Telecom Specialist Heather Birky Winters honored for longtime support of Rose Park/West Side Baseball

Even as she helped hand out dozens of medals hanging from her left arm and trophies waiting at a nearby table to eager, sometimes rowdy children on June 3, 2024, Heather Birky Winters was the MVP on the field for Rose Park/West Side Baseball Little League.

Winters, who uses her maiden name, Birky, outside of work, has volunteered for the league in various capacities for a decade, outlasting three presidents.

“She comes and works and helps and doesn’t care about credit or that she’s done this for a while. And I couldn’t have done anything without her. She’s been that valuable,” said James Walje, board president for Rose Park/West Side Baseball.

Walje and the league’s board honored Winters, a telecom specialist for UIT Voice Systems and Business Administration in the Chief Technology Officer organization, on June 3, 2024, with a crystal award and flowers for her long-standing service.

It began as you might expect: Winters enrolled her sons, Hadyn and Jaxon, in T-ball. The league always needs volunteers, so she stepped up to the plate. She served as board secretary and equipment coordinator before volunteering to work at the Snack Shack behind home base at Riverside Park, the league’s home field. (Riverside Park, as some film buffs might know, is featured in the 1993 baseball movie “The Sandlot” during a game between the Sandlot crew and Little League squad.)

For the past seven years, Winters has prepared thousands of sandwiches, drinks, and snacks with limited equipment and resources, selling them to Little League players, parents, and fans. It’s often a thankless job.

The Snack Shack “is the worst job … nobody wants to do it,” Walje said. “She never hesitates. … She’s really good at it. She’s very organized and … [things] flow really well when she’s involved.”

This season, Winters’ stepdaughter, Kylaa, took over at Riverside so Winters could reopen the Snack Shack at Sherwood Park, where older boys like Jaxon play in the West Side (Babe Ruth) division of the league. The concessions stand, which had been closed at least 10 years, needed cleaning and new appliances. So she raised funds for food and equipment, including grills, slow cookers, coffee machines, food warmers, and air fryers, some of which she brought from home to save money.

The Snack Shacks are open almost every weeknight during baseball season, selling pretzels, chili cheese nachos, hamburgers, hot dogs, sodas, sunflower seeds, Big League Chew bubble gum, ice cream, candy, and more to the masses. All sales support the concession stands and baseball league.

“It’s amazing how much the community loves” the Sherwood Park Snack Shack, she said. “It stirs up a lot of energy.”

At Riverside, Winters often received help from teens who are paid to take orders and hand out food. At Sherwood, however, she relies on other parents for support. Most of the time, she runs the stand by herself or with the help of her boyfriend, Josh, and Kylaa.

“That’s how we spend time together,” Winters said. “We’re a baseball family.”

In fact, she basically raised her boys at Riverside Park. In addition to the food they sold, Winters and the others who volunteered to help run the Snack Shack used to cook dinner for their families there. And when temperatures outside skyrocketed, water fights broke out and the kids who begged for ice cream usually ended up covered in it.

“There’s never been a dull moment — ever,” she said.

Other fond memories include learning to keep score of Little League games and then trying not to mess it up while watching her boys play, and participating in the Sandlot Tournament held at the end of each season. The event, held June 10-15 this year, follows a pool-play format with a single-elimination championship game. At the end of the week, the baseball field becomes an outdoor movie theater peppered with blankets and chairs for the annual screening of “The Sandlot.” Viewers visit the Snack Shack for popcorn, soda, and more.

Winters also is proud of Rose Park/West Side Baseball and other local Little Leagues, which campaigned to reduce Salt Lake City park/field rental fees for youth sports leagues. Since 2015, rates have increased from $2 per hour to $17 per hour. Walje estimated it would have cost the league $13,000 to rent fields this year, an amount Winters said the league and Rose Park parents cannot afford. Awareness efforts included a letter writing campaign to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, whose administration recommended that the Salt Lake City Council reduce fees to $10 per hour, which it did.

“I feel like everything our leagues did, our voices were heard,” she said, adding that the lower fee is “a start, but we would still like to see more done.”

Winters’ time as a volunteer with Rose Park/West Side Baseball came to an end on June 3, the league’s closing day. During the game between coaches and Major Division players, she worked in the Snack Shack and then she helped set up for the awards ceremony, not knowing she would be the first to be honored.

“We want to give a special recognition to one of our board members who’s done this for a very, very, very, very long time. Some of you may know her, some of you may not. She actually prefers it that way. And that’s just a testament to her character,” Walje said, adding that Winters’ selflessness helped ensure the success of Rose Park/West Side Baseball.

She beamed as she received the crystal award from Walje and flowers from another board member, hugging each in turn. Then it was back to business, showering players and coaches with accolades.

Although her time’s over with the Rose Park league, Winter isn’t necessarily done with baseball or volunteering. Jaxon recently joined the boys summer prep team at West High School.

“So, hopefully, I’ll find new volunteer situations up there,” she said.

 

 

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