Jim White seems too old to be jumping over fences and wrestling steers.

He seems too young to have Parkinson's disease.

But both things have become major parts of his life. White, 41, was scared by the latter into doing more of the former. The Fort Yates resident was working on a construction site when the shaking got to him about a year and a half ago. A week later he was laid up in the hospital with tremendous headaches, diagnosed with Parkinson's and worried he could no longer work the only job he knew.

He had almost completely given in to self-pity when he was struck by a revelation. He decided, on his 12th day in the hospital, that he hadn't been involved enough in his son's life. And he knew how to change that.

It was in the hospital in Bismarck that White came up with the idea of the Future Champions Rodeo Club. And it's been in the dirt corrals of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that he's put his idea to practice. More than 300 children from the reservation's eight districts have joined the club, which last summer held its first jackpot rodeo. Another rodeo followed, and White hopes to start regular rodeos in each district.

White's 8-year-old son, Jesse, gets to see a lot more of his old man now.

"I decided … to change my life around," White said in June. "My priority now is these kids. Somebody has to step in and show them the ropes."

- Tony Spilde