Topic: News: Attempt to strengthen a community

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Attempt to strengthen a community
A York pastor sees potential for neighborhood kids through weightlifting.
By DAVE SOTTILE

Tom Frederick's athletic dream never died. It just faded away for a while.

Frederick is the pastor at Glory House Ministries in York, and he always hoped to open a facility where young athletes could learn the sport of weightlifting.

"I had coached world-class athletes in weightlifting before, and I really wanted a training center in the basement of the church to bring in neighborhood kids," Frederick said earlier this week. "I had that on my church plan eight years ago, but I had given up on the idea.

"You get busy, get older and ideas sometimes get away from you."

But all of a sudden, those plans can resurface in the most unusual ways, which is why John and Michelle Harris' arrival in York County helped revive Frederick's idea.

Growing up as a weightlifter in Missouri, John Harris always used York Barbell equipment. It never crossed his mind that the manufacturer was located in the very town it shared a name with.

But as Harris and his wife, Michelle, drove north from Washington, D.C., on their way to Harrisburg in September, they came upon the spinning weightlifter statue atop York Barbell's facility along Interstate 83 in Manchester Township.

"I saw that statue doing the snatch and said, 'That's it. I've got to work there,'" John Harris said. "I was later introduced to Pastor Tom, and when I found out he was an old weightlifting coach who wanted to get a training center started, I knew I had to get involved."

So now the 26-year-old Harris -- who competed at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials and missed a spot in the Athens Games by the smallest of margins -- and his wife are part of the effort to get Glory House Weightlifting off the ground at the church, 40 Jefferson Ave.

A nonprofit organization has been formed to raise money for the gym and its long-range plans of training athletes and developing stronger ties to the neighborhood's youth. The goal is to raise $30,000.

"Of all places, they end up here," Frederick said. "I was introduced to them through a friend of mine who met them at a Bible-study session.

"I had the plan and the purpose (to open a weightlifting facility), but no longer had the energy or the age, but they did. You can call that a coincidence all you want, but it tends to lean toward some sort of higher power that brought us together."

Michelle Harris was a diver at Northern Michigan University when a weightlifting coach suggested she might be a candidate for another sport.

"He was a former Chinese Olympian," Michelle Harris said. "In China, they do sports performance tests based on body type to figure out where you would fit in best.

"He knew I'd be good at weightlifting because even though I was petite, as a diver I had a strong build and strong joints. And I started training as a weightlifter in 2006."

Michelle Harris arrived in York with her husband after heading east from Missouri "to follow God's call" to service. Now, after giving birth to her daughter, Lily, six months ago, the 24-year-old is training for a possible shot at the 2012 Olympic Trials in the 53 kilogram division (117 pounds), with an eye on competing in the London Games.

All the while, she's actively seeking support for the project her husband -- who is now her coach -- and Frederick are hoping to see to fruition.

"It's quite a feeling," Michelle Harris explained. "I feel very strongly about the decision to come to York and work toward this goal. For the youth in the area, for God's glory. For the pastor, the church and how this project could impact others."
 
Tom Frederick sees the potential of what a weightlifting center in York will bring to the youth of the neighborhood.

"They need to invest in something that involves continuity in their lives, something that will bring rewards," Frederick said of York's youth. "There's got to be more than computers and Xboxes. There's not a whole lot of value in those things.

"The long-range plan should be to make better people, better employees, better fathers and better mothers. These are things that can be taught and instilled by a lot of things, like athletics. We can change the community. When people care, that rubs off on others."

It's something Michelle and John Harris are aware of, but it won't be easy to raise the needed funds in this current economy.

The current gym has some old equipment Frederick had, plus some items York Barbell donated. It's a far cry from what's needed for a full-fledged training center, but there's no slowing the project down.

Everyone involved hopes others on the outside will embrace the idea.

"I think we're very much the same in that regard," Frederick said of Michelle and John Harris. "We want to get the kids involved."