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Billy’s youngest daughters Andrea “Daya” Silvas and Mikee Preciado.
Desi Preciado | Sun
Superior Sun
This year when the Superior Optimist Club lost one of their charter members, Billy Preciado, the club set out to honor his memory with some community projects. The first project the club had undertaken is installing a new scoreboard at the high school softball and baseball fields. The girls softball field has never had a scoreboard, and the boys scoreboard is in need of replacement.
Billy Preciado was an avid Superior Panther fan and long time softball coach for both the Little League and the Superior School District. In June the club set a goal of raising $10,000 to complete this project so on Saturday afternoon this past weekend at the Porter’s Cafe patio, 41 teams, many of whom were past players on Billy’s teams, gathered to play cornhole and helped to close the gap on the fundraising efforts.
Leading the fundraiser were Angela Villaverde-Ortega and Mikee Preciado. The two gathered donations and registered the teams. Manny Guzman V offered his DJ services and hundreds of people came to eat, play and socialize, all in Billy’s memory. Between the auction items, raffles, food and drink sales and registration fees $2,750 was raised for the project. When news of the tourney spread online, another $350 was raised through online donations.
With the completion of this fundraiser the Superior Optimist Club is very close to having enough funds to have both score boards installed by the 2015 softball and baseball season. At press time an additional $3500 contribution was made, however the donors wish to remain private at this time. This leaves about $2,000 to be raised; you can help raise the funds by donating online at: http://bit.ly/belikebilly
Author’s note: I write this story with a huge lump in my throat, I know my Tio would be so excited to see this project happen. Our entire family is amazed by the outpouring of love, support and generosity that everyone has given to us as we work with the Optimist Club to keep his dreams and memory alive. When you see the hashtag, #BeLikeBilly, we hope that you will also think of ways to be kind, selfless and generous like he was. – Mila
Mila Besich is a resident of Superior with two children. She volunteers for many local organizations. She is an experienced fundraiser and event planner for Copper Corridor Economic Development Coalition. She covers some of the area town councils and schools.
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