers

The menu could have come from a Montana hunting lodge: smoked venison; bacon-wrapped quail; venison cube steak; venison meatballs; elk spaghetti; wild game gumbo; brunswick stew made with moose, squirrel and wild turkey. But the Wild Game Dinner actually took place at the First Baptist Church of Ashville thanks to the contributions of several hunters from St. Clair County.

“It was a way to bring in guys in a friendly, fun atmosphere,” said Pastor Dr. Jay Stewart. “Sometimes people are not interested in going to church because of preconceived ideas, fair or unfair, but something like this, guys relate to it because of the outdoor nature of whole thing.”

The church sold 357 tickets at $10 each for the Feb. 21 evening event, which was far more than its Fellowship Hall could seat. Diners had to eat in shifts in order to accommodate the crowd. Each person got a sampler plate that included as many of the dishes as they wanted to try, plus baked beans, potato salad and pie.

Church and community volunteers began cooking at 7 that Saturday morning. By the time the event started at 6 p.m., outdoor writer and chef Mike Bolton had smoked 450 quail, and Marty Crews of Big Boyz Barbecue had cooked 500-600 pounds of venison.

“This was the brainchild of one of our members, Tom Watson, who came to me with the idea,” said Stewart, who has been at FBCA since July 2014. “We felt like men would have a chance to come with buddies, sit around and talk, swap hunting stories, laugh, eat some things we don’t ordinarily eat. We have lots of events for women, and we wanted to do something for the men in the community.”

Watson served as song leader, minister of music or associate pastor at seven Southern Baptist churches from Alaska to Alabama over a 42-year career. Recently retired and a relatively new member at FBCA, Watson said the dinner was designed to attract men who wouldn’t come to a Sunday church service but would come to dinner and experience wild game and try for a prize.

“We had a lot of big-time speakers, guys who had outdoor television shows, Christian guys who came in and gave their testimonies,” said Watson of the past events he organized.

Hank Hough of Texas-based Kingdom Dog Ministries was the featured speaker for the event. He used his dog, Preacher, to illustrate how God’s children should show obedience to Him.

“Our church guys didn’t know what to expect, being the first year,” said Watson. “I challenged them to make a donation, and 12 to 15 of them came through, so we had some money to buy nice prizes with. Some of the smaller prizes were donated, but we bought the four guns we gave away.” They also gave away an Auburn football helmet autographed by Pat Sullivan, a deer tree stand, deer feeder and a quail hunting trip.

“Alan Clayton, the baseball coach at St. Clair High School and an avid bird hunter, guides hunts in northeast Alabama at the Stick Lake Hunting Preserve near Fort Payne,” Watson said. Scott Duel, owner of the preserve and the physical therapist at Back in Motion in Springville, donated that hunt, according to Clayton, who will personally guide the winner with his own dogs.

Other sponsors, including businesses such as Central Seed & Supply and the St. Clair County Co-Op in Ashville, donated buck jam, deer cain, salt licks, deer sauce, T-shirts, turkey calls, a 50-pound bag of milo for deer feed plots, caps, Mike Bolton game cookbooks, BBs and targets.

Most of the men there either saw the notice about the dinner on the church’s marquee or were invited by a friend. Clint Vickery of Albertville, who attends Flow of the Spirit Church, saw the sign on the marquee. “You don’t often get to try elk,” he commented.

Ashville resident Jeremy Gidley brought his 7-year-old son, Isaac, whose favorite dish was the elk spaghetti. Mark Coupland of Odenville also saw the marquee notice. “I had deer at an Auburn game several years ago and wanted to try some more,” he said. Another Odenville resident, Jeremy Byers, was invited by a friend who attends FBCA. “I’ve been deer hunting since I was 10 years of age in Sumter County,” Byers said, but he liked the other wild offerings, too.

FBCA member Patsy Fouts, Ashville, was conspicuous as one of the few women present. Three others were in the kitchen, and one was shooting photos for the church directory. Fouts brought her two grandsons, Brett, 12, and Brady, 10.

As the diners finished their meal, they made their way to the church sanctuary, where singer and pianist Tim Lett of Chandler Mountain Baptist Church entertained with gospel songs. The sanctuary was almost packed with men of all ages, their arms around their sons, grandsons or nephews. Many were dressed in camo coats and hats. Ashville Mayor Robert McKay was there, and so was a Jefferson County game warden, Kerry Bradford, who took a lot of good-natured ribbing about the legality of the kills that furnished the meat for the menu.

After everyone was seated in the sanctuary, 13 youngsters took to the stage to participate in a coyote-call contest. Two young winners received brand new BB guns, and all contestants received hunting caps.

The dinner may become an annual event, according to Stewart, who said plans are already under way for next year. 

Features