By Adam Stewart
From the Newsroom
Last Wednesday, I got a text that I hated to read. That isn’t uncommon during election season, but this one was different. A friend texted to tell me that a shared friend, Darrin Regier, passed away.
Lots of people in Hutchinson knew Darrin from his 31 years of work with the Hutchinson YMCA, particularly with youth sports. That is how I originally met Darrin during my time at another publication.
But I got to know him better through the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative. Darrin lived in the Farmington Park Neighborhood and was an early supporter of bringing the neighborhood together. He was an essential part of neighborhood picnics, putting his YMCA experience to good use, organizing games and activities for kids, while other organizers grilled and served food.
Darrin also advocated for improvements to the neighborhood’s namesake park, which has been transformed over the past four years. Without his advocacy, I don’t know if the park would have gotten the full-size basketball court that is one of the park’s most popular features now. Darrin knew how important a basketball court was for the park, because he often gave neighborhood kids permission to play basketball on his driveway.
I admired Darrin. In my experience, he was a do-er: he would rather find a way to help, then do that, than spend a lot of time meeting and planning. That is such a great way to make a difference: answering the question, “What can I do now to improve things?” and acting on it. Do that a few times in a row, and you get momentum going in the right direction.
And I know my experience with Darrin only scratched the surface of his positive effect on our community. He spent decades providing opportunities for kids in Hutchinson. That sort of thing makes a big difference—not just the availability of youth sports programs, but the longevity and consistency. For a full generation of Hutchinson kids, Darrin was a steady, reliable presence in youth sports.
I interviewed Darrin this spring for a story about him joining the McPherson YMCA as senior program director. He was excited and having enough fun that he was reconsidering how soon he wanted to retire. That makes his sudden passing even more difficult for me to process.
Hutchinson is better because Darrin was part of the community for so long. I hope that memories of him will bring more comfort than pain to his loved ones soon, but grieving is hard.
Adam Stewart is the assistant news editor of The Hutchinson Tribune. He can be reached at adam@hutchtribune.com.