Goldstream Valley residents participate in a softball game to celebrate the completion of a sports complex named Saul's Field on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 29, 2010. The field is named for Saul Stutz who, at the age of 13, was struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2005. John Wagner/News-Miner
Goldstream Valley residents enjoy a meal outside the Ken Kunkel Community Center during a party to celebrate the completion of the Goldstream Valley Ballfields on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 29, 2010. John Wagner/News-Miner
Goldstream Valley Lions Club president Mike Rotter sets up for a catch on the recently-completed Goldstream Valley Ballfields on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 29, 2010. John Wagner/News-Miner
Photographs showcase the stages of construction of the Goldstream Valley Ballfields on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 29, 2010. John Wagner/News-Miner
A ragtag band of volunteers managed to build a park, a community center and a ballfield in the Goldstream Valley in a little more than a decade’s time.
Next up are developing a bicycle skills course, a basketball court and an ice skating rink.
The group, organized under the Goldstream Valley Lions Club, celebrated their accomplishments Sunday at a dedication ceremony and volunteer picnic at the Ken Kunkel Community Center.
About 50 people, including Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks, and Sen. Joe Thomas, D-Fairbanks, attended the party, where there was food, beer, live music and an impromptu softball game.
“None of us knew what we were doing, and everyone just kind of guided us along,” Lion John Hiltenbrand said. “It’s a page right out of ‘Northern Exposure.’ If you could sit in a meeting, you would just giggle.”
The Goldstream Valley Lions Club, with about 30 paying members, started in 1978, more or less replacing a previous chapter that had disbanded.
They met at Ivory Jacks. They made holiday gift baskets for families who had fallen on hard times and helped people with serious illnesses.
“We used to go out and cut firewood and deliver it to someone in poor health,” Hiltenbrand said.
The club threw holiday parties for children and helped families in the Goldstream Valley in the event of a house fire.
“We were just mainly a club that gathered,” club president Mike Rotter said. “We did fun stuff together but never a project like this.”
Members said Nancy Katkin, who works for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation department, urged the club to think bigger.
That was about 10 or 15 years ago.
Members started raising money through pancakes breakfasts, spaghetti feeds, pull tab sales and simply asking for help.
Ken Kunkel, the community center’s namesake, bequeathed the Lions club some land, which was sold so the club could purchase property on Goldstream Road near the Goldstream General Store.
There were private grants and government grants. And lots and lots of volunteer labor.
“We just picked away at it a little bit at a time,” Rotter said. “I always thought I would be long gone before we finished.”
The ballfield is being named after a 13-year-old boy, Saul Stutz, who was killed five years ago after he was hit by a drunken driver while riding his bicycle along Goldstream Road.
Landscaper David Stutz, Saul’s father, was a driving force in fashioning the ball field.
“It’s kind of humbling,” Stutz said. “I’m just really happy to see all of these people out here today.”
“We have a place of our own,” he added.
Contact staff writer Amanda Bohman at 459-7544.
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