The Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society and the Black Mecca Museum in Chatham are benefiting from some recent book and beer sales.
Chatham brewery Sons of Kent came together with Chatham-born author Brock Greenhalgh to raise money during Black History Month while bringing awareness to one of the most iconic stories in Chatham-Kent sports history- the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars.
Greenhalgh, who now lives in Kitchener, recently self-published Hard Road to Victory: The Chatham All-Stars Story. The children’s book tells the triumphs and struggles of the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars, a team of black athletes who got the chance to play for the Ontario Baseball Championship and were the first black team to win an Ontario Baseball Association title.
Meanwhile, Sons of Kent created the limited-edition Chatham All-Stars Rye Pale Ale. Proceeds from both the beer and the books that were sold went to benefit the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society and the Black Mecca Museum.
A cheque for the $7,000 donation was recently presented to museum Executive Director Samantha Meredith.
According to Meredith, the money couldn't have come at a better time. After being closed for nearly a year because of COVID-19, the museum suffered a loss of revenue from tours, gift shop sales and in-person donations.
Now that the facility recently opened back up for limited tours, Meredith said there are additional costs to factor in such as cleaning supplies and protective equipment.
"This money is going to be very useful for making up for all of our missed dollars and helping pay for more COVID supplies," she explained. "We've applied for a couple of grants for the museum for projects. We got denied for the grants so we're hopefully going to be able to put some of [the money] towards those projects ."
Meredith added that some of the money will also be used towards maintaining museum archives.
Greenhalgh released his book towards the end of 2020 and reached out to Sons of Kent about the possibility of collaborating on a project and them creating a limited edition beer, as they've done several times in the past.
About $3,000 was raised from beer sales along with $4,000 from the sales of Hard Road to Victory.
Greenhalgh said he's still trying to reach his own personal initial goal of raising a total of $5,000 from book sales for the museum, which he hopes to get to within the next few months.
"The initial sales of the book were pretty big right around Christmastime, they do trail off after that. I'm relying on some sales through Amazon but also through my website and word of mouth," he said. "Its been a whirlwind 100 days."
The reaction to the book has been very positive, according to Greenhalgh. He's also been able to do dozens of virtual book reads to schools across the region, and some schools as far away as Nova Scotia.
"I read the book, we talk about the story behind it, and [the kids] get it," he said. "They understand what was going on in that story 90 years ago. We talk about how issues that were coming up back in those days are still being dealt with today."
He said he plans to continue to work to get the story out to more schools and libraries. That's in addition to his other major goal -- advocating for the Chatham Coloured All-Stars inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys.
Greenhalgh is currently working on printing t-shirts, creating a social media movement and encouraging people to use their own social media to spread the word as well as possibly planning an event to honour and bring attention to the team.
"I'm one person. But I have a feeling that there's a lot of people out there that do believe this team deserves their due recognition and should be inducted into the Hall of Fame," he said. "So we're tapping into that idea, use social media, let's get the word out and let's keep it in the forefront and maybe these committee members will look at it and say 'wow this whole city, this whole community is rallying around this idea.' I'm thinking 2022 will be the year that we can work and try to make this happen."
Copies of Hard Road to Victory: The Chatham All-Stars Story can be purchased at Collins Clothiers in Chatham, the Black Mecca Museum as well as Amazon Canada.
