Pat O’Connor’s BIG Field of Dreams

Pat O’Connor heard the whispers (“If you build it, they will come”), and like Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams, he was not sure where his quest would lead.

Now eight years after building Little Fenway in the backyard of his Essex, Vermont home, O’Connor presides over a field where BIG dreams are coming true.

Little Fenway is a one-quarter scale replica of the Boston Red Sox stadium, complete with a 12.5-foot-high “Green Monster” and a Citgo sign beyond the wall.

O’Connor hosts fund-raising Wiffle® Ball Tournaments for various charities, including the Travis Roy Foundation, which works to help spinal cord injury survivors and to fund research into a cure.

In 1995, only 11 seconds into his first shift as a freshman on the Boston University hockey team, Travis Roy suffered a spinal cord injury that left him a paraplegic. Two years later, he established the foundation that bears his name.

Since 2002, the Little Fenway tournament has raised more than $750,000 for the foundation, including more than $250,000 this year.

“Each year we’ve raised more money for the Travis Roy Foundation,” O’Connor said. “What’s happened with the field is quite amazing. I feel blessed. My wife, Beth, and I feel like we’re just the caretakers of something that has become a very special place in the hearts and minds of people. We have a great team of volunteers, a tremendous group of folks that have captured that spirit.”

O’Connor is passionate about his BIG journey, and eager to spread his passion.

“It’s been a journey and the journey seems never ending. It gets better and better and better every day. I want to make it better and I want to reach out and get more people associated with it,” he said.

Like a proud father, he describes others who have been inspired by Little Fenway and Travis Roy:

• The passionate golfer who devised an innovative fund-raiser to support the foundation. He found sponsors to donate a certain amount for every hole of golf he could play in one day. He played 205 holes and raised more than $10,000.
• The friend in Massachusetts who built his own Little Fenway and hosted a fund-raiser for his local police foundation.
• The volunteer who works continuously for three straight days as a parking attendant. Asked by O’Connor why he worked so hard without taking any breaks, he replies, “”You know…I come out here for three days. For 362 days a year, I enjoy a greater quality of life than the people we’re helping. I can come out here and help them for three days.”
• The food vendors who are not obligated to do so but still donate their profits to the foundation.

“The spirit continues to grow each year,” O’Connor said. “It’s a passion that seems to be spreading. We’ve created these agents who are out there spreading the word. What is enjoyable for me in this journey is to see other people pick up the idea and continue it and spread it so that other people can benefit.”

Ultimately, O’Connor would most enjoy realizing this BIG dream: ” I do have a picture in my mind that someday Travis is going to hit one over the Green Monster and run the bases. That fuels a lot of our interest in continuing this journey.”

Here’s a video from YouTube about Little Fenway and the annual tournament:

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Learn more about O’Connor and his field of dreams at www.LittleFenway.com.

Learn more about Travis Roy and his foundation at www.travisroyfoundation.org.

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Bold, innovative and generous people like Pat O’Connor are in every corner of America. We want to find them, celebrate them, and connect them with you. We plan to connect with and honor BIG people in every corner of America.

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