Volunteers enjoy tournament tasks
FARMINGTON – Barbara Fike has been a staple of the PGA Tour’s 84 Lumber Classic since its inception four years ago, but the tournament volunteer and avid golfer has never actually watched a round. “In four years, my husband and I have never sat down and watched golf,” Fike said while riding in a staff golf cart in between tasks on Saturday. “But we’re going to do that this afternoon.”
And it’s a good time, too. Today may be the last time the PGA comes to Mystic Rock.
Fike, a Grantsville, Md., native who serves as chairman of the scoring committee and oversees 27 other volunteers, is one of more than 1,200 volunteers, who play a big part in pulling off the annual event at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa.
“Without question, if you don’t have these volunteers, you don’t have this tournament,” said Jeff Nobers, media director for the tournament. “They supplement the Nemacolin staff and the tournament staff to get this done.”
Beyond sacrificing a Saturday, a weekend or even a week to work at the tournament, volunteers pay $84 for their uniform, an 84 Lumber Classic hat, shirt and jacket. Many of the volunteers working on Saturday said they looked forward to the event each year and even go so far as to schedule vacation time off work to participate.
“They just want to be a part of something that is a big deal for the county and the community,” Nobers said.
And they often come a long way to do it. Most of the volunteers are from the Uniontown area, Nobers said, but a few come from as far as North Carolina or Florida.
Joe Yukas and Joe Kania are eighth-graders at St. Mary’s School in Uniontown and were talked into volunteering by their parents. Charlene Beck of Bradford Woods has come each year from the North Hills of Pittsburgh and during the tournament stays with her old college roommate who lives in Uniontown. Another group of volunteers who live in Cranberry went so far as to rent a house in the area for the week.
But, more than most, traveling for the tournament is something Fike knows well. Though her home is just across the state line and only 20 minutes from the course, she has eight out-of-state friends staying with her to volunteer at the Classic.
Her houseguests, who come from West Virgina and Ohio, heard about the tournament when they met Fike and her husband, Gary, at their winter home in Florida.
“They knew we were doing it and they tried it last year and had the best experience of their lives,” Fike said.
And so they’re back for a second year.
But while they came the farthest, Fike’s friends don’t have Darlene Reich’s three-hour round trip from her home in Greensburg. And she doesn’t even play golf.
She couldn’t really put a finger on why she had volunteered the past four years at the event, other than she and her husband wanted to “try something different” a few years ago.
The dedication of the volunteers, Fike said, is simple. It only takes one time to get hooked, she said.
“It’s one of those things. We can’t wait for it to start, by midweek we can’t wait for it to be over, and by the time it’s done, we’re crying,” Fike said, who noted about 90 percent of her 27 volunteers have come back each year since the tournament started.
Arna Lee Kufrin of Uniontown was working only her second day at the tournament, but was busy checking in volunteers and dolling out wooden meal vouchers at the Volunteer Headquarters nestled in the woods between hole No. 9 and No. 13.
She said she had long considered volunteering, but with this being the last year of the tournament, had run out of time to procrastinate.
“I’ve lived out of the area and every so often I thought maybe I should, but this is the last opportunity,” she said, noting she would have come back to work next year if she could. “I’m sorry I didn’t do it earlier.”
Just a few feet away, Bill Swan of Connellsville, Gene Rotonto of Addison and Rich Lacey of Hopwood were busy working in the apparel truck selling “hundreds of shirts and jackets and thousands of hats” to fellow volunteers. More than the golf, they said, they would miss the group of people who came out each year.
“There is just such a feeling of camaraderie,” Swan said. “Every volunteer you talk to has stressed how fun this is and is nice and friendly.”
To a man, each said they wished the tournament would be held again in 2007.
And, if she could, Joan Steratore would be back next year too. The Farmington native who has seven children, 11 grandchildren and teaches library sciences at Wharton, Marclay and A.J. McMullen schools, has volunteered every year of the tournament.
“Every year it’s just such a great thing for the community. It brings some life and excitement; it’s great,” Steratore said. “I’m really sad to see this end; its kind of inspired people and helped improve the image of the whole area. I’m sorry to see it go.”
She said that she and many other volunteers are hoping that when the 84 Lumber Classic disappears after this weekend, something takes its place.
“I hope, after they have all this in place, that they bring something in here,” Steratore said. “They’ve got a good thing going here.”
As the tournament prepares to enter its final day today, for the first time in four years many volunteers are looking to life without the 84 Lumber Classic.
“It’s the only thing I work on day and night that I can go back and say thanks for letting me be a part of,” Fike said. “My volunteers all ask if there’s a chance they’ll bring something else here – we don’t know, but we’re hoping.”
“I doubt that people will realize until it’s gone how much it did for the community,” she said.