Christ Child Society's 2022 Woman of the Year says nonprofit's mission of helping neglected kids 'is a joy to be a part of'
BIRMINGHAM — Katie Parks, a member of the board of directors of the Christ Child Society of Detroit, and recently chosen the nonprofit's 2022 Woman of the Year, loves telling the story of how she was adopted.
“I was born in Syracuse, New York. I was put up for adoption immediately upon my birth and because I was born with a dislocated hip, it was considered a handicap. In the late 1960s, handicapped babies weren’t considered eligible right away for adoption, so I spent the first six months of my life in a foster home," Parks said. "My parents had adopted a baby boy 15 months earlier. They received a phone call one day and were told about another baby, a girl, and that she was handicapped. They couldn’t even tell my parents the nature of the handicap and my parents had to decide while they were still on the phone.
"My mom and dad always told the story later that they didn’t need to discuss it," Parks said. "So, I was adopted by Mary Anne and Frank Barthel, lifelong Syracuse residents who had dated since eighth grade.”
But the dislocated hip wasn't the only handicap.
A few months after being home, Mary Anne was giving her daughter a bath in the kitchen sink when she felt a bump on her back. She mentioned it to the orthopedist, who took an X-ray and found Katie was born with scoliosis. She had two extra half vertebrae that caused her spine to curve. When the case worker at Catholic Charities came for a visit, Mary Anne told her about this second bone issue. The case worker replied that if it had been found while Katie was in foster care, she would have been ineligible for adoption and would have spent her entire childhood in foster care.
“So, I was a pretty lucky girl from the get-go,” Parks said.
Easy to laugh and a natural storyteller, Parks' passion for helping others came alive on a sunny August afternoon during an interview at her home, a stone's throw away from Holy Name Parish in Birmingham. She attended St. Margaret Grade School and Bishop Ludden High School while growing up in Syracuse. She only applied to Marquette University, and that’s where she went.
“On my very first night freshman year, I snuck into a party on the 11th floor at McCormick Hall and met my future husband, 'Fuzzy,'" Parks said. "I thought I was going to get kicked out of school before my parents even got back to Syracuse, but Fuzzy helped sneak me out.”
Katie and Pat “Fuzzy” Parks — well known for his good nature and frizzy head of hair — started dating soon afterward. Marquette helped her find an internship her junior and senior year with the Great Lakes Hemophilia Foundation in Milwaukee. They ended up hiring her right out of college.
“I came to Michigan in 1990 for the funeral of Jimmy Halling, Pat’s roommate at Marquette. He died in a car crash the year after we graduated. We just did a golf outing in Jimmy’s honor for the 31st year in a row. I always have the pre-party and then we golf. While I was in town for his funeral, I ended up interviewing with Hospice of Michigan and got the job, so I moved to Michigan in 1991,” Parks said.
When Parks started, the patient census was 123, and Hospice of Michigan only serviced the tri-county area. When she left it 10 years later, it was a statewide organization with 1,200 patients.
“It was such an exciting time to be a part of that organization,” Parks said. “Dr. (Jack) Kevorkian was around, and hospice was just taking off as a whole concept of care. It was a fascinating time and an incredible time in my life, both professionally and personally. It was fun and rewarding and really the golden age of fundraising.”
Katie and Pat went out together for eight years before they walked down the aisle. They now have two daughters, Madelyn and Clare.
“We got engaged on Leap Day because that’s Pat. We were down at Joe Muir’s old restaurant on Gratiot. Joe was the first person who knew we were engaged. We were married on May 29th, 1993. Pat died in 2010, so we were only married for 17 years. But we were together for those extra eight years, so it was a good, good life.”
When Parks was six months pregnant with Madelyn, her mother passed away. She laments that her daughters didn't get to meet their grandmother.
“That was an unexpected death as well. She’d been diagnosed with a heart issue but was given a clean bill of health and was getting ready to go on vacation when she died in her sleep," Parks said. "My dad died six years ago this September. He and my brother were still in Syracuse, but after Pat died, I moved them both here. My dad had Parkinson’s, and it got to where he needed full-time care, and my brother has a number of mental health issues. It was a difficult time in my life, but my brother is doing really well now.”
Parks points out the irony that despite her work in hospice, all of the losses she's experienced in her family happened so fast it was never needed.
“Pat and my mom both died so fast, but hospice has certainly changed the way I look at life. I’ve seen so many beautiful experiences in the hospice world of people who choose quality over quantity. It’s a beautiful philosophy of care for sure,” she said.
Christ Child Society
Parks is currently the corresponding secretary on the board of directors for Christ Child House Detroit, a nonprofit residential treatment center for boys ages 5 through 16 that has served as a home in a time of transition for children navigating trauma, abuse and neglect. Her term ends in January. It’s been a two-year commitment, but her fourth time on the board. She has also served as vice president of communications and has been a member of the Christ Child Society for the past 24 years.
“My friend, Patsy Flynn, called me one day years ago and said, 'Hey, do you want to go to the basement of this house in Detroit on Saturday?' I was like, yes. I wanted to get away from my daughter Claire,” Parks said with a laugh. “She never slept and was such a crazy baby, oh my gosh, I just needed a break. We made layettes, which is a package that a new mother needs for her baby, stuff like a receiving blanket and onesie, diapers, wash cloths. It’s an assembly line that we put together, and Christ Child distributes them to social service agencies throughout the tri-county area, who give them to mothers in need.”
Christ Child volunteers also go to local schools once a month and read to students, leaving them with a copy of the book.
“It’s an incredible organization, and it's crazy to think that a group of 300 some odd women who own and operate a child caring institution in the city of Detroit has cared for thousands of children. The society owns the house and makes sure it operates. Over the last few years, it’s become evident that the house has far outlived its useless value. There’s been floods and a small fire and its beyond repair,” Parks said.
What Parks loves about the Christ Child Society is that every member brings their own skill set.
“Mine happened to be fund development,” she said. “What I could see when I started was, we didn’t know who was giving on a regular basis. I helped pulled our three databases together, and we invested in a new donor software. I wrote the website for the house and the society and worked with the designer to get those up and running so we could take donations online, which we couldn’t do in the past.”
The idea of a new Christ Child House came from a past president, Chris Swartz, and Plante Moran was engaged to do a deep dive into the financials. They came back with a plan that showed Christ Child could break even in the first year if it had enough capital funding to build the house.
“We announced the plan last November with a million-dollar pledge by David and Christine Provost. And since then, our major gift solicitation has just left me speechless," Parks said. "People are so generous. It has been unbelievable, especially with the announcement by the Pulte Family Foundation of a $3.5 million gift. It’s just unreal.”
The new house will still be on Joy Road, just a little closer to Southfield.
“It’s a bigger piece of property that we got for a song that a donor paid for. It doesn’t have to be re-zoned and it’s pretty perfect. It’s going to be able to house up to 28 kids and have many wonderful things that the staff always hoped for, like a sensory room for kids who have autism or are on the spectrum. It’s going to be state of the art,” Parks said.
The hope is to have a shovel in the ground by the first or second quarter of next year and a 12-month build. Parks has been inspired by so many people, including Swartz, everyone on the steering committee, and the current president of Christ Child Detroit, Elaina Ryder.
“It’s been a joy to be a part of,” Parks said.
According to Ryder, Christ Child's membership has long recognized Katie’s “incredible dedication to carry on the 110-year history of Detroit Christ Child Society."
"We’re so blessed to have Katie’s altruism and guidance as we continue to raise funds for our $12 million capital campaign to build a new home for the boys," Ryder said. "Katie’s humor, heart and personal journey and how it intertwines with her work over the last 24 years on behalf of Christ Child Society is truly inspirational.”
Both of Parks’ daughters are happy and doing well in Chicago. Madelyn works in health care consulting and is getting her master’s at Northwestern, and Claire is a second-grade teacher at St. Andrews Elementary, a half mile from Wrigley Field. Katie is keeping busy between Christ Child and substitute teaching at Holy Name and St. Hugo of the Hills School in Bloomfield Hills.
“Working with Christ Child, you think you know how horrible the world can be. But then you hear the intimate details of the abuse these children go through, and you can’t even make it up. After Pat died, something in me sort of broke,” Parks said. “I can’t get into the weeds of the details because I’d be up all night. But even when I spend a little time with these kids, it’s heartbreaking. So, I have to help where I can and how I can. I think it’s a matter of where you choose to place your focus because there are so many good and generous people in the world, and I just want to focus on that. And hope the rest will balance out, even though it’s a scary world in which we live.
"But I find a lot of comfort from going to Mass as much as I can," Parks continued. "I think our faith brings us great comfort. You know, I always say I know too many dead people. There are so many times I wish I could get advice from my parents and Pat and if I pray on it, I swear, I do get advice from them. I know I do, and so I try to stay positive because it could be just as easy to be negative. It’s a choice. That’s my mantra in our mud room. People tend to seek happiness when happiness is a choice. So today, I choose to be happy and to heck with the rest of it.”
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