Buckets of Rain, a Leelanau-based nonprofit which aims to “support the rebuilding of Detroit by transforming blighted areas into agricultural oases” will hold a work bee on Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 8:30 a.m. at the Empire United Methodist Church. Volunteers will make smoothies using locally picked apples and produce donated by Kroger.
The acting president’s shutdown of the federal government, now nearly a month old, has furloughed approximately 800,000 workers nationwide. One Leelanau County resident considered an “excepted employee” is an air traffic controller at Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City. He spoke with the Glen Arbor Sun under the condition of anonymity, citing a government “gag order”.
Fans of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore are invited to attend a fun and informal snowshoe hike and chili dinner on Sunday, Jan. 20, to help support Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes—the nonprofit group whose volunteers maintain the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail and help in other ways during the federal government shutdown.
The Townships of Glen Arbor and Empire are currently accepting applications and resumes for the position of fire chief. The Glen Lake Fire Department is a full-time, unionized, ALS transport agency which provides fire, rescue and EMS services to approximately 2,000 year-round residents.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore announced on Saturday, Jan. 12, that areas of the park will once again be accessible to visitors in the coming days, despite the continued federal government shutdown. The Park will use revenues generated by recreation fees. However, the Empire visitor center, ranger talks and programs will remain unavailable until the government re-opens.
Visit the Empire Airport on Saturday, Jan. 12, for the fourth Annual Empire Snowmobile Drag Race / Roy Taghon Memorial. The airport is located at 13264 S Benzonia Trail (CR-677), several miles east of Empire. The day-long even features a beer tent, live music, and fast sleds.
The government shutdown, about to enter its third week, has closed all National Parks, including the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. That is hurting several Empire businesses near the National Lakeshore’s visitor center, and it’s doing so at the slow time of year when they need business the most.
I started out as an egg. Perhaps I was more than that. I was an idea, but the egg is what was visible and ideas aren’t, not until they become manifest in some form or action. The egg was a gift from my mother, a Monarch butterfly, whom I, like the sea turtle, never knew.
Pigs, goats, chickens, guinea hens, ducks, cats, and a couple small children roam the pastures, pathways, and vegetable patch of the Polish Heritage Farm in Cedar. “We came up five years ago [from Hamtramck, a Detroit neighborhood]. We had this vision: doing a farm and raising our kids on a farm, knowing where their food came from,” bubbles Kathleen Bittner Koch.
Christen Landry’s journey as a yoga teacher took flight in the autumn of 2014 when she made a decision to step away from The Redheads and move to Salt Lake City, where a sister lives. She secured a job teaching at a large yoga studio, and a second job managing a restaurant.