Local family set to begin new mission in Uganda
John Hendler • August 14, 2021
In less than two weeks, Chelsea and Rocky Wray of Albion and their three young sons, Jackson, 8, Lucas, 6, and Caleb, 5, will be moving to the central African nation of Uganda as part of an extended mission trip that could last as long as 10 years.
Chelsea and Rocky will be helping local villagers in the city of Soroti (population just over 60,000) and its surrounding areas deal with substance abuse issues.
“The days are passing by very quickly,” said Chelsea. “We were saying a year or six months to go for so long it seemed. And now we are down to less than two weeks. It feels like a whirlwind.”
Rocky said with so much to be taken care of, they probably won’t be able to get all items checked off their to-do list.
“We can’t get everything done we want to get done,” he said. “We’ve been so busy.”
The duration of their Ugandan journey is still undetermined, but the Wrays said they know it will be for a significant amount of time.
“However long God has the work for us there, we’ll stay,” said Chelsea. “We first said we would go for a year and just see what we could do with that time. Then we said a year is not enough time. Then we said two years. It will probably be five to 10 years.”
Added Rocky: “In 10 years, our oldest will be 18, so we’ll see what happens then.”
How Uganda came onto Chelsea and Rocky’s radar goes back more than a decade.
In February 2011, the Watoto Children’s Choir, based in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, came to the area to perform.
“At that time, Rocky and I were working and our main goal in life was to have a flat screen TV,” said Chelsea. “We had been married about three years and most of the things we had were given to use or we bought used. So, we had a photo on our fridge of a flat screen TV and an envelope where we would put money in it if we sold something or got paid from a gardening job. That was it. That was our goal in life.”
One day, Chelsea received a call from her step-mother who told her she had this “amazing opportunity” for Chelsea and Rocky who were living in Marshall at the time.
“She told me that these orphaned children from Uganda were part of a children’s choir and they needed homes to stay in since a snowstorm had altered their plans, and that they were stopping in Marshall for three nights,” said Chelsea “ She asked us if we’d be willing to host two children and a chaperone. I was like, ‘No. That sounds crazy.’ I didn’t know these people and we had just gotten back from vacation. Our house was a mess, and we didn’t have any food.”
Rocky said he felt the same way.
“People from Africa wanted to come stay with us?” he remembered saying. “That was just weird.”
The couple figured somebody else would step up to host the children and chaperone, but then Chelsea started to have a change of heart.
“I called Rocky and told that I thought we could do it,” she said. “I called my step-mom back and told her okay. It was just for a few nights. She told me I’d need to pick them up in one hour in Marshall. An hour later we had Franco and Cyrus and Uncle Allen the chaperone. The boys were 8 and 10 years old and the chaperone was in his 20s. We hosted them for three days and they basically wrecked our world, in a good way.”
Allen was also an orphan in the program and was one of the first to graduate out of it.
“Their slogan was ‘Rescue, Raise, Rebuild,’” said Chelsea. “So, they rescued their own Ugandan kids, raised them up and were rebuilding their nation. They shared their stories with us, and they were heartbreaking. After spending that time with them, Rocky and I felt we wanted to go to Uganda and see what this was all about.”
Five and a half months later, Chelsea and Rocky, after raising, saving and earning $10,000 went on a mission trip to Uganda for three weeks.
Chelsea said she knew there was something special about Uganda the moment she and Rocky stepped off the plane.
“Uganda is called the pearl of Africa, and it’s this beautiful, lush green country and you can just smell the freshness in the air,” she said. “It was just amazing and refreshing. And now every time we step off the plane there, we breathe in and think, ‘Ah, Uganda.’ It smells so good…People are so happy to have us there. They tell us we are most welcome.”
That first visit planted the seed for what would be a decade-long love affair with the African nation.
“Watoto is an amazing, well-established organization,” said Chelsea. “We served in the Babies Home. They rescue these babies that have been abandoned, some just left on the side of the road. Such awful stories of all of these children…There were almost 200 children there.”
Following that three-week trip, Chelsea and Rocky agreed that they wanted more.
“That first trip was definitely more a ‘luxury’ mission trip,” said Chelsea. “Someone was serving us at our guest house, we only worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I told Rocky that we needed to go outside those walls. I wanted to see the village. I wanted to learn why babies were being abandoned. I wanted to go deeper.”
After that mission trip, the couple were hit with emotions they were not expecting.
“When you come back from a mission trip, you feel a lot of bitterness and anger about your own home country because of the wastefulness and things like that,” said Chelsea. “We didn’t have anyone to de-brief with so were stuck with all of these overwhelming feelings of what we saw or the stories we heard. We both agreed we needed to do more.”
Chelsea and Rocky contacted Uncle Allen and an Uncle Mike, and they helped the couple make a trip to Soroti, a four - to six- hour drive (depending on traffic) northeast of the capital.
“We said ‘okay!’ and jumped in full force,” said Chelsea. “We started a ministry, Aica (light in the native Ugandan language of Ateso) Ministries, had no clue what we were doing, and said, ‘there’s a need and we are going for it.”
The couple returned to Uganda in late 2012, with Chelsea pregnant with their first son, Jackson.
They stayed for a month.
“We started doing different empowerment projects and things like that,” said Chelsea. “Rocky is the social worker and I am the organized admin side, so I do all the things here to prepare and once we arrive there, he thrives in his element.”
After Jackson was born, Rocky went to Uganda by himself. Chelsea then went to Uganda with Jackson when he was 5.
Their last trip to was Uganda in 2019.
Aica was in operation from late 2012 through 2016.
“There was some good done during that time, but we went in there uneducated on how to even help these people,” said Chelsea. “We kind of just jumped in with the ‘White Savior’ mentality…A fellow missionary asked us what made us unique. He wanted to know what made us different from everyone else. We couldn’t really think of anything that made us unique compared to what other people did. After that, there was a conviction there where we sought to find out what did make us unique. What exactly were we doing there?”
Throughout 2017-18,wWith Aica closed, Rocky said he and Chelsea felt they were at a standstill on Uganda.
“We didn’t know if we would ever go back,” he said. “We had three boys under age 3 essentially and taking them to Uganda seemed crazy.”
Then two years ago Chelsea said they should go back.
“At the end of 2018, I felt that God was telling me he still had plans for us to move to Uganda,” said Chelsea. “Then one day I told Rocky that ‘I think we’re supposed to move to Uganda. What do you think about this?’ He was in the middle of his master’s program in social work, and he said it didn’t sound like a good idea.”
Noted Rocky: “Even after I got my degree, that’s when I got a job through Catholic Charities working at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson as a substance abuse therapist. That was my dream job. I loved everything about it.”
With the timing not great, Chelsea said she left it in God’s hands to work everything out.
“I said ‘Okay, God, if this is what you’re calling us to, you will align Rocky and me- we can’t do this separately,’” she said. “I decided not to ask Him about it anymore. As time went by, I felt more sure that we were supposed to move to Uganda.”
Then a few months later, Chelsea asked Rocky what he thought about going to Uganda for just one year.
“He said, ‘Oh, yeah. I could do a year,’” said Chelsea. “We then met with Pastor Kris Tarkiewicz of Family Bible Church in Marshall who asked us some hard questions about if we were truly sure and in agreement about this.”
Convinced they were in agreement about Uganda, in July 2019, Chelsea and Jackson went to Uganda to get the process started.
“We didn’t have any agenda,” said Chelsea. “I just said, ‘Okay God. Just use us where we need to be used and show us what the next steps are…That trip was amazing. A lot of opportunities and doors opened, and we served alongside Uncle Mike who has a street children’s ministry called Saving Arms International.
Soon after, Rocky and Chelsea concluded they could do the most good by working the area of substance abuse.
“That’s where it really clicked for me,” said Rocky. “I knew that was the area I was supposed to go in.:
A big factor was Rocky’s sobriety. June 6 marked 14 years.
That date is celebrated in the family each year.
“It’s the biggest day to celebrate in our family,” said Chelsea. “Without his sobriety, we wouldn’t be married, we wouldn’t have our children. He may not even be here. So, it’s a big deal for us.”
And that’s a big reason they want to help others in Soroti.
“They don’t know what to do with people who are struggling with addiction,” said Chelsea. “They don’t have resources, so they’re treated like trash. Oftentimes they are treated as a lost cause with mental health issues and are turned away from churches and other community places. Nobody is helping them.”
Rocky said focusing on substance abuse can make a huge difference.
“Generally, if someone has a substance abuse problem, there’s other issues they feel that trump that problem like food, family, housing,” he said. “When in reality, if they took care of the substance abuse problem first, it would help the other areas.”
In preparing for their move to Uganda, Rocky and Chelsea have started a “partnership” with people in the community.
“Our partners are anybody and everybody,” said Rocky. “Most of the partners are friends, family and church family.”
Added Chelsea: “Or word of mouth. We have a lot of people that we don’t even know who have started to partner with us.”
They have partnered up with Cord Ministries to help gather resources to deal with substance abuse.
“They (Cord) basically deal with what they call ‘misfit missionaries,’” said Chelsea. “They don’t fit in a specific box. They take on contractors, like us, and they are able to serve as mentors for us. They provide support to us in many areas but the biggest one is accountability, managing our finances, etc. We have a specific mentor we can connect with at any time with any questions we have.”
With less than two weeks before departure, Chelsea said they are almost to their partnership goal (81%, $745 to go) and shared their progress and made an appeal on social media:
What is monthly partnership? These funds are used to support our family on the mission field and our ministry. As missionaries, we are responsible for raising our own funds. If you partner with us, you are helping to fund:
- Rent and utilities for our family's home and office
- Food for our family and feeding those during ministry outreaches
- Phone/internet for our home and ministry
- Basic necessities needed for our family
- Medical insurance and emergency care for our family
- Ministry programs and events
- Ministry administrative costs (postage, printing, supplies, etc.)
- Vehicle expenses (personal and ministry)
When you partner with us you will receive a prayer magnet with a puzzle piece that goes to this puzzle pictured below. We will have the same puzzle in our home with your name on the back of a piece (or pieces). This will serve as a daily reminder to our family of the partnership, love and support we have back home.
“We need 45 more pieces to our puzzle to be completely funded for monthly partnership,” said Chelsea, who noted that the $25 monthly partnership is tax deductible.
“You can set as recurring as well to make it even easier,” said Chelsea, who added that people can follow their journey on their ministry Facebook page, Wrays in Uganda.
There is also a blog/website: Wraysinuganda.org and an email address:Wraysinuganda@gmail.com.
To view the video on Wray Family Ministries, go to https://vimeo.com/537739824/411502ba13.
Chelsea said this mission is what the family is meant to do.
“We are going to glorify God,” she said. “It’s for His kingdom – it’s not about us. It’s about Him. It took us 10 years to get to that place. We definitely had a lot of spiritual maturing to do to get to this point and will continue.”
Get to know MPS Superintendent Becky Jones as she looks ahead to the new school year Marshall Public Schools Superintendent Becky Jones said she has always had a passion for wanting to work in education. Even though her master’s degree is in business from Spring Arbor University, Jones originally went to school at Eastern Michigan University to be a special education teacher when she was an undergraduate before making the switch to the business field. “I always wanted to work in some sort of line in education and be a part of the school system,” Jones said. “My aunt was a special education teacher in an early childhood role and she worked for Jackson ISD. That was part of the reason why I wanted to go to school to be a special education teacher when I started. I ended up changing and I’m not 100% sure why I changed, but it’s interesting that I ended up into the system in the career path of doing that.” After Jones graduated from EMU, she landed a job in Jackson as a business manager for a construction company before being hired at Jackson County Intermediate School District in business operations. Jones has been in the school system ever since her time at Jackson County ISD before coming over to Marshall Public Schools, where she served as the director of business operations for the district for eight years. Jones said the relationships she built over the eight years in that role has helped her transition into the superintendent role. “I think with how I am as a leader and how I am as a person, I like to build a lot of personal relationships,” said Jones. “So I think that’s just something that has come natural for me over the eight years, I’ve just always built really good relationships with the people that I work with. I care about the people, I care about families, I care about our students. It didn’t seem unnatural for me to fill into the role of interim, because it was something I wanted to do.” Jones was appointed interim superintendent in May 2021 after the departure of former Superintendent Randy Davis. After eight months, the Marshall Public Schools Board of Education unanimously agreed to hire Jones into the permanent role. When reflecting on when she officially was hired into the permanent role, Jones commended the many who have supported her during the process and said she feels honored to now be serving in the role. “I think that educating people’s children and educating our youth is a very important role,” said Jones. “It’s an honor and a blessing in how I look at it.” Jones added that she is driven and inspired by being able to serve two communities, being students and families in both Marshall and Albion. “When I look at the district as a whole, I look at it as serving two communities,” Jones said. “Obviously we have an interesting history as a school system with bringing Albion into the system and serving both Albion and Marshall. That to me alone, just having the two communities that we get to serve, is a wonderful thing. Both communities have a lot to offer when you look at it. There are a lot of great people, leaders and businesses that are really supportive of the school system and really supportive of our kids. That’s one of the many benefits of this role.” Jones added she is also inspired by being able to serve the students as a whole and being able to interact with them and the teachers who are involved in their learning development. “Also the kids and the interaction with the kids. We get to go out to buildings and interact with the kids and interact with the teachers,” Jones added. “We have a wonderful staff in the district. When I look at the role, I don’t look at it as a superintendent role, I look at it as ‘I get to work with these amazing people who work for Marshall Public Schools and I get to meet all of these wonderful community members.’” In a March article from the Battle Creek Enquirer, former Board President Richard Lindsey acknowledged Jones played a key role in the annexation of the Albion School District and Marshall Public Schools in 2016. Jones further explained how she was involved in that process. “I walked alongside Dr. Davis when annexation happened,” she said. “I sat in all the meetings, went through all the financials and worked on all those things and what it would look like. So I was right alongside working through the annexation piece of it. Through annexation, there were a lot of people that care about both communities and about wanting to make sure that all of our kids have equal opportunity and equal access to good education. To me, in my eyes, that’s the one thing that matters, is equal access to kids for education.” As superintendent, there are both challenges ahead for Jones along with some things that she is excited about in terms of plans the district is implementing going into the school year. “I’m really excited about our strategic plan,” Jones said. “I think it’s really important for organizations to have a vision for what they are working towards. And I think that we’ve clearly written out what our vision is as an organization. I’m really looking forward to putting that in place.” As far as challenges go, Jones brought up being able to educate students in a post-pandemic world and focusing on providing support for students and families on what they need to further their education in light of all the disruptions that took place in schools during the past two years. “I think we still have a lot of challenges post pandemic when we’re looking at children and we’re looking at education,” Jones said. “We as a district need to sit down and focus on where our kids are at and where we need our kids to be in terms of education. So, I think for this year it’s really going to be a huge focus on what support we can give our families and the things we can do to really get our kids educated and where they need to be in a post pandemic world.” Another challenge in Jones’ eyes is how to put a new bond on the table and how to get community members to support one this time around. Last November, a $45.6 million bond was voted down by a 2 to 1 margin. She also mentioned the school’s sinking fund millage that she said will be on the ballot for voters this November. “We have $75 million worth of needs,” said Jones. “We obviously had a failed bond attempt and those needs haven’t gone away. So we’re going to have to go back out to the community in looking at a bond and (figure out) what we need to do. We need to sit down and talk about where we’re at with that. Another thing is with our sinking fund millage. That is set to expire and we’re going to be putting a renewal on the November ballot. It is a renewal but it’s not going to be worded as a renewal, because we’re going to add in security and technology services for that. So we’re really going to have to get out there and communicate effectively with the communities about that.” When Jones’ time is done at MPS, whenever that may be, she said she just hopes for both communities to look at the school district and be proud of what it represents. “I want both communities to be proud of their school system,” she said. “I want Marshall Public Schools serving both Marshall and Albion communities and for it to be a choice district for those communities. I want them to be proud of the work we do here and how we educate their kids.”
Get to know MPS Superintendent Becky Jones as she looks ahead to the new school year Marshall Public Schools Superintendent Becky Jones said she has always had a passion for wanting to work in education. Even though her master’s degree is in business from Spring Arbor University, Jones originally went to school at Eastern Michigan University to be a special education teacher when she was an undergraduate before making the switch to the business field. “I always wanted to work in some sort of line in education and be a part of the school system,” Jones said. “My aunt was a special education teacher in an early childhood role and she worked for Jackson ISD. That was part of the reason why I wanted to go to school to be a special education teacher when I started. I ended up changing and I’m not 100% sure why I changed, but it’s interesting that I ended up into the system in the career path of doing that.” After Jones graduated from EMU, she landed a job in Jackson as a business manager for a construction company before being hired at Jackson County Intermediate School District in business operations. Jones has been in the school system ever since her time at Jackson County ISD before coming over to Marshall Public Schools, where she served as the director of business operations for the district for eight years. Jones said the relationships she built over the eight years in that role has helped her transition into the superintendent role. “I think with how I am as a leader and how I am as a person, I like to build a lot of personal relationships,” said Jones. “So I think that’s just something that has come natural for me over the eight years, I’ve just always built really good relationships with the people that I work with. I care about the people, I care about families, I care about our students. It didn’t seem unnatural for me to fill into the role of interim, because it was something I wanted to do.” Jones was appointed interim superintendent in May 2021 after the departure of former Superintendent Randy Davis. After eight months, the Marshall Public Schools Board of Education unanimously agreed to hire Jones into the permanent role. When reflecting on when she officially was hired into the permanent role, Jones commended the many who have supported her during the process and said she feels honored to now be serving in the role. “I think that educating people’s children and educating our youth is a very important role,” said Jones. “It’s an honor and a blessing in how I look at it.” Jones added that she is driven and inspired by being able to serve two communities, being students and families in both Marshall and Albion. “When I look at the district as a whole, I look at it as serving two communities,” Jones said. “Obviously we have an interesting history as a school system with bringing Albion into the system and serving both Albion and Marshall. That to me alone, just having the two communities that we get to serve, is a wonderful thing. Both communities have a lot to offer when you look at it. There are a lot of great people, leaders and businesses that are really supportive of the school system and really supportive of our kids. That’s one of the many benefits of this role.” Jones added she is also inspired by being able to serve the students as a whole and being able to interact with them and the teachers who are involved in their learning development. “Also the kids and the interaction with the kids. We get to go out to buildings and interact with the kids and interact with the teachers,” Jones added. “We have a wonderful staff in the district. When I look at the role, I don’t look at it as a superintendent role, I look at it as ‘I get to work with these amazing people who work for Marshall Public Schools and I get to meet all of these wonderful community members.’” In a March article from the Battle Creek Enquirer, former Board President Richard Lindsey acknowledged Jones played a key role in the annexation of the Albion School District and Marshall Public Schools in 2016. Jones further explained how she was involved in that process. “I walked alongside Dr. Davis when annexation happened,” she said. “I sat in all the meetings, went through all the financials and worked on all those things and what it would look like. So I was right alongside working through the annexation piece of it. Through annexation, there were a lot of people that care about both communities and about wanting to make sure that all of our kids have equal opportunity and equal access to good education. To me, in my eyes, that’s the one thing that matters, is equal access to kids for education.” As superintendent, there are both challenges ahead for Jones along with some things that she is excited about in terms of plans the district is implementing going into the school year. “I’m really excited about our strategic plan,” Jones said. “I think it’s really important for organizations to have a vision for what they are working towards. And I think that we’ve clearly written out what our vision is as an organization. I’m really looking forward to putting that in place.” As far as challenges go, Jones brought up being able to educate students in a post-pandemic world and focusing on providing support for students and families on what they need to further their education in light of all the disruptions that took place in schools during the past two years. “I think we still have a lot of challenges post pandemic when we’re looking at children and we’re looking at education,” Jones said. “We as a district need to sit down and focus on where our kids are at and where we need our kids to be in terms of education. So, I think for this year it’s really going to be a huge focus on what support we can give our families and the things we can do to really get our kids educated and where they need to be in a post pandemic world.” Another challenge in Jones’ eyes is how to put a new bond on the table and how to get community members to support one this time around. Last November, a $45.6 million bond was voted down by a 2 to 1 margin. She also mentioned the school’s sinking fund millage that she said will be on the ballot for voters this November. “We have $75 million worth of needs,” said Jones. “We obviously had a failed bond attempt and those needs haven’t gone away. So we’re going to have to go back out to the community in looking at a bond and (figure out) what we need to do. We need to sit down and talk about where we’re at with that. Another thing is with our sinking fund millage. That is set to expire and we’re going to be putting a renewal on the November ballot. It is a renewal but it’s not going to be worded as a renewal, because we’re going to add in security and technology services for that. So we’re really going to have to get out there and communicate effectively with the communities about that.” When Jones’ time is done at MPS, whenever that may be, she said she just hopes for both communities to look at the school district and be proud of what it represents. “I want both communities to be proud of their school system,” she said. “I want Marshall Public Schools serving both Marshall and Albion communities and for it to be a choice district for those communities. I want them to be proud of the work we do here and how we educate their kids.”
In February of 1921, while what would eventually become the Marshall Country Club was being organized, 70 acres on the south shore of Lyon Lake was purchased for the golf course. That summer was spent by members raking stones, tearing down fences and leveling off and cleaning land while Harold C. Brooks, the club’s first president, hired golf architect Tom Bendelow of Chicago to help design the course. The following year, Brooks erected the club house that was planned by his architect friend Howard Young of Kalamazoo. A breezeway connected the club house with a pro shop and the country club was up and running. There have been a few changes made to Marshall Country Club over time, including the course being renovated into an 18-hole course from a nine-hole course in 1972. But 100 years later, the country club is still serving area golfers, with numerous events on tap as MCC celebrates its centennial year. Director of Communications Nancy Card said she believes Marshall Country Club’s ability to adapt over time has allowed the golf course to stay open even during ever-changing times. “It (country clubs) used to be much more formal,” said Card. “It used to be the ‘good ol' boys club.’ It used to be a high stakes kind of a thing. And now, through the evolution of all of these years, it’s interesting to me to see how creative we’ve had to become in order to continue to operate in the new world. It’s so different and we can’t operate like we used to back then. Just watching the changes and the evolution and how things have made us who we are today, that’s very important. And it’s so exciting to see how people are consumed with this. They really love our country club.” According to a 2019 article from Business Insider , country club memberships dropped 20% from 1990 to 2014. The number of clubs are also diminishing, as there were over 5,000 member-owned full-service golf and country clubs in the U.S., according to the article. By 2017, that number had fallen to about 3,900. MCC used to be a strictly private country club, but over time has morphed into a quasi-private, quasi-public course, with a restaurant, Lyon Lake Grill, that is open to the public. Feef Dillon, a member of the centennial celebration committee, said offering a warm environment has been one of the main keys to making the country club a successful operation. “I think we have to have a welcoming environment that welcomes all walks of life,” said Dillon. “Female, low and high income, we have to make it affordable for people to want to be here and make it worth their while and offer activities that are appealing to people. Long gone are the days where you could write off your country club membership. It used to be that companies would foot the bill. That’s no longer the case. Now we have to find ways (to gain members) and the relationships make it happen.” Tom Duffey, an MCC Board member and past club president, added it’s not only the friendships that are created, but the community environment that has made the country club a special place for him and many others. “This is a great place for family activities,” Duffey said. “We have both Marshall golf teams here, Homer golf teams, Albion College, Olivet College. I brought my kids out to play and now I’m bringing my grandkids out to play. It’s just a friendly, nice place to bring kids. You’ll see a bunch of kids out here hitting balls. It’s just a nice place to come out to.” The COVID-19 pandemic brought tough times to many businesses across the country, and MCC was no exception. House Manager Sarah Coco has been at MCC for four years and said while there have been some difficult times to get through, she did not ever want to leave because of her passion for the country club and seeing how much it matters to so many people she interacts with. “This is my first time working at a country club and it is different than any other restaurant, bar or hospitality place that I’ve ever worked at,” said Coco. “It was pretty challenging during COVID in that situation to get creative with how to be open, how to serve the members. It was a struggle, a huge struggle. You kind of step back and think ‘why am I doing this? You could go anywhere right now and get a job.’ But for me, I can’t do that because this place just means so much to so many people that it becomes special to you.” Vicki Knickerbocker, another member of the centennial celebration committee and MCC member said the country club is special to her in many ways, from building friendships to simply giving her and her husband a hobby. “I think it’s very important for both myself and my husband because it gives us something to do,” Knickerbocker said. “We could be working in our yard or doing something (else), but we’re outside and it’s beautiful out here. My husband is out here (frequently). I’m here maybe a couple days a week, but if it wasn't here where (would we be)?” To date, MCC has held monthly celebrations to honor its centennial year. On Aug. 13, two golf tournaments and a dinner will be held at the country club. The first tournament of the day is for current and past members only and will begin at 8:30 a.m., while the second tournament—a four-person scramble, is open to anyone and is set for an approximate 1:30 p.m. start time. Both tournaments have limited spots available. The centennial dinner is open to the public and tickets are currently on sale. Anyone interested in purchasing tickets can contact MCC. There will also be a raffle drawing that event organizers hope will be held that night, where ticket holders will have a chance to win a variety of prizes, with the top prize being a free membership to the country club. MCC will conclude its celebrations on Oct. 1 with “100 years of fun” and standup comedian Dave Dyer, an event that will also be open to the public. “We want people to know that we are celebrating, why we are celebrating and that we invite them to come and celebrate with us,” Card said.
Jerry Sacharski was a recreation league director in Albion who pioneered T-ball as an organized youth sport in 1956 because he couldn’t stand to turn away young children with the desire to play baseball. Sacharski passed away in February of 2009, but his memory has lived on, which was apparent on June 25 when well over 100 community members came together at Tee-Ball Garden in Albion, where a new T-ball statue and historic plaque was unveiled under the leadership of the Restore Our Coke Sign: Bring Art and History Downtown campaign team. Many of Sacharski’s former players and their families were present to celebrate the event, along with members of the Sacharski family, including Jerry’s three sons—David, Michael and William. Following the ceremony, current T-ball players played a short game in Victory Park near Hannah Street, which was followed by an “Old-Timers” game. John Sims, one of Sacharski’s former players who spoke at the ceremony, expressed appreciation for his former coach and the impact he left on him and many others who played for him growing up. “I go down to that field and I can see him (Sacharski),” Sims said. “I think everyone who played “pee-wee” ball with him remembers him. We have very few people in our lives as young people who make a mark like that. I’m 70 years old and I still remember that guy with very great kindness. He was good to us.” Sims also cited a 1960 T-ball exhibition game, when Sacharski took him and other pee wee players to Michigan State University to put the sport on display in front of a TV audience as the game was videotaped by a local television station. In 2000, the video was accepted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. Sacharski was also a teacher with Albion Public Schools for nearly three decades. His son David said his father was great at teaching the fundamentals of the game and brought his teaching qualities to the baseball field. “My dad wanted the kids to learn the fundamentals of baseball while playing T-ball, which was sometimes called pee wee ball,” said David. “Notice the word ‘fun’ in fundamentals. He wanted the kids to have fun and at the same time, learn basic skills. Being a teacher, he made T-ball a classroom activity on grass.” William, another of the three Sacharski sons, said he was one of the original 60 T-ball players in Albion. He remembers the summer of 1956 when “everything changed” in terms of how the game of baseball was played when he was a young boy. “The whole game that we played changed,” said William. “As a 7-year-old kid, we actually got to go up to bat and we actually got to hit the ball (instead of getting walked or striking out). You could take a stance and that ball was sitting there on the tee and you could just kind of drive through it. There were no free passes, there were no strikeouts. Every play, something happened. Just like Dave said, after a while, your fundamentals and your skills (improve) because you’re not standing around.” Michael is the oldest of the Sacharski boys and said he was an umpire during the first T-ball game in June of 1956. He thanked everyone who showed up to the event and commended all who helped his father make the sport successful. He told a story about his father after Jerry retired from school teaching when he was in Hawaii that embodied the type of person and coach Jerry was. “I think the second spring he was there, he ambled up to the park that was near our home, because they were staying in our home,” Michael said. “And he ambled up in the park, and in Hawaii they have springtime youth baseball. He was sitting around on a picnic table watching how teams were practicing on the various fields and he did that a few times. Finally, one of the coaches of one of the teams—the players would have been T-ball players here, but they had (the pitcher) throw the ball, they don’t hit it off the tee—the coach said ‘I’ve seen you here, do you know anything about baseball? Would you like to help coach?’ And he said ‘yes, I will do that.’ The name of the team was the Padres, and they were already 0-3 and by the end of the season, they were I think about 12-3 and took the championship. He never told anybody who he was or where he came from. And to this day, the coaches, the players, the parents—have no idea who this guy was.” Janet Domingo and Linda Kolmodin lead the Coca-Cola team and led the effort for the new plaque and statue at the Tee-Ball Garden. The garden is a cooperative venture with the Calhoun County Land Bank and Albion Community Foundation. Money was raised for these art installations and additional landscape improvements through a matching Patronicity campaign through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, according to a press release that ran in the ad-visor in the June 25 edition. Donated funds were held by an Albion Community Foundation. Other completed projects included the iconic Coca-Cola sign restoration and the new Malleable Mural celebrating Albion’s long foundry history. “This is the completion of our three (main) projects,” said Domingo. “Many years ago, when I was working at the hospital, I made a video about Albion. I named it, ‘Small Town, Big Heart.’ Well, the town’s a bit smaller (now), but it hasn’t changed. As a result of a very successful campaign, we were able to continue with our goal to bring art and history downtown. We’re not quite done yet. We have a couple other small projects in the works. Thanks again to everyone and to everyone who supported us.”
