By all accounts, Jerry Fourie was a great person, a great friend, a sensational father and a sincere husband.
When he passed December 16, 2022 at age 69 after a two-year battle with a rare form of leukemia, there remained a huge void in everyone who knew Jerry.
Being a fun-loving man with a larger-than-life personality, it’s no surprise that when his three adult daughters and wife decided to organize a walk for Jerry to celebrate his legacy, they didn’t. ‘had no problem getting people involved.
“We already have over 100 people,” Molly (Fourie) Calhoun said.
Molly, along with her sisters Gabrielle and Lauren, and their mother Michelle, wanted the walk to honor Jerry but also be a good time, which is what Jerry would have wanted.
The result: “Jerry’s Miles for Manhattans.”
It will take place on Saturday, December 16 at Ken Mercer Sports Park in Pleasanton. This is a tour around the entire park (three kilometers), starting and ending at Memorial Rock, a rock on which the names of people who pioneered youth sports in town are engraved.
Fourie will have his name engraved on the rock as a tribute to what he did for the youth of Pleasanton.
It promises to be an emotional day for family and friends. I know this first hand, because my father Harry also has his name engraved on the rock.
It’s now been a little over two years since we lost my father and we had a party at the rock. Being there and hearing the stories of each individual was something I will never forget.
It made me incredibly grateful to the people who gave so much of their time to make our childhoods better.
I know Michelle, Gabriel, Lauren and Molly will have these feelings on the day of the event. There will be a tinge of sadness, but mixed with the blessing of having had their father/husband help so many, it will leave a smile on their face.
The family established a scholarship fund in Jerry’s name with the Pleasanton Girls Softball League, an organization he supported for many years.
The Dec. 16 walk will include coffee and donuts and is free because it honors Jerry. After the event, which ends at 11 a.m., everyone is welcome at the Hop Yard Ale House where a portion of all beers purchased will go to the scholarship fund.
Since the Hop Yard was a favorite of Jerry’s, it’s the perfect place to wrap up the event. Molly had a great story about Hop Yard and her father.
“He was one of the people who ran the big PGSL tournament that was held every year at the Sports Park,” Molly said. “They had golf carts to travel between all the courses where the tournament was being held. At the end of the day, when people were trying to find the group, we would say, ‘They’re at Course H.’ for the Hop Yard, and you would find all the golf carts parked.
For more information about the event, please visit https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/Pleasanton/JerrysMilesforManhattans.
Women’s tennis player Amador wins NCS
For the second year in a row, Amador Valley tennis player Montana Parkinson-Lubold won the North Coast Section Division I women’s singles title in Pleasanton.
Top-seeded Parkinson-Lubold has not lost a match this year. In NCS, she opened with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Natalie Vale of Vintage, then followed with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Shreeya Sharma of American.
In the semifinals, she beat Maya Peav of Dublin 6-4, 7-6 (5), then knocked off Caroline Beard of Montgomery 7-5, 6-1 in the final to win the crown.
