John U. Bacon

Remember Field Day? For most of us, it was a hallowed year-end school tradition, right up there with ice cream socials, and signing yearbooks. The kids loved it, of course, and looked forward to it every year.

But not at Burns Park, one of Ann Arbor’s oldest, most desirable and most educated neighborhoods – and occasionally, one of its kookiest. There is a reason many townies jokingly refer to it as “The Republic of Burns Park.”

The Burns Park PTO might be the most active one in the state. In the late ’90s, some parents, led by a social work professor, decided the competitive spirit of Field Day was too much for the kids, and changed “Field Day” to “Friendship Day” – replacing foot races, long jumps and tug-of-wars with games that emphasized cooperation over competition.

A noble notion – but the kids hated it. During one event, a cross-section of students from all grades had to walk together on two long boards. The big kids kept yelling at the little ones to lift their left foot, then their right – but the first graders didn’t know which was which. They all fell over, and the first graders burst into tears.

I suspect that’s not exactly what the parents had in mind.

For the students bused in from the less affluent part of town, canceling Field Day really stunk. All year, they had to compete in class against some of the nation’s most privileged students, where success is publicized in every way imaginable. But on Field Day, many of these students were, for the first time all year, winning the medals.

Well, no more of that, either.

I grant the parents had good intentions. I’ll also take a wild guess that some of them wanted to spare their kids the specter of not being at the front of their class for the first time. But few parents seemed to object when their kids got gold stars for reading, writing and arithmetic.

In trying to protect some students from finishing last, they not only denied the bused-in kids their day in the sun – quite literally – they denied their own kids the chance to learn some humility, to realize losing a foot race is no big deal, and to discover the next morning that the sun still came up, right on time, and they were going to be just fine.

Instead, we confuse competing with bullying, which schools are rightly focused on eradicating. But the two could not be more different. Competition, properly taught, teaches respect, fair play, and good sportsmanship – the exact opposite of bullying.

Friendship Day lasted only a couple years – the new P.E. teacher has brought a nice balance of the old and the new – but the effects still linger. A few Burns Park parents and teachers have told me too many kids don’t know how to accept losing – especially the boys. If they get knocked out playing four-square, they simply yell, “Do over!” and that’s exactly what they get.

As one of my friends said, “My kids need to learn how to lose. Without me there. Or any parent. And get over it.”

If you can’t learn these important lessons on the playground, they won’t be any easier during auditions for the high school play or tryouts for the band.

We are raising a generation of domesticated kittens, then throwing them out into the Serengeti. We might feel better about it – but in the long run, they won’t.

About the author: John U. Bacon is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” He also co-authored “A Legacy of Champions,” and provided commentary for “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game,” which has been airing on various stations in Michigan and nationally.

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Zachary Moen looks on as master violin maker Gregg Alf gives Moen's copy of the Ole Bull del Gesù a final inspection. (Photos by the writer.)

On Monday afternoon at Alf’s Prospect Street studio in Ann Arbor’s Burns Park, Moen and Alf allowed The Chronicle to bear witness to the first sound check of Moen’s second violin. It’s a copy of a famous instrument made by Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù (1698-1744), and played by Norwegian violinist Ole Bornemann Bull (1810-1880) – the Ole Bull del Gesù.

After coaxing the first notes out of the violin, the verdict from Alf on his apprentice’s work: “It’s an incredible D!”

For non-violinists: That doesn’t translate to D-plus as a letter grade … D is the name of the second string from the left.

Crafting a Violin: Not a Woodworking Job

The ground floor of Alf Studios, where the sound check took place, looks like a living room, not a woodshop. The shop is on the second floor.

Gregg Alf adjusts a sound post.

While Moen is upstairs applying a final coat of polish – before stringing up his Ole Bull – Alf demonstrates to The Chronicle the adjustment of the sound post of another already-strung violin.

That’s accomplished by inserting a metal tool through one of the F holes – the elongated holes in the top of a violin, which get their name from the appearance of an italic F – and nudging the wooden post that’s wedged between the top and bottom of the instrument.

Alf notes that with the spring weather and the changing humidity, the instruments are “breathing” – it’s a moving target to adjust them. But you still adjust them, he says, because “you want them sounding their best.” After testing out the effect of the sound post adjustment, Alf observes that he’s accomplished an improvement by moving the post to one side by “the width of a pencil mark.”

Alf then reflects on the nature of his work. “People think of it as a woodworking job,” he says, “but that’s like saying that writing is a drawing job.”

“Sound has meaning,” he concludes.

If You Wish to Make a Violin From Scratch …

Writing the old-fashioned way with a pencil, of course, does eventually involve drawing letter shapes. In the same way, making a violin does unavoidably involve working with wood. The steps to making a violin are chronicled in detail on Moen’s blog, “Diary of an Apprentice Violinmaker.”

Even a cursory look at any of Moen’s blog entries makes apparent that the approach to crafting the violins in Alf’s studio is done in a methodical, painstaking way. Moen took things beyond the usual pain in electing to make his madder lake pigment for his varnish from scratch. On Oct. 2, 2009, he wrote [emphasis added]:

For readers who aren’t violin makers, madder lake is a red pigment made from the roots of a madder plant and is often used for the red color on violins. This pigment will, if I am successful, be used to add the red color to the varnish on my violin. There is, of course, plenty of madder lake around the studio that I could use, but I wanted the experience of making my own.

The five steps to that experience stretched over 11 days. Here’s how it starts: “The first step is to combine the madder root with potash in water and heat the mixture at 40-45 degrees Celsius for 36 hours.” Even at that, Moen does not take astronomer Carl Sagan’s famous admonishment completely to heart: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch … you must first invent the universe.” [A video containing Sagan's quote at time code 0:22 is available on YouTube.]

Tuning the New Fashioned Way

While Moen puts the finishing touches on his Ole Bull, Alf’s sound adjustments on other instruments eventually require a tuner.

Zachary Moen tunes up his Ole Bull using an iPhone.

But locating one in the studio proves to be a challenge. There is somewhat of a flurry of activity in the studio, explains Alf, because he is leaving for China the following day. And Moen is leaving for Norway.

So in the course of contending with the myriad logistical challenges of travel, and completing work before the trip, the tuners have temporarily gone missing.

When his assistant eventually locates a device, Alf bows the instrument that he’s checking and guesses: “I’m sharp, right?” The answer: “You’re about 441.” The frequency of middle A is 440 Hz. So Alf is right – a bit sharp.

When Moen brings down the Ole Bull to string it up, it’s apparent that his approach to tuning is not the same as his approach to varnish – he uses an iPhone with a free tuning application. “I do everything the old fashioned way, except tuning,” he explains.

Moen’s law practice could be seen as a melding of old-fashioned approach to new-fashioned subject matter. His background in intellectual property law allows him to provide services to entrepreneurs in creative endeavors – artists, writers and musicians. He recently provided commentary on National Football League trademark issues related to the New Orleans Saints use of “Who Dat?” for Lucy Ann Lance’s radio show Business Insider.

Why Is Everybody Leaving?

What draws Alf to China and Moen to Norway?

"It's a small world." Gregg Alf holds the symbolic prize for the violin-making competition in China – there's also cash. Solar power allows the globe to spin on its own.

Alf is serving on the jury for the first ever violin-making competition in China, which takes place in Beijing, starting May 5. Alf is heading to China early for two reasons.

First, he’s going to enjoy some hiking and cycling there before the judging begins. Second, he’s going to use that time to acclimate himself to the time change – it’s not the best idea, he says, to step off the plane and immediately try to evaluate a couple hundred different instruments.

Also violin-related is Moen’s trip to Norway, which hinges specifically on the copy of the Ole Bull del Gesù he just completed. A prominent violin maker, Christophe Landon, has invited all violin makers across the globe to make a copy of the famous instrument and bring it to Oslo as part of the celebration of Ole Bull’s 200th birthday.

Although the violin-making project is organized around a playing competition – the Menuhin Competition for violinists under age 22 – the Ole Bull celebration is just that. It’s not a competition. The original instrument will be on display during the celebration, which will culminate in a concert using some of the violins made for the occasion.

Gregg Alf tests out Zachary Moen's Ole Bull for its first sound check.

Some of the most prominent violinists of the world will be there to try out the instruments, Moen’s among them.

Moen’s itinerary calls for him to visit some other Norwegian cities on his trip, but he’ll also be spending some of the time with the instrument, watching musicians react to his Ole Bull.

The reaction from Alf after bowing the Ole Bull for the first time can fairly be described as enthusiastic: “It’s an incredible D! The D is just amazing! … I want to open, loosen the G up a little bit, but you know, it’s just brand new …”

Editor’s note: In the sound file included with this article, the tone at the beginning is from Moen’s iPhone tuner. The file splices together samplings from different points in the test, and concludes with the reaction from Alf and Moen [.mp3 file of violin sound check].

This kind of twittering is also social and interactive – to shuffle the Mah Jongg tiles. (Photos by the writer.)

The “we” is a group of six who’ve come to the Ann Arbor Senior Center on a frigid Monday afternoon to play Mah Jongg, and they’ve graciously allowed The Chronicle to sit in on their game.

It’s a slow day at the center – typically, there might be 16 or more people here to play the traditional Chinese tile game, plus another couple dozen playing bridge – but wind and snow and perhaps the holiday weekend made for a thin turnout.

The Chronicle has covered two meetings of a city task force that’s trying to save the center – it’s slated to close on July 1, unless the task force can come up with ways to cut expenses and raise revenues to overcome a $151,687 operating shortfall.

But we hadn’t yet visited the center to see what goes on there during a typical day. So on Monday, we made the snowy trek.

Getting There

At a meeting in October, city staff laid out an array of challenges facing the center. One of those issues was the fact that the building at 1320 Baldwin Ave. isn’t on an AATA bus line. [See Chronicle coverage: "Seniors Weigh In on Fate of Center"]

At the meeting, there was some discussion about whether it was important to actually be on the bus line – someone pointed out that the closest stop on Packard, near the intersection with Granger, was just four blocks away.

It’s a long four blocks. That’s especially true in inclement conditions, when fewer than half of the sidewalks in the residential Burns Park neighborhood had been cleared. Taking the No. 5 bus from the Blake Transit Center to the Packard/Granger stop takes about 10 minutes – and that’s about how long it takes to walk from Packard to the senior center.

The AATA does offer some services for seniors, including the A-Ride program for people with disabilities. But based on the dozen or so cars in the senior center parking lot, most people on Monday drove themselves, or hitched a ride with a friend.

The entrance to the Ann Arbor Senior Center in Burns Park.

Any Given Day

Lunch is served at the center on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for $2.50, or $5 if you’re under 60 years old. (Several people at the task force meeting said the price was too low, and suggested charging more.) On Monday, the menu included lemon chicken, boiled potatoes and mixed vegetables.

But The Chronicle arrived just after the meal had wrapped up, and found people already settling into the afternoon. In the lobby, one man is sitting in an easy chair, watching a large TV. Across the room, another man is set up at the center’s public computer – one of three that are available for use, with Internet access.

But games are where the action is. Duplicate bridge is normally played in the main room, but on Monday not enough people had showed up for the multiple-table play of duplicate bridge. Instead, four people are sitting around a card table, playing a single game – of social bridge. The distinction between social bridge and “sanctioned” bridge is an important one, we learn. Games that are sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) are held on Thursdays, when the place is typically packed and points are recorded in an official ACBL database.

Ray Gentz, one of the four bridge players on Monday, says it’s rare to find him playing social bridge – sanctioned games are his thing, at the senior center and elsewhere. He also teaches bridge through the Ann Arbor Rec & Ed program. Gentz says he’d be interested in teaching at the center too, but that so far, the scheduling hasn’t worked out to make that possible.

Also playing bridge on Monday are Kermit Schlansker, Flo Shepps and Connie Craft, who hosts the Senior Moments show on Community Television Network. Bridge players in general have a reputation for being serious – we’re told this by the more boisterous Mah Jongg players in the back room. Even so, when The Chronicle asks her name, Craft deadpans: “Santa Claus.”

“Twittering of the Sparrows”

Monday afternoons also bring Mah Jongg players to the senior center. They’re in the back room, playing at two tables of three – normally, there’d be enough people to play four per table, filling up several more tables. But what they lack in numbers they make up for in good cheer – unlike the more serious bridge players, they tell The Chronicle, they’re just here to have some fun.

From left: Kurt Rinker, Janice Beatty, Jack Beatty and Jeannie Tramontan. Rinker was just visiting – not a player.

They’re playing a variation of the traditional Chinese game – not the more difficult American version. Everyone defers to Maxine Solvay as the expert in the American, or New York, Mah Jongg. She explains that growing up in New York, her mother taught her and her two sisters how to play, so that her mother “could always have a game.”

For the American version, cards are issued each year by the National Mah Jongg League, which dictates the kinds of hands that can be played during the year. Solvay has cards of her mother’s dating back to the early 1950s. She also keeps a Mah Jongg set in her car, just in case.

The mention of a spare set in her car earns Solvay a bit of good-natured ribbing from the others, before talk turns to where you might buy your own Mah Jongg set. Janice Beatty suggests the large Asian market on Washtenaw Avenue, across from Norton’s Flowers – that’s where she and her husband Jack bought theirs. (Hua Xing Asia Market, at 2867 Washtenaw Ave.)

A game ends at the table where Solvay, Margaret Leslie and Peggy DeVries are playing – they shuffle the pink and white plastic tiles, which make a distinctive clicking sound that we’re told is called “twittering.” The homophonic connection to Twitter, the online social networking platform, is noted with laughter. Janice Beatty pulls out a sheaf of papers to find the exact term. The papers contain “Stuart Baggaley’s Rules” – Baggaley teaches the game at the center and elsewhere – and indeed, she finds a description of “twittering of the sparrows.” There are also explanations of kong, peng and chow, but we’ll save that for another day.

As we’re talking, a man wanders in and weighs himself on a scale in the back of the room, then leaves.

Programming, Membership Fees

Mah Jongg isn’t the only thing that brings these people to the center. Margaret Leslie takes two French classes here, taught by Jim McMurtrie and Lucie Osborn. Osborn has been teaching at the center since she retired from the Ann Arbor Public Schools nearly 25 years ago. “She’s very much loved,” Leslie says. That class is mostly conversational, but they also sing songs and recite poetry. McMurtrie’s class also includes conversation, as well as grammar and reading. When Solvay makes a face at the mention of grammar, Leslie insists, “No! It’s very, very fun.”

The senior center task force is recommending that the center raise revenues through programming – adding to the number of programs it currently offers, like bridge and tai chi, and expanding the types of programs. That might include adding a lecture series, for example, or different types of exercise classes, like Pilates or Zumba.

Peggy DeVries says she’ll be taking a tai chi class at the center that starts in January, and will be part of a book club that’s also gearing up next month. Jeannie Tramontan has taken line dancing, and Janice Beatty mentions that Susan Boyle teaches a popular watercolor painting class that’s offered at the center through a Washtenaw Community College program.

Leslie notes that WCC lifelong learning courses are free if you’re over 65, but otherwise there’s a fee. “We’re all under 65 here, dear,” Janice Beatty quips. “It’s just that we’re having a bad hair day.”

The group talks about other discounts – Nicola’s Books offers 10% off to seniors on Wednesdays, and Tuesdays you can get cheaper movie tickets at Quality 16. So deals are clearly important. But when asked whether they’d be willing to pay a membership fee for the senior center, everyone in the room quickly said yes. Several people added that they’d like to see more of an emphasis on soliciting donations as well, and making it easier for people to give tax-deductible contributions to the city, earmarked for the center.

The idea of a membership fee has been floated by the senior center task force, and will likely be among its final recommendations. City staff estimate that a $25 fee would raise $12,500 annually – an amount based on 500 members, the number of current users of the center. [See Chronicle coverage: "Task Force Tries to Save Senior Center"]

The Competition

Only one person we queried at the center said she would not be willing to pay a membership fee, regardless of the amount. She explains that’s because she more frequently uses the senior centers in Saline and Pittsfield Township – she’s only in Ann Arbor on Monday afternoon because there’s no programming this week at the other locations.

In general, Saline’s center gets props for its longer hours and freebies, while Pittsfield’s center is cited for its superior facility and trip programs. The task force for the Ann Arbor senior center is looking at expanding its own trip programs – they estimate that such a move could raise $3,390 in net revenue annually, possibly more.

Another place for seniors is the Turner Senior Resource Center on Plymouth Road in Ann Arbor, operated by the University of Michigan Geriatrics Center. Turner is known for its wide array of programs. Margaret Leslie takes French classes there as well, but notes that it’s not the kind of place where you can go and just hang out. “People here know my name,” she says. “Turner is not like that.”

What’s Next?

The senior center task force is holding its next meeting at the center on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 4 p.m.  Recommendations about ways to cut expenses and raise revenues are expected to be presented to the city’s park advisory commission at its Jan. 19 meeting. Those recommendations, and whatever revisions that PAC members make, will be forwarded to city council as part of the overall budget process.

The council is expected to make its final budget decisions by May.

Petanque boules (shiny metal) bracket the cochonnet, or jack, on Howard Ando and Jane Wilkinson's court.

The couple’s own set of metal boules were dull with the wear of frequent play on the gravel surface typical for petanque. Over the last two years, much of that play has come on the rectangle of gravel in the side yard of the couple’s Ypsilanti home, just west of the Eastern Michigan University campus.

After seeing the game played during their visits to France, they developed a passion for it that led them to have their own court constructed. And now they’d like to invest in petanque for the public – they’ve offered to pony up the cash for a facility in Burns Park. A public meeting to discuss the potential facility will be held on Monday, Nov. 17 starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Senior Center at Burns Park.

The wintry slop falling out of the sky on Saturday led us to opt for a pleasant living-room conversation instead of chasing a little pig across the piste (court) – the jack, or cochonnet, also translates as “piglet.” In petanque, the jack plays a role similar to that in bocce, which might be more familiar to some readers.

Petanque does not require a huge investment in equipment. But there are some optional gadgets. The magnet on the left end of this telecoping wand can be used for boule retrieval. The flexible claw on the opposite end can be used to pick snatch the cochonnet (green ball).

After throwing the jack, the game continues with teams alternating throws of the metal boules, with the object being to conclude a round with one or more boules closer to the jack than the opposing team’s boules. Strategy is not unlike curling, where decisions must be made about whether to try to place a boule close to the jack (pointing), or rather to send one’s metal sphere crashing into an opposing boule that is already closely placed (shooting).

Petanque differs from curling in that the target is not permanently marked on the playing surface, but rather varies as the jack is thrown. And of course, petanque is also played on a gravel surface, not ice as in curling.

Assuming that any concerns that could arise at Monday’s meeting are adequately addressed, construction of the facility at Burns Park would likely entail something similar to the simple process used to build Ando and Wilkinson’s court: excavate to a certain depth; fill with coarse gravel; throw in a layer of landscape fabric; top off with a finer gravel. What the lousy wet weather on Saturday demonstrated was that any concerns (already raised at a Park Advisory Commission meeting in August) about petanque facilities adding to the impervious surface of the city are unfounded. No puddling or pooling was visible on the surface.

At that August PAC meeting Ando estimated the cost of construction at around $20,000. But at the October PAC meeting, the cost estimate provided by city staff was substantially greater. Colin Smith of the city’s parks and recreation staff told commissioners that the cost to build a petanque facility is estimated between $50,000 and $75,000, depending on amenities. The key to the difference in estimates likely lies in the nature of those amenities.

The offer of financial support from the couple comes with the added bonus of a 1-1 match from Pfizer if the money is donated this year. Ando is a retired employee of the pharmaceutical company.

So what exactly do Ando and Wilkinson find so attractive about petanque? Part of the appeal lies in the egalitarian nature of the game. The name of the game itself reflects a heritage of accessibility (it’s not onomatopoetic, reflecting how the balls land, as in “kerplunk”). The name petanque derives from “Les Ped Tanco” in a Provençal dialect, which means “feet together” – contrasting this game with others that allow a running start. The inventor of petanque suffered from rheumatism, which prevented him from executing the athletically powerful maneuver of a throw with a running start. This led him in 1907 to create a game disallowing such throws.

Another point for accessibility of the game is that the metal boules can be picked by using a magnet tied to a string or attached to a telescoping wand. That means people who can’t easily bend over or people who get around using wheelchairs can participate fully in the game without relying on others. The business card that Ando uses for this project reads, “Petanque Ann Arbor, a sport for everyone.”

Petanque court in the east side yard of Howard Ando and Jane Wilkinson's home in Ypsilanti.

The phrasing “a sport for everyone” might suggest to some readers it’s not competitive. On the contrary. The sport has conducted a world championship since 1959, with the 2008 edition starting last Thursday in Dakar. Asked if they kept track of their match records in the petanque games they play against each other, Wilkinson and Ando said they didn’t. Asked a second time, Wilkinson reflected a moment on an occasion when she had won recently and laughed, “Howard said, ‘That’s good, because I won the three before,’ so maybe he is keeping score!

So why did Ando and Wilkinson choose Burns Park in Ann Arbor instead of a park in Ypsilanti, where they live, to offer their financial support of a petanque facility? It has to do with the fact that their vision is a bit more ambitious than a single petanque court in a single park. They’d like to see the sport really catch on in the region to the point where the facilities are more commonplace. And Burns Park, they said, seemed like a strategically good choice: it’s proximate to both the Ann Arbor Senior Center and Burns Park Elementary School, which brings a built-in geographic constituency.

That’s also why it makes sense to hold the public meeting there on Monday evening. If there are concerns from neighbors – about exact location, possibilities of increased neighborhood traffic, loss of a favorite path through the park as a cut-through, too much French being spoken – it will be convenient for them to make those concerns heard. The meeting is also for any residents who just want to learn more about the game of petanque, or for those who are excited about the potential for petanque.  For residents who have a scheduling conflict for the meeting, the city of Ann Arbor park planner who is handling the petanque facility is Amy Kuras, who can be reached by email at akuras@a2gov.org

"You'll need a partner for this one." Bob Schoeni and Gretchen Spreitzer demonstrate a stretch during the group warm-up session.

On Sunday, the northeast corner of Burns Park was already teeming with humanity at 1 p.m. That was the start time that Ann Arbor Active Against ALS [A2A3] had scheduled for its kickoff fundraiser: a family field day. David Lowenschuss, one of the organizers, pointed out Bob Schoeni for us among the crowd waiting for the formal start to the festivities on a crispy overcast day. Schoeni had provided the impetus for the formation of the A2A3 nonprofit, when he was diagnosed with ALS in July.

A few minutes later, when Christopher Taylor took the microphone to help get the field day fun started, the gray skies had gone from spitting a few misty drops of rain to a steady sprinkle. It was hard to escape the conclusion that it was really raining. Added to a breezy day that saw temperatures in the low 50s, the rain meant that Taylor’s declaration, “It’s a beautiful day!” easily drew the chuckles it deserved from the crowd.

When Schoeni took the mic, he talked about the importance of the support from family, friends, neighbors – because of the hard evidence that showed that it actually lengthens lives of ALS patients. He thanked everyone for the support he’d already received, saying he was sure it had already added days, weeks, months, even years to his life. But ALS is a disease with no known cure or treatment. So was this another case of a guy standing in the rain declaring that it’s a beautiful day? More on the rain and that question later. First, a bit about the guy and the activity that filled the afternoon.

Bob Schoeni led off Sunday’s activities with some stretching exercises. Taylor had joked that stretching exercises were important to an injury-free day of activity – something that their insurance carrier would appreciate. Some of those stretches demonstrated by Schoeni were solo enterprises, even though they were done in a giant group of a couple hundred people: windmills, jumping jacks, torso twists. But other stretches involved partnering up – finding somebody to lean on. For those, Bob teamed up with his wife, Gretchen Spreitzer.

Soccer clinic with coaches from WideWorld Sports Center.

Bob told The Chronicle that he and Gretchen, when they were graduate students at the University of Michigan School of Business, hadn’t really experienced Ann Arbor as a community. They’d been focused pretty squarely on their studies. After graduating and living for a time in sunny California (Los Angeles), the place they picked out to raise their children was Ann Arbor. Asked why – when they presumably knew about the cold of an Ann Arbor February – Schoeni looked around the park and said, “This wouldn’t happen in L.A.”

What was happening was this: kids and adults were playing kickball, running obstacle courses, hula-hooping, participating in clinics for football and soccer, enjoying tasty baked goods, gobbling up grilled bratwurst, drinking hot chocolate – all to launch the fundraising efforts of A2A3. Those efforts will continue past Sunday partly in the form of various coaching programs. If you have a personal training goal – run a 5K under 19 minutes, complete a 10K, do 50 push-ups – A2A3 can provide coaching and training, plus support for fundraising connected with that goal. The idea is that as people complete their training goals, they collect the cash that others have pledged, and funnel it to A2A3.

The mighty right foot of Vivian (we believe that's her name) sends the ball skyward.

A2A3, in turn, will send that money to organizations like ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), which employs 30 full-time scientists working exclusively on treatments and a cure for ALS. Amy Whipple, who is midwest regional director for ALS TDI, was on hand for the Burns Park fun. She said that research on ALS fell to organizations like ALS TDI because it was an “orphan disease,” meaning that the roughly 8,000 people diagnosed each year with ALS did not represent a large enough number to make it a financially attractive proposition for Big Pharma. Whipple was joined at the park by her cousin, Dan O’Connor, who is an undergraduate studying business at UM. O’Connor and Whipple had lost an aunt to ALS.

O’Connor is thinking of applying to graduate school in business. Chatting with O’Connor, Schoeni asked him what subject he thought he might like to specialize in. While he’s not firmly decided, O’Connor said he was thinking about the public policy end of things. “Hey, that’s my area!” exclaimed Schoeni, and told O’Connor he should get in touch later, because he’d be happy to talk to him about it. So Schoeni is not exactly shutting things down – he continues to add people and work to his world.

That same spirit of continuing to stretch himself was reflected in Schoeni’s turn on the kickball diamond. He tried to stretch a sure single into a double. Although he was thrown out on the base path, he had a smile on his face as the ball bounced off his back.

Calin St. Henry explains the obstacle course. He was assisted by his colleague, Trevor Ford. After running that event, they had to go work at Zingerman's Deli and Quizno's Subs, respectively.

Through the afternoon, the rain gradually abated. Around 4 p.m., the scheduled end of the event, and as the fun started to wind down, we had a chance to focus briefly on one of the tunes that had been pounding out of the PA speakers all afternoon: Elvis Costello’s “Forty-Five.” We asked Joel Dalton, who assembled the four hours worth of music onto an iPod, if it was just the same mix he used for the Burns Park Run.

No way. The soundtrack for the run is running-specific, Dalton said, and there are some tunes selected partly as a function of the morning-time start. We didn’t have a chance to press him for details on the selection criteria for the A2A3 event, because we didn’t want to miss the root beer giveaway. The remainder of the root beer (from a keg provided by Morgan and York) was being given away free – it had not been a popular drink on a cold November day.

But Costello’s song “Forty-Five” was probably a good note to wind down the day. In those lyrics, he riffs on the various interpretations of “forty-five” – from the year 1945, to the vinyl records that used to spin at 45 rpms, to chronological age. Next year Bob Schoeni will turn 45. And no, he’s not a guy standing in the rain declaring it’s a sunny day. He’s a guy running around in the rain, declaring it’s a sunny day, then watching the clouds part to let some rays of sun through. For the record: at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2, the northeast corner of Burns Park was bathed in sun.

Editor’s note: In the month of November, Ann Arbor residents can help the A2A3 cause by mentioning A2A3 when making purchases at the following area retailers – they’ll donate to A2A3 the indicated percentage of their sales during the given time period:

Nov. 3-9
Nicola’s Books [5%]
Morgan and York [5%]

Nov. 10-13
Learning Express [20%]

Nov. 19
Running Fit [5%]

Nov. 1-30
Arbor Vacuum [10%]
Better Health Store [10%]

More Photos:

An actual play run from the wishbone formation. Coaching that part of the clinic was Tony Bertoia of the Washtenaw Junior Football Association. He joined his brother, Mike, to staff the clinic. Tony and Mike used to play softball with Bob Schoeni. And David Lowenschuss' son, Cooper, played on Mike's team this past year.

Bruce Crankshaw executes the spin-around-with-your-head-on-a-field-hockey-stick maneuver. Bruce's wife Molly teaches Sophie Schoeni in third grade at Burns Park Elementary.

Bob Schoeni gets put out in a game of kickball trying to stretch a single into a double.

The mighty left foot of David Lowenschuss, an organizer of the event, launches the ball into low orbit.

Photography of people wearing name tags proves ineffective as a way of putting names with faces. Kevin Ross with his two nieces, Clare and Ell-...? Kevin's wife, Suzanne, is president of the A2A3 nonprofit's board. Kevin has coached with Bob Schoeni and described his style as "naturally supportive."

Root beer comes in a keg when you get it from Morgan and York. Manning the tap for what would become a free root beer giveaway by the end of the afternoon is Steve Norton.

Elmer Spreitzer, father of Gretchen Spreitzer (wife of Bob Schoeni) and Rob Martin. Martin was high school friends with Spreitzer and Schoeni in Bowling Green, Ohio. He brought the grill and the brats – donated by Johnsonville – from Bowling Green, where he lives.

Plenty of baked goods for sale. Just to the right, apple fritters from Paula's Place. Out of the frame just to the right of the fritters were brownies from Zingerman's.

Brian Goldberg hands a cup of hot chocolate to son Zachary, who asked: "Can I get my money back if I don't like it?" A moot question, because Zachary declared that he loved it.

Possible reasons for Sophie Lete-Straka to be sad: cold, rain, lonesome, sleeves too long, 2-6 so far ...

Reasons to be glad: Hanging out with Dad – Eric Straka. Bob Schoeni was assistant coach of Sophie's sister Miranda's soccer team.