Debbie Hightower may be the reason many volunteers first come to the annual Sports, Arts and Recreation of Chattanooga water sports day at Possum Creek, but something else keeps them coming back.
Craig and Jenny Clark from TRC Yacht Sales in Harrison brought a Nautique 230 and a Waverunner to help get the participants around the waterway, and friend Sean Murnan joined them for the Clarks’ fourth appearance.
“We’ll be here next year, too,” Jenny said. “As long as there’s water in this river, we plan to be here. I look forward to this every year.”
Keith Arimura and his wife, Maureen, help in numerous ways, and Saturday they were there again, along with their three children – 19, 15 and 11 years old.
“My wife used to work for Target, and Debbie’s brother (Ed Pickett) worked there, too, and lined up volunteers,” Arimura said during his 11th clinic at the First Lutheran Church Camp.
“I’m on the (SPARC) board now.”
Arimura most notably takes photos of all of the organization’s events, but another job of his as he rides in a boat is to jump in the water when needed to help a fallen skier.
“Keith just does everything – he and his whole family,” Hightower said. “The first thing he did this morning was haul a trailer up here.”
Besides her brother and her husband, Hightower also got her Pediatrics Plus boss, Janice Jones, and co-worker Becky Hardin involved early on. Hardin has helped since the first SPARC water day in 1992. And Hightower’s fellow event co-founder, Cathy Fletcher, still oversees the registration desk.
Pepsi’s Tim Higdon supplied the drinks for the record 237 volunteers and participants, including for the usual massive lunch, but he also gave personal watercraft rides. He’s been providing not only sponsorship but help at the event for 13 years.
The Osborne Foundation and Disabled Sports USA donated money to help with Saturday’s activities, Hightower said, and Kohl’s provided $500 plus a team of volunteers. The Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Department remains a co-sponsor, and Elaine Adams again headed the department’s therapeutic recreation staff that helped with the work Saturday.
Lisa Carruth, who heads the occupational therapy assistant program at Georgia Northwestern Technical College, had students helping for the second straight year. There were 15 OTA students plus eight of their “family members or significant others,” she said. The group also helped with a paraplegics hand-cycling event in Rome in April.
“I’ve made it a requirement for my students to participate,” said Carruth, who gave a familiar refrain about how she became involved with the annual SPARC event: “I’ve worked with Debbie.”
Also back for a second time were Al Kaye and others from the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center in Knoxville. They brought three boats, in fact, and Danny Conner provided the added touch of letting his dog Malibu ski behind his Malibu boat in a demonstration after lunch.
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Volunteer State Water Rescue and Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services were present again to help make sure the day would go as smoothly and safely as possible. Also, Robby Tyson and his associates with the First Lutheran Church Camp had the place trimmed and ready for a crowd, as usual, complete with a mowed field for parking on the hill above the clubhouse.
“This is good stewardship for our property to partner with these people,” Tyson said, noting that the camp board had made it more handicapped-accessible in recent years.
Many others present Saturday also were year-in-year-out helpers, but two longtime key figures at SPARC waterski days were absent because of funerals: Phil Martin, the former Macon therapeutic education director who developed much of the adaptive waterski gear and mentored SPARC leaders, and Chattanooga disabled athletics standout Stephanie Dodd.
And Hightower’s father, who for years helped prepare the big SPARC day lunch, died soon after last year’s event. She got emotional at his memory but quickly turned her attention back to all those who were present – in greater numbers from year to year.
There supposedly was a big chance for thunderstorms Saturday, but somehow the SPARC event seems always spared from bad weather.
“I prayed all week,” Hightower said.
Apparently God has a hard time saying no to her, too.
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