Father: Emilie ‘would have been tickled pink’ about Ogden Raptors event
Robbie Parker, wife Alissa and daughters Madeline (in pants) and Samantha pose for a photo before throwing ceremonial first pitches at the Ogden Raptors game on Saturday, July 21, 2013. (BRIAN NICHOlSON/Special to the Standard-Examiner)
Robbie Parker and daughters Madeline (left) and Samantha prepare to throw a ceremonial first pitch at the Ogden Raptors game at lindquist Field in Ogden on Saturday. Robbie is the father of Sandy Hook victim Emilie Parker and once worked as the mascot for the Raptors.The Raptors are wearing pink jerseys bearing Emilie's name. Her favorite color was pink. (BRIAN NICHOlSON/Special to the Standard-Examiner)
Emilie Parker, 6, was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn. (Courtesy photo)
Robbie Parker and his daughters Madeline (in pants) and Samantha greet players in the dugout at the Ogden Raptors game at lindquist Field in Ogden, Saturday, July 20, 2013.Robbie is the father of Sandy Hook victim Emilie Parker and once worked as the mascot for the Ogden Raptors.(BRIAN NICHOlSON/Special to the Standard-Examiner)
Robbie Parker, wearing the Oggie suit, surprises his daughters Madeline, 5, and Samantha, 4, (right) after they raced him around the bases between innings at the Ogden Raptors game at lindquist Field in Ogden on Saturday.(BRIAN NICHOlSON/Special to the Standard-Examiner)
OGDEN — Robbie Parker strode out onto the field, halfway between the mound and home plate, two young blonde-haired daughters flanking him on either side. Splashed throughout the green grandstand surrounding him were seas of pink T-shirts, and the people wearing them rose to their feet and cheered with sun-stained mountains hanging in the sky beyond the rust-brick buildings in the background.
Parker’s youngest daughter, Samantha, 4, threw a ceremonial first pitch, and Madeline, 5, followed. Samantha bounced up and down, excitement clutching her. After heading back to the mound to throw his own first pitch, Parker knelt on the green grass and hugged his daughters. The crowd continued to cheer.
“That was really special,” Parker said. “I took them out and was practicing with them today.”
But this night was about the daughter who wasn’t there — the one who couldn’t throw a first pitch, the one who couldn’t be embraced in her father’s arms.
Emilie, 6, was killed last December in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took the lives of 26 people, 20 of them children, and the Ogden Raptors on Saturday were dedicating the night to her.
Ogden players wore pink jerseys — “Emilie” stitched on the back of each — and fans wore pink shirts. It was an appropriate scene for a night the Raptors dubbed “Pink the Park Night” in honor of Emilie’s favorite color.
“Excuse the pun, but she would have been tickled pink about it,” Parker said. “When we were trying to decorate her room when we bought our house, she wanted everything pink. My wife and I had to tell her, ‘Let’s do some other colors.’ To have everybody here kind of letting loose, having it this pink, she would have loved it, just loved it.”
Following the Parkers’ first pitches, the players played the game, and voices rumbled from the grandstand in a dull thunder when balls were hit deep.
But what happened on the field was secondary. More important was the chance for the Parkers, who had lived in Ogden before moving to Newtown, Conn., to feel the love that can only be felt in a hometown.
“When everything happened, there was support from all over the world,” Parker said. “But when you come home, and you get that kind of support from your hometown — even though you don’t know them, you share that place that’s near and dear to your heart — it means a lot.”
Added season-ticket holder Juliann Walker, who wore a light-pink shirt and expressed love for the Parkers, whom she’d never met: “We’ve been looking forward to this night all year.”
But the outpouring of love from the Raptors and their fans was not merely symbolic. The pink jerseys the players wore were set to be raffled off for $500 apiece after the game, with all proceeds going to the Emilie Parker Art Connection, the fund Parker and his wife, Alissa, had set up to honor their lost daughter.
Donations to the fund go to local artists and community art programs. Art had been how Emilie expressed herself, and the family wants to make sure others get to share her passion.
“That was an obsession for Emilie,” Parker said.
As wonderful as it was for Parker to feel the love of his hometown team — when he was younger he had even served as Raptors mascot, Oggie — and as pleasing as it was to see the stands packed full of pink, he still wakes up every day without Emilie, and that reality is still difficult.
But standing in the gray light of a hallway in the Raptors’ clubhouse, Parker recalled the fresh memory of the first pitches with Samantha and Madeline two hours before. That, he explained, is how he continues to make it through.
“When you look at my wife, and you look at my other two girls,” Parker said, “there’s no denying I’m still one of the most blessed people on the face of the Earth, so I don’t want to take that away from them. My family is still a family, and we’re still together.”