Michael Lancaster

What started as an idea for his son's Eagle Scout project, an outdoor ice hockey rink, has grown into a 20-acre sports park serving Eureka, Rexford, Trego, and Fortine in North Lincoln County. Michael Lancaster and his family founded the Eureka Youth Sports League to build it, and over the last seven years, Michael has personally led nearly every phase of construction.

He built the storage shed. He built the ice rink, running power and water lines and installing the lights himself. He built the roller rink, tying rebar and finishing concrete alongside the crew. He seeded and fertilized the soccer fields and installed three-quarters of a mile of sprinkler line. He supervised a Fish, Wildlife and Parks grant that paved a running and biking trail, negotiated the installation of four pickleball courts, and helped bring in a bike pump track. Every winter, he spends roughly 30 hours flooding the ice rink by hand, then plows it through the season.

The park is free to everyone. What was once a barren field now draws anywhere from a handful to hundreds of people on a given day, over 300 during soccer season alone. Michael has helped raise more than $300,000 for the project, partnering with Lincoln County, the Montana Department of Commerce, Fish Wildlife and Parks, local banks, and dozens of community volunteers along the way. The next project on his list: a playground and picnic area for the valley's youngest kids.

Before North Lincoln County had this park, families here had few outdoor options during the region's long winters. Michael's answer wasn't to wait for someone else to build one. It was to build it himself, one weekend and one grant application at a time.