For decades, there has been no formal recognition for Baseball Hall of Fame players born and raised in Teulon. Sherri Waluk sought to change that, and in recent weeks, her dream came true.
Waluk played baseball all her life in Teulon. Although she was not in the Baseball Hall of Fame herself, her teammate and friend Jean (Dack) Campbell is, and this made her realize that there was no acknowledgment of it in the town.
She set out on a mission to recognize Campbell’s accomplishment.
“I thought, you know what, I’m gonna do this. It’s just something I wanted to do for our town,” she said.
Waluk went onto the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame website and realized that Teulon had four other people who lived there who were inducted, too.
She went through all the procedures, getting the monument approved by the town and the South Interlake Planning District — even applying for a grant to cover the costs of building the recogni-tion piece.
Unfortunately, she never did get the grant, but an anonymous donor graciously gifted $5,000, cov-ering the costs so the project could get done.
After nearly a year of planning, there is finally a Baseball Hall of Fame monument at the east-end entrance into the park in Teulon. If you stop at the stop sign by the museum and art centre and look towards the west, you’ll see the monument.
“What I liked about the location is, right behind that sign is the Cardinals’ diamond, where both the Ledochowski’s played their fastball, and to the east is where we had our Courgette diamond where Jean played – I just thought that’s where it had to be,” said Waluk.
The monument recognizes Teulon’s five Hall of Fame baseball players, Campbell, George and Rod Ledochowski and Elizabeth and Michael Makowski.
“When they put it up, I almost started to cry because it’s like, ‘Wow, this is honouring all these people I knew well.’ I love baseball, and these people inspired me, too, and hopefully someday we can do that to our next generation,” Waluk said.
“For me, it’s just the icing on the cake. I’m 86, and I’m still alive to see this. It’s just a privilege. I’m very excited that they were able to put up this bulletin,” Campbell said.
Campbell started playing baseball when she was 10 years old and took off from there.
She started playing in softball tournaments for Warren, where she was coached by her father, Con-rad Dack, and Alex Stewart. When she was 16, she was invited to play junior ball in Winnipeg for the Elmwood Pats, and she jumped at the opportunity as they didn’t have a baseball team of that level where she lived.
Later, in 1957, she was recognized as one of the most valuable players in the greater Winnipeg jun-ior girls softball league and was a member of the all-star team. In 2002, she was voted into the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame in Portage la Prairie.
When Campbell retired from playing ball, she helped with coaching, trying to keep the sport in the community.
Children learn how to win, lose, and be a good sport when they are young, she said of the sport.
“I’m hopeful that something like this starting in the town will allow people to follow their dreams. I hope this will light up the ambition of young people and have more of them playing again.”
On Oct. 28, there will be an unveiling of the monument and a ceremony to commemorate the play-ers. Waluk said she plans to get Mayor Todd Campbell, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman MP James Bezan, former Lakeside MLA Ralph Eichler, and any available family members of the players to come down and say a few words.
“I hope the young kids around town that are interested in baseball, it kinda gives them a little bit of an incentive that ‘Someday I’d like to be up on a sign,’” Waluk said.
