Summary: The Wayne County Commissioners have set aside August 13, 2011 as Roy Bates Celebration Day.
As the final preparations were being made for the celebration of the remarkable life of a very special man, the Wayne County Commissioners issued a proclamation during their August 10 meeting setting aside August 13, 2011 as Roy Bates Celebration Day.
On hand to hear the commissioners vote unanimously in favor of the resolution was Wayne County Community Foundation Executive Director Ferenc Relle, whose organization manages the scholarship set up in Bates name.
As scholarship recipients and community members would do just days later at the Shisler Conference Center at OARDC, Relle shared some little known stories about Bates.
A lot of people dont really realize all of things Roy Bates did over the years. They think of him as a coach and a radio personality but in digging into his life you find that he was a real problem solver, said Relle.
Relle shared a pair of stories from Bates experiences during the late 1940s.
While Bates was prevented from serving in World War II because of his handicap, he made significant contributions to the war effort in his own unique way.
According to Relle, when Bates discovered that local potato farmers were finding it difficult to secure the manpower they needed to harvest their crops due to manpower shortages caused by the war, Bates arranged for students from Chester High School to help bring in the harvest. With the money the students earned Bates arranged for elaborate senior trips for the students, some lasting as long as 42 days and covering 13,000 miles in the years before interstate highways.
WWII era labor shortages provided another opportunity for the resourceful Bates to contribute to the cause.
According to Relle, in the months after he graduated from the College of Wooster Bates went to work at OARDC, which was working on a wheat breeding program to increase crop yields.
When OARDC was unable to find sufficient manpower to move a large thrashing machine, Bates once again enlisted the help of local high school students. With help from the students and Bates own car, the thrashing machine came to life and in essence saved the wheat breeding program for the United States, Relle noted.
Throughout his 88 year life, teacher and coach Roy Bates dedicated his life to kids.
He really believed in children and over the years did many different things that really helped the quality of life for children, said Relle adding Bates helped those children to become really quality adults over the years.
Relle noted that the festivities surrounding Roy Bates Celebration Day is not so much to just celebrate his accomplishments but its really to keep the legacy going of his scholarship.
According to Relle since it originated in 1993, the scholarship has been awarded 128 times, providing $230,000 in scholarship money to area student athletes.
Before joining his fellow county commissioners in casting his vote in favor of the resolution, Commissioner Scott Wiggam read the text of the resolution, which concluded with the following words:
We set aside this special day as Roy Bates Celebration Day to honor and celebrate a great life of one of our former citizens, who valued life and the potential for every person he met, who set standards which he expected those around him to live up to and who gave so much more than he ever received.
For more information on the Roy S. Bates Scholarship and the other scholarships managed by the Wayne County Community Foundation log on to the foundations web site at www.waynecountycommunityfoundation.org.
