MC Hall of Fame update with Greg Williams

By Kenny Varner Jr.
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: October 8, 2020

Editor’s notes : Hometown Editor Kenny Varner sat down recently and interviewed Mifflin County Hall of Fame spokesman Greg Williams. They talked about the past, present and future of the new establishment to honor Mifflin County sports icons and athletes of years gone by. The group is still looking to build up membership to the group.

HS: How are things going for you for the membership drive of the hall of fame?

GW: We started on July 1st. I had a list of 100 contacts. I have been reaching out to people since November. It was just contacts that I have built up after all the years at the Sentinel and others that I met living in Mifflin County. So I had a list of about a 100 people who indicated that they would be interested in supporting us. We just updated our membership list recently and we got 100. That was one of the thresholds we were wanting to hit was 100. We are hoping to hit 200 by the end of the year.

We are conditionally approved by the state so I’ve been keeping them in the loop. Because their general membership meeting keeps getting postponed because of the current health situations so it’s been rescheduled a couple times.

HS: How did this idea get started for the Mifflin County Hall of Fame?

GW: Kevin Kodish contacted me in October. Apparently, there had been at least one other attempt or even more than that in 1989 and I think there was one other prior to that. That’s something that he had always been passionate about. He knows my connection to sports and that I originally from Mifflin County.

It was something that with the way technology is with virtual meetings, email and cell phones and what not I thought it was one thing I could do from afar. I’m always up for a good challenge so it’s been very rewarding to be a part of this. We really have a good group with our board of directors. There are nine of us on the board of directors. Obviously, we have support from our new members and it’s really come along quite nicely.

HS: When you first started this, what goals did you set and have you completed all the goals you set out for originally at beginning?

GW: We want it to be successful. The state sets out goals for us. In the first year you have at least 20 paying members and at year three you need 50 paid members. That money is not paid to us but to the state so we have accomplished that.

Also, the other goals that we set were we wanted to have a website which we are working on. The ultimate goal is to have some sort of display or space where we can store some of this memorabilia.

Because every time someone throws something away from an old high school trophy, a uniform, a pennant, no matter what it was it could’ve been put in the Hall of Fame. So we’ve lost a lot of high memorabilia and sports memorabilia over the years. We’d like to have a unified space. Especially for the inducted members.

We actually added some new goals where we are doing these online videos. I was doing one for my other job, apartment leasing and we were having a virtual awards ceremony coming up and I did one for that. So I thought I could do a video for the Hall of Fame which would be easy.

That’s actually on of the things that’s been so rewarding things so far I’ve done was the original video.

We are also doing a news letter which was supposed to be quarterly was so popular we changed to a monthly. The support from the community has been so supportive. We are so thankful for the support they are giving us. We just want to make something Mifflin County’s glorious sports history a way we can showcase that. We want to make people proud.

HS: What is the deadline for new members if they would like to vote in the first class of nominations?

GW: Members have to sign up by November 15th to be involved with the nominations and election process for the first class. So we should be receiving nominations for the first class in October/November with the deadline being December 31st.

HS: Going forward from here. What is your goals for the upcoming year?

GW: Definitely the website. I think the video helped boosting numbers for our membership because we got a big boost since that video came out. I’ve been sending around the video to some people for some feedback just like a focus group and there was a big spike in membership since our newsletter came out in September and when our video went out. Again, we are just making it easier for people to join and the website is the next big thing for us because our goal is to have an online membership form. We just want to make it easier for people to join. We want to keep growing and growing. I think that is where our goals are at.

HS: If somebody would like to join. How or who would they get in contact with?

GW: They can email us at Mifflincountysportshof@outlook.com or reach or text me Greg Williams.