BRADFORD, Vt. — In the mid-1950s, the Congregational Church in Bradford held a wild game supper to raise money for a new sidewalk in front of the church.

Held downstairs in the church, the supper drew about 100 people. It raised $84 that first year and would continue as a small gathering of church members for the next decade, according to church records.

Then, in 1966, Eris Eastman, who helped out in those early years, took the reins as the Wild Game Supper’s chairwoman.

Eastman decided to advertise the event in publications and newspapers throughout New England in hopes it would bring in more people. Did it ever.

The first year Eastman served as chair, 400 people attended. That number steadily grew, eventually topping more than 1,000 in some years before a decision was made to limit ticket sales.

Many guests were from New England, but others made the trip from around the country to feast on wild boar, venison, moose, beaver, rabbit and pheasant. At the 27th supper in 1983, close to 3,000 pounds of field-dressed game was served over a five-hour period with several seatings, the Washington Post reported at the time.

Penny Perryman co-chaired the event for a few years with Eastman before taking over after Eastman stepped down in 1995. Perryman credited her close friend with the supper’s success.

“If it hadn’t been for Eris, it wouldn’t have gotten as big as it did,” Perryman said.

The Wild Game Supper, which ended its 64-year run in 2019, a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic and a shrinking pool of help, was one of many volunteer efforts Eastman undertook in her long life.

Eastman died March 18 at the age of 100.

Her community and church involvement earned her Bradford’s Citizen of the Year in 1996.

“She seemed to be involved in just about everything,” Perryman said.

Eastman served in several capacities with the Congregational Church, including clerk, church council, board of trustees, publicity director and women’s fellowship. She was also a member and officer of the Bradford Historical Society, Bradford Conservation Committee and ran the Class C Horse Show at the annual fair in Bradford.

Her son Evan said community volunteers were more prevalent years ago, but even back then, his mother did more than her share and she often wished others would do the same.

“She couldn’t understand why people didn’t do that kind of thing as years went by,” said Evan, who lives in Fairlee. “She did it, and when you do something, you kind of expect others to do it also.”

Eastman also served as the school district’s clerk and treasurer for 14 years.

“Once she took on a new position, she dedicated herself to it totally,” Eastman’s nephew, Alson Perry, said. “And she did it as long as she wanted to, stepping down on her terms.”

Eris Metcalf Eastman grew up on her family’s farm on Taplin Hill in East Corinth. As a young girl on a farm during the Depression, Eastman developed a strong work ethic, something she passed on to her children.

“She taught me I could be whatever I wanted if I worked hard,” said her son, Eric, who earned a doctorate in human genetics. “She was there to support me 100% all the way through.”

After graduating as valedictorian of her high school class in 1941. Eastman earned an associate’s degree from the Executive Secretarial Program at Bartlett College in Boston.

In the 1940s, she was employed by the Vermont Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Education in Montpelier, followed by four years at the Veterans Administration Center in White River Junction.

She worked until 1951, the year she married Ezra Eastman, a World War II Army veteran. Eric said his parents knew each other in high school and reconnected when Ezra returned from the war. They were married for 57 years before his death in 2008.

In 1959, she launched Eastman Business Service from her home. She ran the business until 1985, when she retired.

Marcia Tomlinson, of Bradford, met Eastman when she was married at the Bradford Congregational Church in 1972, and the two remained close.

Tomlinson watched Eastman run the game supper but also knew her in her role as historian for the church, where she maintained all of the church’s historical artifacts. Eastman also started a monthly newsletter for the church, typing it up and running off copies on her mimeograph machine.

“If Eris said she would do something, you could breathe a sigh of relief,” Tomlinson said. “Not only would it get done, it would get done well.”

Eastman’s accomplishments came in the face of a number of serious health issues, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma and cardiovascular disease, which required open heart surgery. She battled back from each.

“She was a tough lady,” said her daughter-in-law, Sue Eastman.

In 1952, when she was expecting her son Eric, Eastman contracted polio and remained in the hospital after her newborn was sent home.

“They told her she would never walk again, and she proved them wrong on that,” Eric, who lives in Maryland, said. “They said she might be in a wheelchair and have braces, and she proved them wrong on that. I don’t remember her even having a limp.”

Her volunteerism, community-mindedness and organizational skills were exemplified by her work putting together the annual Wild Game Supper, which was held the third Saturday each November. It required months of planning, weeks of cooking at different locations and hundreds of volunteers to make it happen.

“I was so impressed with Eris and the way she was able to run the supper and seemingly with ease,” said her nephew, Perry, who volunteered as part of the kitchen cleanup crew. “To do it as long as she did always amazed me.”

Eric said his mother became the public face of the supper and its PR person, doing interviews on radio and television with stations coming up from Boston.

“She created an atmosphere where people just wanted to go to the supper,” said Perry, who recalled a year when Boston Celtics great John Havlicek showed up. “Tickets sold out every year in three days.”

On the day of the supper, Eastman would take tickets and greet people as they arrived, many of whom she knew. As someone who “was good at being in charge,” her son, Evan, said, Eastman was able to keep the supper running smoothly.

“She had it like clockwork,” Perryman said. “She had everything all set and knew how it was to go. She could get everyone in and seated.”

And when the cleanup was finished, Eastman began work on the following year’s supper right after the last one concluded.

Tomlinson said her friend was a “fantastic role model” who left an enduring legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.

“People like Eris come along once in a generation,” Tomlinson said.

A graveside service will be held for Eastman at the family lot in Upper Plain Cemetery in Bradford, Vt, on what would have been her 101st birthday, June 14, at 1 p.m. A celebration of life will follow at the Bradford Congregational Church on Main Street.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.