Chili cook-off to raise money for Grand Rapids’ historic Sullivan Field

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A chili cook-off on Saturday will help raise money to restore Sullivan Field in Grand Rapids.

It is the fourth year the chili cook-off has been held at the historic ballpark, also known as Valley Field.

The ballpark has played host to the likes of Al Kaline, Satchel Paige, Kirk Gibson and Willie Horton.

“We make some money but it’s really more about awareness, bringing awareness to the ballpark and our efforts here,” said Paul Soltysiak, the co-founder of Fans of Valley Field. “And it’s paid off because we’ve gotten the attention of some very generous donors and both public and private funding.”

The organization’s initial engineering assessments of the grandstands cast doubt on if they could be saved because of rot and structural concerns.

“It almost looked for a while like it was going to need to be torn down and luckily, found an engineering firm that did a study came up with a plan to save it. We’re very thrilled about that,” Soltysiak said.

Final numbers are still being calculated, but they will go beyond the original $4.25 million that has been raised.

The chili cook-off is part of that effort but also a chance to see what needs to be done.

“It really gives people a chance to enjoy it and just soak up the historic atmosphere,” Soltysiak said.

The event is a continuation of the chili cook-off Dan and Lisa Verhil held when they were owners of the Cottage Bar. This marks their 40th year of holding a chili cook-off competition.

“A lot of the same people that cooked in my cook-off downtown have all, most of them come back, probably more than half. And they love it,” said Dan Verhil. “And I love seeing them again and I love the whole atmosphere. It’s festive.”

Gates open at 10 a.m. Saturday, and the event wraps up at 7 p.m. For information about the event and tickets, visit the cook-off’s website .

*Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Verhil’s last name. We regret the error, which has been fixed.

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