Volunteer extraordinaire

            His business card could read, “Professor Emeritus, Calvin College” (36 years) or “Director Emeritus, Christian Reformed Recreation Center” (44 years). Instead it says: “David B. Tuuk, Special Volunteer.”

            Just how special became public last May when the Child and Family Resource Council of Kent County presented Dave Tuuk ’49 with its Booker T. Washington Volunteer Award for his 18 years of steadfast, insistent and often invisible service to Safe Haven Ministries.

            And it is a serious, daily business for Tuuk, seeing to the needs of Safe Haven, which provides refuge and support for abused women and their children. It started when Tuuk—a member of one of six Grand Rapids churches that founded the ministry and an all-around handyman—was asked to help remodel the kitchen in Safe Haven’s first shelter. Then, he said, “one thing led to another” on the house’s long fix-it list.

            Besides his handyman skills, Tuuk also, from the start, put into Safe Haven’s service another prodigious gift. “Around here we call him ‘The Master of Getting Things for Free,’” said Safe Haven’s present director, Kylene Dalton-Koons.

            Building materials, furniture, electronics, toys, services of all kinds—for all of these and more Dave Tuuk has “a contact.”

            “Well, see, I know a lot of people from way back—and they can help,” Tuuk said.

            He means 36 years-full of students who passed through his Calvin phys ed classes and athletic teams, not to mention his own classmates, neighbors and church members—people he also called on to help him turn a 60-acre farm into the Christian Reformed Recreation Center with its eight softball fields, picnic area and 18-hole golf course.

            The Rec Center’s current director, Jim Timmer, Sr., who is one of Tuuk’s former student-athletes, says of his coach, “He has a great ability to make people feel good about giving. He makes them feel they have some ownership of the ministry.”

            So it was that in the summer of 2006, when Safe Haven purchased a larger but dilapidated facility for a new shelter, Tuuk surveyed the needs and went to his contacts: a general contractor and his subcontractors who remade the space into a beautiful place for some $100,000 less than the market rate.

    A year later, when it was finished, Tuuk looked around and saw one essential thing missing. “In the worst way I wanted a play area for the kids, one that was fenced in, to keep the animals out.”

            In classic Tuuk style, he set about the job himself first: spraying weeds, digging brush, clearing the site. Then he went to his contacts. “That’s the thing,” Timmer added, “everybody knows he’d do it all himself if he could.”

            By the spring of 2008, children at the shelter were swinging, sliding, riding bikes and playing in playhouses surrounded by a top-grade vinyl-coated fence, most of it donated.

            “Because of Dave, the women and children who walk through our doors experience a little piece of heaven in the middle of their difficult circumstances,” Dalton-Koons said.

            “Well, it’s so satisfying to know you’re helping people,” Tuuk responded. “I’m 82, and I don’t know how many years I’ve got left. Everyday when I get up I want to live that verse from Ephesians that says, ‘Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men or women.’”

This article on Dave Tuuk appeared in the Fall 2008 Calvin Spark and is reprinted here with permission of The Calvin College Spark

http://www.calvin.edu/publications/spark/2008/winter/tuuk.htm

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CRRC History

With World War II ending in 1945, a group of local clergy and educators shared a vision for a recreation center where the young people of the Christian Reformed Churches could meet and mingle with the youth of other Christian Reformed churches in the Grand Rapids area.  In May of 1947 the first organizational meeting of the Christian Youth Center (CYC) was held in the gymnasium of Oakdale Christian School.  A board of directors was appointed and a constitution adopted.

Discussions were held as to what kinds of activities should be offered.  Some of the possibilities entertained included a roller rink, bowling alley, field games, clubhouse or a gymnasium.  An initial outlay of $200,000 to $250,000 was budgeted.

In May of 1949 the board voted to purchase a 7.5 acre piece of land which was to become the site for the CYC.  The land was located on 28th Street, midway between Madison and Eastern Avenues, on the north side of the street.  (At this time 28th Street was only a two-lane road.)

The summer of 1950 one lighted diamond was ready along with land cleared for parking and an access road.  There were 18 Young Men’s Society teams and six teams representing the Young Women’s Societies who played that year on that single diamond.  There were no restrooms and no concession stand.  Bleachers were rented from the City Parks Department for that year.  Interest was high after this first summer of activity.  The board was already looking ahead to the next year to see what could be added after this humble beginning.

The summer of 1951 saw significant changes.  There were 28 teams playing on two diamonds.  A concession stand had been built which included restrooms and storage.  During each night of play a hat would be passed to collect monies for the maintenance of the facility.  Two Saturday night hymn sings were also held to raise additional funds.  A total of $550 was collected by those two means that summer.  Dave Tuuk was also hired that summer as manager of the CYC to perform duties which included organizing the softball leagues, taking care of the grounds and performing other related tasks.

By 1953 there was also a swing set, slide and four basketball goals in use on the grounds as well as a volleyball area and shuffleboard courts.  Board fences in the outfield included 21 advertisers’ logos.  There were 30 teams involved in the softball program that summer. 
The following summer, 1954, there were 37 teams and the lighted basketball courts were in use every evening.

In 1955 an experimental league for slow pitch was started with a 16-inch ball and no gloves.  The game had originated in Chicago, and the CYC was the first place in Grand Rapids where the game was played.  During the same year a select group of softball all-stars was chosen to represent the Youth Center and a double header rivalry was started with a group of Christian all-stars from the Illiana area, near Lansing, Illinois.  Large crowds turned out to watch softball at its best. 

A miniature golf course was built in 1956, creating competition for John Loek’s mini golf course at the old Beltline Drive-In Theatre.  The CYC charged 25 cents per round and over $2,000 was generated each summer, enabling the CYC to make other improvements.  Sunday night hymn sings were also still held on occasion. 

The year 1958 became an important time in the history of the CYC.  The diamonds were full every night with three games each, so the board began to think of moving to a new site in order to expand the program.  Joe Duthler approached the board with an offer of $100,000 for the property.  This proposal made sense, since it meant taking a site which initially had cost $22,500 and selling it for $100,000 only nine years later. 

A search for property turned up an excellent possibility when a 60 acre parcel of an 80 acre farm owned by John Marsman became available on the southeast corner of Schaffer and 36th Street.  After extensive negotiations an offer was made and accepted for $30,000, or $500 an acre.

At the close of the 1958 season the 28th Street Christian Youth Center was dismantled and the big moving process began.  Everything was moved, including fencing, railroad ties, back stops, poles, lights and playground equipment.  By mid-June of 1959 three diamonds were put in play and the season began. 

In 1960 the name was changed to the “Christian Reformed Recreation Center” to reflect the family atmosphere that was becoming evident. 

Since that time the Rec Center has continued to make improvements to the facility.  Some milestones include the purchase of another 60 acres, the development of the first nine holes of Fellowship Greens,  the construction of the senior’s center and golf house and the development of the last nine holes of the golf course.  In 1982 a high of 247 teams were playing softball each week. 

For more interesting facts and anecdotes, please see “Doxology: A History of the Christian Youth Center and the Christian Reformed Recreation Center from 1948-2001” by Dave Tuuk.  The above article was written with excerpts from this book.