Public information officers keep everyone in the know

Shelly Sulser • August 17, 2020

When reduced water pressure or a water valve replacement leads to a boil water advisory, the public knows about it.


When a new sheriff was appointed in March, word went out.


When someone has a zoning issue, needs a building permit or answers about potholes, they look at the city or the county websites.
And, when the first COVID-19 patient was identified in Calhoun County on March 13, two days after the disease was declared a global pandemic, word went out to the public about the new, uncharted situation and how to best avoid the virus.


Arming people with information they can use to protect themselves has been the number one job of Calhoun County Communications Manager Lucy Blair, Calhoun County Public Health Department Health Educator Kristin McDermott (since changed jobs) and city of Battle Creek Communications Manager Jessica Vanderkolk since their offices, the schools and the state of Michigan shifted to crisis mode.


From maintaining the websites, to creating the press releases, slideshows, YouTube videos and graphics, to setting up AccessVision announcements and Zoom public meetings, Blair and VanderKolk, and for most of the pandemic response, McDermott, have used mutli-media methods to reach everyone who needs to know the status of the current situation.


Below is a Q&A with both Blair and Vanderkolk.

Lucy Blair:

What is your job title, how long have you worked there and what was your understanding of what it would be like when you took the position? Did any of your prior experience or training prepare you for this situation? What did you do before you started working at the county? 


“My job title is Communications Manager for Calhoun County Government, and I have been in this role for two years.  


“Since starting, my priorities have been to streamline how the county shares information, improve our website, and help departments with outreach.  


“Before working for the county I was social media strategist for Herman Miller in Grand Rapids, which was very different than this job.  


“I also worked in communications for Northern Michigan University for a half dozen years in some capacity, and that prepared me some for crisis communications.” 



What did your job entail before the pandemic? Can you describe how you became aware of what you needed to do and how to do it? Please explain how it all played out as far as you becoming aware of your adapted role. 


“What strikes me now is how little we realized this would impact our everyday lives in early March.  


“The county was proactive about having the Board of Commissioners approve a policy that would allow the Administrator to make decisions quickly in response to a public health crisis, so we knew it was coming and made proactive decisions to protect employees. 


 “But I don't think we could have predicted how much COVID response would become part of what we do every day.  


“When we did our first virtual Board of Commissioners meeting in April, we hoped it would be the only one. 


 “We're still having virtual BOC meetings in July. 


“As Public Information Officer, my job was not to strategize or develop our response, my unique role was to get the word out. 


 “To write the content, answer questions, and have the full story. 


“I wanted to make sure the public knew basically as much as I did. This is a confusing and ever-changing situation, there is a lot of grey area, and I don't trust Facebook as a primary source;  


“Therefore, I have the responsibility to ensure accurate and digestible government information can be found easily.” 



How has your job changed, with examples, and I would ask for some insight about how it all goes together behind the scenes, how many extra hours you've had to put in, any out of the ordinary situations where, say, you had to get up at 2 a.m. to work on something. 


“There wasn't lack of work and for many weeks I felt like I was waking up solely to my job: Go to sleep, then wake up to do another day of the JOC. 


“It's just me and my dog and we weren't supposed to leave our homes—I appreciated that I had work to distract me.  


“I've always been one to work extra hours to get the work done, so what was so wild about the situation wasn't necessarily the amount of work that needed to be done but being home while doing it.  


“In our work and with my coworkers, I felt the intensity of a community crisis but I was helping with it from my living room. That was bizarre.


”
How do you decide among the three of you how to disseminate info? Had you ever worked together before and how do you all decide how to move forward? Who creates the JIC slides? Sets up the meetings? Maintains the websites and Facebook pages? 


“I mentioned that one of my priorities before the pandemic was to streamline how the county communicates, and I'm glad that some of those tools were helpful in JOC communications—our Constant Contact email system allowed people to sign up right on our website, and the county's seriously-improved website went live a couple weeks before Calhoun County's first COVID-19 case.  


“We mostly leaned on whatever communications infrastructure we had in place, both the city and county, to get out whatever information we could.  


“I have worked with Jessica on quite a few projects in the past; she's been a mentor to me since I started and I've really valued her insight into government communications, which is a special beast. 


 “Working with her on the JOC has been proof-positive that we're powerhouses when we work together. I appreciate how passionate we both are about what we do—the job we will be done to the best of our abilities, and we both seek to do better.”  



What else do you do that we might not know about? Please help us understand the demands of your daily work. 


“The key way that people can engage and stay up-to-date with the Joint Operations Center are the Joint Information Center briefings, which we send via email blast now once a week, and more often as necessary.  


“Anyone can sign up for those emails at the county website calhouncountymi.gov. 


“Every day, I update the calhouncountymi.gov Alert page with our COVID-19 numbers (positive cases [580 as of 11 a.m. July 20], total hospitalizations [96 as of 11 a.m. July 20], current hospitalizations [7 as of 11 a.m. July 20], released isolation [451 as of July 20] and quarantine orders [607 as of July 20], and total deaths [38 as of July 20]) and three-times a week, I update the cumulative data page with demographic information and a current epidemiological curve.  


“The City of Battle Creek website has thorough language resources for our various communities, as well as all communications that were sent.  


“This is what we're doing currently—our communications response has varied in size based on need and severity of the situation. That will continue to be the case.”   



What would you like the public to know about the Unified Command Team, and, how did they know what to do in response to this unexpected event? 


“I want to acknowledge that this isn't over. The UCT is closely monitoring hospitalizations, as well as all COVID numbers reported in our County by the Public Health Department. I imagine if we hit certain benchmarks in hospitalizations especially, we'll restart daily meetings. The UCT, and the PIOs in our role of delivering the information to folks, will continue to show up for this challenge and do what's necessary to keep with the JOC's mission, to save lives and mitigate suffering.”

Jessica Vanderkolk:

How long have you worked there and what was your understanding of what it would be like when you took the position? Did any of your prior experience or training prepare you for this situation? What did you do before you started working at the city?


 “I've worked here for 6.5 years (it'll be 7 in early December). Before that, I was a newspaper reporter for 10 years in Michigan and Pennsylvania.  


“My last reporting job was covering local governments in the region (in Central Pennsylvania). I loved that job, and learning about the processes and stories of the governments I covered.  


“That certainly set up my interest in my job here in Battle Creek.  


“To be honest, I don't remember anymore what I thought the job itself would be like, but I often still feel like a reporter, telling the city's story to our community, and beyond. 



What did your job entail before the pandemic? Can you describe how you became aware of what you needed to do and how to do it? Please explain how it all played out as far as you becoming aware of your adapted role. 


“Generally speaking, I manage the city's social media, coordinate media relations, write press releases/remarks/city publications and other messages (including internal messages), create photos and video, help plan events and special projects, help with our language access work, help manage our website, and serve as the city's Public Information Officer (PIO) among other related communications tasks. 


 “I do these things for the entire city organization. Because serving as PIO is regularly part of my job, I have served in this capacity before -- for example, during the large water main breaks in recent years. 


 “Certainly, we also had guidance from our leadership as we entered into the formal Joint Operations Center structure. 


 “But this is part of my job, and I have trained in emergency communications and the Incident Command System structure, so I generally know what to do.” 
 



How has your job changed, with examples, and I would ask for some insight about how it all goes together behind the scenes, how many extra hours you've had to put in, any out-of-the-ordinary situations where, say, you had to get up at 2 a.m. to work on something. 


“Like others in the community who are part of the COVID-19 response, a large part of my job has been focused on the pandemic since March.  


“I also have worked remotely since late March, shortly after city buildings closed to the public.  


“I occasionally work at the office, but mostly I am stationed at home. As much of my work happens at my computer, this was not a huge adjustment.  


“Communications is a career with often long and odd hours; the difference is that more of those hours have required crisis response work. 


 “I'm also the parent to an elementary-aged child, so we have worked at home together, and I am used to working early and late around my child's hours. I am fortunate that my career offers some of that flexibility. 


“I wouldn't say I've had an atypical situation like you describe -- COVID has not required middle-of-the-night messaging work.  


“What is more atypical is the constant need to meet, discuss, and analyze our messaging.  


“It is important to us, as PIOs, to keep our messages as consistent as possible.  


“There is so much information about COVID out there, from a variety of reliable and unreliable sources.  


“We want to hold our place as the most reliable sources of information at the local level -- to that end, I hope readers will visit battlecreekmi.gov/coronavirus and calhouncountymi.gov.  


“Doing that with the public health information coming to us from federal and state sources can be a challenge, especially as new information becomes available. Because COVID-19 is new, information can change quickly and frequently. We do our best to keep up with that, and message the accurate information as we know it.” 



What is your direct public interaction like? How has the public received your messaging? Of all of your messaging efforts, do you know upon which ones the public relies/uses most? 


“My public interaction - especially now - mainly is through social media -- we are most active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Nextdoor. 


 “If you are asking how people's attitudes have been related to receiving our messages, it is understandably a mixed bag.  


“As we see across communities, this is a tough situation that most of us have never experienced - some people have lost their jobs, some are working at home for the first time, schools closed early.  


“There are so many new things we are navigating, and it is difficult and emotional.  


“So we hear agreement and positivity, frustrated reactions, but also a lot of silence, in terms of comments.  


“Watching the numbers of people our messages are reaching, I hope that means the community is receiving and understanding our messages.  


“I always encourage neighbors to reach out, if that is not the case. 


“I can tell you our battlecreekmi.gov/coronavirus web page has been in the top five viewed pages on our site since this started. 


 “On social media, videos draw big traffic -- like our City Hall video posted the weekend before we reopened to limited public hours.  


“Short tips about COVID are popular -- like wear a mask and social distance.  


“Testing information has been popular, as well as affected service information, like for our recreation programs and facilities, and trash/recycling/yard waste pickup. 


“Since early April, we also have recorded a variety of programs for AccessVision, via Zoom. 


 “The Unified Command Team has given two updates - on COVID information and, later, reopening.  


“We recorded an informational program from the law enforcement group, a program on mental health resources, and we recorded a wonderful youth perspective with City Commissioners Kaytee Faris and Lynn Ward Gray, and young leaders (and their program leaders) in the community.  


“In April, our first Unified Command program had the most views of any program, so we know we are reaching people there, and that is encouraging. Neighbors can view all of these programs on demand at accessvision.tv.” 



How do you decide among the three of you how to disseminate info? Had you ever worked together before and how do you all decide how to move forward? Who creates the Joint Information Center (JIC) slides? Sets up the meetings? Maintains the websites and Facebook pages? 


“We always send press releases and COVID-19/JOC updates from the county's Constant Contact account. 


 “It was already in use, and it has been easy for us to keep this format -- sign up at calhouncountymi.gov.  


“We created a JOC logo/letterhead, combined our email lists, and have used this method ever since.  


“The three of us did, and now the two of us, talk extensively, every day.  


“We talk about what we see on social media, what we see reported by our local media, and what is going on in the working groups in our community as part of the ongoing response. 


 “We are part of the leadership meetings to discuss what is happening in the community around COVID-19, and determine where messaging needs might be.  


“We all contribute to the writing, the graphic work (though Kristen was our expert there), and everything else. This is a true team response and collaboration.  


“We certainly have never worked together this closely or extensively. I feel fortunate to work with these two skilled, professional women on this response.  


“We all bring experiences and perspective to our work that jive well.  


“There is give and take, as with any project.  


“Personally, it helps me that we are a team; a crisis is tough enough to navigate by itself, and having a PIO team to brainstorm ideas, complete the work, and support each other is a huge benefit.  


“To that end, we all worked on the JIC presentation slides each week.  


“We have several staff members who help set up the meetings. As I do at any other time, I maintain the city website and social media, along with our other teammates who typically work as website and social media administrators and content creators.” 



What is the hardest part is of this whole situation? Please explain some examples of unique challenges. Like, I presume Zoom became a more important tool than ever before in your job? 


“Technology has played a great role in our local response. Remote meetings allow us to stay separate from each other, and still continue our conversations and work. It is nice to have video capabilities on these platforms, so we can at least see our colleagues.  


“Not seeing as many people in person is one of the pandemic's many challenges.” 



If you could get the public to understand and appreciate one thing about how the UCT has handled and is handling the local situation, what would it be? 


“Our local team has worked hard, and is doing its absolute best to receive, understand, and share the information coming to us from state and federal agencies about COVID-19, in ways that our community can understand.  


“We all want the best for Calhoun County, and I am proud of the incredible collaboration happening to make sure our local response protects the health and safety of our neighbors the best we can.”



 How did the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the Joint Operations Center (JOC), the Joint Information Center (JIC) and the workgroups get assembled...who took the lead on creating those structures and those responsibilities?  


“So all of this is part of the national standard for an organized response, and the leader in a response is the Incident Commander.  


“That typically would be one person. If the city was in charge of the response, for example, that would be Rebecca (Fleury,) as the city manager. 


“For COVID, a public health issue, Calhoun County and the City of Battle Creek (our largest city) decided our response would be most efficient and we could help our community the best by creating a Unified Command -- so this is an organized response by more than one agency. 


 “In the leadership role, we have Rebecca, as previously explained; (administrator) Kelli (Scott,) as the Calhoun County leader, and representative for the other municipalities across the county; and (health officer) Eric Pessel, as the health department leader. 


“The Joint Operations Center has a variety of roles as you expand out into the organizational chart of a response.  


“These include logistics, financial, and others. So the JOC brings that expanded team together, representing parts of the community that make sense for a particular response.  


“For us, as you've seen, that includes business (Chamber President Kara Beer and Battle Creek Unlimited CEO Joe Sobieralski), law enforcement (our PD, the sheriff's office, and other law enforcement around the county) and, of course, the other municipalities, among others.
 


“The expanded team members join the JIC when they have updates to provide to the community; not every work group has updates to share every week.  


“You might remember we have reduced our number of JOC meetings per week at this point, mainly for that reason. We adjust as the crisis requires. 


 “All municipal leaders are invited, and they provide updates to the JOC and JIC as they have information to share.” 

Former elementary school turned condominium one of private residences featured in 2022 Home Tour

By Seth Berry • September 10, 2022
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.”

‘I want both communities to be proud of their school system’

By Seth Berry • August 11, 2022
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.”

Marshall Country Club celebrating centennial year with multiple upcoming events

By Seth Berry • August 11, 2022
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.

Community gathers at Tee-Ball Garden in Albion for statue, plaque dedication

By Seth Berry • July 4, 2022
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.”
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