Skyview grad Joseph Parks puts service above self

Skyview grad Joseph Parks puts service above self

Idaho Press-Tribune

06.05.13

Melody and Randy Parks of Nampa should be proud today. Their son Joseph, based in North Dakota, and six of his friends will be running and walking 180 miles for the Fisher House Foundation in an event they call “Run to the Border.”

Joseph, who graduated from Skyview High School in 2001, said the group will start on June 14 from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota and run and walk to the Canadian border and back to the base. They plan on it taking them two days. They have set a goal of $5,000 and so far have raised $3,000.

The funds raised through the Team Fisher House program benefit Fisher House Foundation, a four-star non-profit dedicated to helping military families.

Just to be clear, this is not a military event, Joseph told the Idaho Press-Tribune in an email.

But get this — Joseph comes from a military family. For starters, he and his brother (Jeffery Parks, stationed out of Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas) are on active duty in the Air Force and dad Randy Parks is retired from the Air Force.

“We have no military endorsement for the event,” Joseph wrote. “This is something we decided to do as friends for an organization we felt did great things for the men and women and their families who have sacrificed so much for our country.”

This is a fine example of service above self.