By Sue Moore
There are so few activities listed on the community calendar for January, it’s like the population of South County has dug in to a cave and doesn’t have plans to move out until spring. What we know to be true is that the many nonprofit organizations that typically sponsor events spend this time of year in planning for a break-out season soon to come.
The Vicksburg Chamber of Commerce is working on its annual chili cook-off to be held in March the community pavilion. That provides a fun time to see the neighbors and judge the best chili from local purveyors.
The Vicksburg Rotary Club on January 8 began rehearsals for Showboat, which will run in the first week of March. The director and head writer, Ken Franklin, was given the Golden Trowel Award by the Rotary District conference last fall, so now he once again will prove his magic touch with a bigger and better show than ever.
Boy Scouts Troop 251 is having big success in seeing six of its scouts earn their Eagle Scout honors in 2016-17 and have plans for their Court of Honor in January. This is huge to see so many earn this honor in one troop.
The announcement that there will be an artist domicile and event center in Schoolcraft opening in April is a big deal for Jamie and Windy Clark of Vicksburg. This should work in combination with the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center very nicely to draw even more artists to our communities and make the cultural aspects of living here even richer.
Plans are in the works for the Vicksburg Ladies Library Auxiliary to celebrate its 125th anniversary this spring. That is the literary side of the good life here along with the Schoolcraft Ladies Library Association that twice monthly puts on interesting, varied programs in their beautiful building.
The Vicksburg Downtown Development Authority is finalizing grants for façade improvements that will serve to spruce up the storefronts even more than what was done in 2016.
The Vicksburg Historical Society is gearing up for its second Battle of Sunset Lake as part of the exploration of the history of the Revolutionary War. A new location for the encampment will be announced in February.
If you are thinking fresh veggies and fruit, so is the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market board as it works on a strategic planning process that they hope will bring with it some new and innovative ideas for the market.
WMU’s Fans
It was heartwarming to see the successful season the WMU Bronco football team had in 2016. Their many fans from this area showed their affection by the thousands by traveling to the Cotton Bowl game in Arlington, TX. Too bad that P.J. Fleck is now history for WMU. There were also ten local members of the Bronco’s marching band who accompanied the team and had a terrific experience according to Raegan Soekarmoen who is a senior from Vicksburg playing trombone and leading his section. They had the experience of a lifetime, he said. “Words just could not describe it.”
Injuries
Last spring senior Blake Bales, suffering from a broken thumb, had to suspend his baseball play for part of the season, but discovered varsity golf was something he could do with the broken thumb. He went on to join the golf team at the state finals in Lansing. Then, after a successful 2016 football season (Bales caught 4/5 and scored 4 times), he learned he has a stress fracture of his right leg, and will be sitting the bench until mid-January. He has, however, discovered he can bowl on the varsity bowling team and maintain a 185 average.