Cheers for volunteers

Tracy Armstrong, through no fault of her own, was not born in Whitefish. Her family, the Conns, have been prominent in local history dating back to her great grandfather Ancil. Her parents, Michael and Marviloa Conn, were attending college in Havre when she was born.

Tracy graduated from high school in Anchorage, Alaska, and from college at Montana State University. She then worked in Seattle for four years before returning to Whitefish. It was here that she met and married Steven, who came here from Oregon to train horses. They have two sons, Trysten and Tanner, 14 and 10.

Tracy volunteers because she realizes that good things don't just happen and if you "don't get out there and help," you can't expect much. With two active sons, she's involved in a variety of activities, including sports, music and martial arts, and gives freely of her time and bookkeeping knowledge.

She observes that parents are led in the direction of their children's activities. In her case, she started in baseball because her children liked baseball. Suddenly she was involved with 288 children who liked baseball. In her words, "They are all wonderful kids. Your heart goes out to them. They all love baseball, and it makes you want to help."

The result is that she's on the board and serves as treasurer of Whitefish Baseball, an all-volunteer organization that covers ages 5-12. She, along with other board members and volunteers, all pitch in to register 288 players, organize them into teams, raise money, operate the snack shack, maintain the area, provide umpires and perform the myriad of other details necessary to operate a baseball program. Tracy enjoys her volunteer activities and gets satisfaction from seeing all those youngsters having fun.

Tracy, you contribute generously to the youth of our community and we appreciate it.

— Jake Heckathorn

This column is dedicated to those who give freely of their time and energy to worthwhile community projects, but whose efforts often go unnoticed. If you know such a person, please e-mail jheckathorn@centurytel.net.