By Sue Moore
Evelyn Brockway was honored recently when the softball diamond in the high school sports complex was named for her. This honor was bestowed upon Brockway in recognition of the 41years she has spent running the bingo concession that has raised over $1 million for the Athletic Boosters organization and serves as their primary funding source.
Thanking Brockway for organizing the bingo games, first in Vicksburg and currently in Kalamazoo, Mike Roy, Vicksburg athletic director, said her dedication “serves as a testament to what the efforts of one individual can do for a community.”
Brockway started volunteering with bingo in 1973 when it was used to raise money for both the band and the athletic boosters, he said. When the band dropped out of the program, she and a few others kept it going.
“After a few years she was the only person responsible for running the program,” he said.
Over the years, state paperwork requirements increased, but Brockway continued to run the program 52 weeks a year, he said.
“Evelyn’s greatest contribution is not just in her incredible run of 41years of community service, but the results that were gained from her efforts during those years,” he said. “It is fair to say that she has been directly responsible for raising, conservatively, over $1 million for the kids in this community, which is why when you look at the equipment our teams have or the fields which they play upon, you will notice they have the best of everything available to them. This includes not having to ‘pay-to-play’ which many school systems are having to do.”
Brockway and a group of parents and Booster Club board members, were responsible for the construction of this high school softball complex, so it only made sense to acknowledge her lifelong commitment to sports in Vicksburg, by naming the softball field the Evelyn Brockway Softball Complex, Roy said.
Brockway has had other honors bestowed upon including being inducted into the Vicksburg Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
Brockway enjoyed watching her sons, John and Rick, play sports and then their children in turn participating in athletics. Her granddaughter, Olivia, a freshman, is an infielder this year on the softball team which won the Wolverine Conference East Division conference title.