Entries by editor

Supporting immigrants, supporting our neighbors

Leelanau residents Barb Schneider and BJ Christensen write with moral clarity about their visit with a 26-year old Venezuelan named Edwin at GEO Group’s North Lake Detention Center in Baldwin, 80 minutes from Leelanau County. There are approximately 1,500 detainees housed there in ICE’s largest detention center in the Midwest. Schneider and Christensen learned that about 82 percent had committed no crime and have not had visitors for months. Edwin is the sole provider for his family: his wife, newborn, and mother are here in the U.S. He sends money for food to Venezuela for his father and grandfather.

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Windy’s Landing horse rescue, a sanctuary for the “least chosen”

“When I walk up the grassy drive toward the barn at Windy’s Landing, it’s the miniature horses Doc, Roxy, and Toby that catch my attention first,” writes Bronwyn Jones. “They graze contentedly in their small pasture but also startle a bit if you approach them on their blind side. They are three of five 1-eyed miniatures all sent to auction by their previous owners due to deformities and blinding infections or cancer in one of their eyes. They’ve been recently rescued from a Michigan kill pen by Nancy Parshall, founder of Windy’s Landing, a newly incorporated horse rescue and animal sanctuary in Lake Leelanau.”

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Lake Street Studios features Jessica Kovan Aug. 21 opening reception

Lake Street Studios Center Gallery in Glen Arbor opens an exhibit on Friday, Aug. 21, featuring artist Jessica Kovan and her work “It’s All About Love,” which uses birds not so much as symbols of flight, but as a way to consider connection, compassion, and our shared responsibility to the natural world.

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Leelanau baking star Sorge debuts cookbook

Martin Sorge didn’t used to like cherry pie. Then the northern Indiana native spent a summer during college building sets at Interlochen Arts Academy’s theater department. He tasted the Grand Traverse region’s culinary pride and has been hooked ever since. “I get it now,” Sorge said. Sorge, who won the Great American Baking Show in 2023 and splits his time between Chicago and Leelanau County, debuts his first cookbook, “Great Bakes: Modern Classic Recipes from the Midwest,” at a National Writers Series event on Friday, Aug. 21, at 4 pm at Artemis Books & Goods in Traverse City’s warehouse district. The event is part of the Traverse City Food and Wine Festival, which runs Aug. 19-23.

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State Savings Bank celebrates 130 years

This year, State Savings Bank is celebrating its 130-year anniversary. This milestone marks more than a century of helping northern Michigan families and businesses reach their financial goals, while remaining a locally owned, independent community bank. The anniversary also comes with an unexpected twist. For many years, State Savings Bank was thought to have been founded in 1901. However, recently uncovered historical documents showed that the bank first opened its doors in Frankfort in 1896, making this year its 130th anniversary. The bank’s original name was Benzie County State Bank.

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Moroccan cycles solo through Northern Michigan, finds kindness along the way

At the end of July, a 24-year-old woman solo bike packed from Mackinaw City to Grand Rapids, tracing the Lake Michigan shoreline in what she remembers as “an amazing 11 days.” Not only was it Yasmina Ahlmaris’s first time outside her home country of Morocco, it was also her first time camping. “My last name means people from Mars,” she laughed. “That’s probably why I’m so crazy.” On her journey, Ahlmaris pedaled through Petoskey, Traverse City, the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Manistee and other towns, developing the itinerary with a little help from her friends.

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Looking up the coast for clues to solve the housing riddle

The region’s need for housing has been well documented. That’s particularly true for homes priced for sale between $150,000 and $300,000, as well as long-term rentals commensurate with that price. In Leelanau County, with a median price of $640,000 and an average price of $937,506, the challenge is acute. Perhaps part of the answer lies in looking north. Emmet County’s housing market mirrors that of Leelanau in many ways. It is a popular resort and vacation area with a number of high-end second and vacation homes. In trying to get arms around the problem, the Leelanau Peninsula Economic Foundation undertook a survey of county businesses, which concluded the number one barrier to doing business is the lack of workforce housing. Now the Leelanau County Housing Collaborative, an arm of the LPEF, is asking workers, employers, and other community members to take part in the Leelanau County Attainable Housing Survey. The survey is designed to gather public input on housing needs and community priorities to help inform future housing solutions across the county.

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Boyds thank community for Larry’s Dunes & Dogs fundraiser

The Boyd family would like to extend their appreciation to the many people who assisted in making the Larry’s Dunes & Dogs inaugural event on July 2 a success. The fundraiser was held in honor of Lawrence Boyd IV, a Traverse City parking services employee who last November was shot and killed on the job.

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Versatile guitarist returns to The Homestead’s Music on the Mountain series

They say you can’t go home again, but guitarist Joe Taylor would beg to differ. The South Carolina native returned to the Palmetto State after decades in New York City and hasn’t missed a beat. Now he feels like he’s coming home again, with a date: Aug. 19 at Music On The Mountain at The Homestead. “The fellas and I are really looking forward to it,” he says of himself and his bandmates. “We love the place.”

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Video spotlight: Young journalists document life, stories around Leelanau, Benzie Counties

Twelve-year-old Tanner Brown can tell you all about the Fourth of July fireworks in Northport, where he lives. In fact, Brown’s narrated video story, “The flare behind Northport’s Fourth of July fireworks display,” premiers our Meeting Young Journalists Where They Are video storytelling series, which the Sun is publishing online and on social media together with our Benzie County-based sister publication, The Betsie Current.

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