HISTORY OF THE FIELDS OF DREAMS PROJECT:

 
The Fields of Dreams committee was born in July 19, 2005.
Gathered in the main assembly hall on that hot July evening, a group of parents along with some 200 people, news media, local aldermen and of course athletes and students came to the conclusion that the Board of Education was just not that enthusiastic about maintaining, let alone renovating a stadium that had sat for some forty years without any kind of attention.
To call this a tragedy would be a slight understatement.
Here we have on Chicago’s north side, what should rightfully be a shining jewel, a testimony to the fantastic spirit that is exemplified by the champions who attend this fine institution.
And yet sadly what we have is an embarrassment (through no fault of our own) of a structure that has dilapidated into what can only be described as an eyesore… or worse, an UNSAFE facility for our children.
When you take into consideration the fact the Lane Tech sports teams have continually brought home championships over the years, and that Lane Tech scholars are among the elite of what this city has to offer, this situation is ludicrous to the point of being insulting.
Why wouldn’t the Board of Education want to upgrade and maintain these facilities?
That was the burning question that refused to be left unanswered.
Someone once said “a question well-phrased is a problem half-solved”.
So we shifted our mind set and re-phrased the question a number of ways and finally came up with a more powerful question.
Now the question became - HOW can WE convince the Board of Education that this is a worthy goal?
After all if you are not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
We then realized that with a new perspective, dedicated hearts and a united voice we could achieve a worthwhile ideal, in fact a legacy, for our young champions. And furthermore, it could have global ramifications in that this new vision can actually improve the quality of life for the entire North Side Community.
We formed this committee and made a commitment to meet regularly in order to find strategies that would bring us closer to our goal.
We assigned roles to each member of our team. Each role had weekly and monthly tasks to achieve.
At each meeting we would assess our progress, drop anything that wasn’t working and adopt new methods and strategies.
We solicited help from the Political and Corporate agencies.
The result was that we gained allies and our movement gained momentum.
Not just any momentum, but righteous and intelligent momentum.
Our spirit remains undaunted – and this web site is proof positive of the fact that we have a worthy goal.
Over this past year we have matured into a well-oiled machine with a vision, a mission and a determination that we will not be denied!
WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY – that is the message that we have sent to the Board of Education.
This is our legacy to the beautiful champions that make up the student body of Lane Tech.