Joey Halvorson Legacy Scholarship

Joey, as she is commonly known to so many, graduated from Brainerd High School in 1961, leaving a whirlwind of accomplishments and hijinks behind her.

At BHS, Joey was co-editor of the yearbook and an academic leader (it is little known that she was an Honor Graduate with Distinction and ranked third in her class). She was a leading athlete (and selected as Most Athletic Girl) in an era when girls were not allowed to participate in interschool athletic competition. Joey went on to Augsburg College, where she majored in Chemistry and Biology, earning her BS degree. 27 years after playing Augsburg women’s basketball, softball and volleyball against other colleges, Joey was inducted into the Augsburg College Athletic Hall of Fame. Joey’s 53 years of working life has been characterized by its diversity of experiences, and by its engagement with others in those experiences: Private school teaching “creative activities,” sales, program directorship (YMCA, Community Action), fitness, tennis, racquetball instructor, program creator/revitalizer (Kinship, July 4 community parade), court appointed guardian and, always, photography (including [film] photo developer, realtor listings, weddings, events, Lake Country Journal, Her Voice, WeARE, BPSF, Wine and Words).

If there is one person in the Brainerd Lakes Area Community who is known as the consummate volunteer, then it is Joey Halvorson. She has an extensive history of volunteering and service on boards and committees, including Friends of the Library, Legendary Women of Brainerd Public Schools and People for Racial Justice, RSVP, Salvation Army, Senior Citizens, Nisswa Lions, United Way, Community Education, Evergreen Cemetery and Crossing Arts.

Community organizations have recognized the many and diverse contributions Joey has made to the people of central Minnesota: Joey has been honored as Photographer of the Year and as a Woman Making Waves, and has played on community softball and basketball state championship teams, among her many contributions to women in sports, perhaps starting in the late 1950s when she and others followed the late Fran Hedner to Crosby and, under a single light in the Crosby – Ironton High School gym, played basketball like it was meant to be played.
Joey was out of education by the watershed year of passage of Title IX and the breaking of glass ceilings in athletics and beyond, but now is one of several women whose Title IX experiences have been told by Brainerd Public Schools Archives by exhibit in the Gichi-ziibi and in BHS. Joey’s Title IX exhibit can be seen at the combined Citizen of the Year and Distinguished Achievement Hall of Fame ceremony honoring her on April 5.
Joey is “known to all,” and organizers of the event hope that most of the Gichi-ziibi’s 1,200 seats will be filled to pay homage to Joey, who has ALS. For those who are unable to attend this free event, with ample nearby parking, a livestream link will soon be made available.

Joey Halvorson is, appropriately, the first person to be inducted into the BPS DAHoF and as a Citizen of the Year, and the first to be inducted into both at the same time in 2024. The connections Joey Halvorson have made with so many in the Brainerd Lakes Area are personal and meaningful, typically begun on each occasion of contact with Joey by Joey asking persistent questions about how the other person is and about what life has brought to that person. Always, “other, first.”