Don’t miss this special evening, as the Beach Bards welcome longtime Michigan musician Claudia Schmidt and her Minneapolis friend Dean Magraw for a house concert at “The Happy Place Lodge” — aka. Gerry Shiffman’s house in Empire (10120 W. Phillips St.) — at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Despite the wet weather earlier this month, educators and community members from Leelanau, Grand Traverse and Antrim Counties attended the first annual Branch Out! Conference, hosted by the Leelanau Outdoor Center (LOC). This conference was designed to provide attendees with an awareness of the significant impact of getting students outside of classroom walls, and presenters included representatives from the National Wildlife Federation, the National Park Service and the Leelanau Outdoor Center.
Interlochen Public Radio and the Leelanau Enterprise will host a forum for candidates for the 101st House seat starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Glen Arbor Township Hall.
Election season kicks into high gear in Leelanau County next week, as the Grand Traverse Area League of Women Voters holds a candidates forum for Leelanau County Board of Commission candidates (Districts 4, 5, 6, 7) on Monday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Leelanau County Government Center.
Two Northern Michigan land trusts received Land Trust Excellence Awards for collaborative leadership in land conservation and promoting the work of land trusts in Congress. Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and Leelanau Conservancy were selected by the Land Trust Alliance of Washington, D.C. from more than 1,700 land trusts across the country to receive its National Land Trust Excellence Award, which was presented at Rally 2012: The National Land Conservation Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sept. 30.
The Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail carries on a great holiday tradition in Northern Michigan with the 2013 Toast the Season wine tour either of the first two weekends of November. Choose your weekend to tour the wineries of Leelanau — either Nov. 3-4 or 10-11. The tour is self guided and participants may visit member wineries each day in any order desired, between the hours of 11am to 5pm Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Empire Area Heritage Group, steered by local history guru Dave Taghon, won a State History Award late last month from the Historical Society of Michigan at the 138th Annual Meeting and State History Conference in Monroe, Michigan. The State History Awards are the highest recognition presented by the state’s official historical society.
The Empire Area Museum complex will open its doors to the community and area visitors for the annual Heritage Day event, 1-4 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 13. This year’s gathering takes place during the organization’s 40th anniversary celebration.
Cherry Republic will host a fall celebration at its Glen Arbor location on Saturday, Oct. 13 from 2-5 p.m., as it hosts acoustic folk rock guitarist Eric Nassau and The Lord of the Gourd carving colorful pumpkins and gourds. Children’s activities will include pumpkin and cookie decorating, spit the pit into the giant pumpkin, pumpkin ping pong ball toss, donuts on a string etc.
Photographer Ken Snyder will host a free Worldwide Photo Walk at the Sleeping Bear Dunes on Saturday, Oct. 13 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The walk leaves from the Glen Haven Cannery Boathouse and is open to anyone with a camera who loves to take pictures and enjoys meeting fellow photo enthusiasts.