Sauna Fest returns to heat cool Northern Michigan

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Long relegated to back yards and backwoods cabins, saunas are enjoying a heyday in northern Michigan. Popup saunas appear at community events, portable saunas are available to rent, and private sauna gatherings transition effortlessly into pot-luck dinners with friends. The Sun interviewed Vlad Borza—co-organizer of the second annual Michigan Sauna Fest this weekend—to get his read on sauna popularity, what’s new at Sauna Fest, spring saunas vs winter saunas, what he does when he’s not sweating in a tiny house, and his vision for a floating sauna on a barge. Borza of Sleeping Bear Saunas and Nick Olson of Hearth Sauna—proselytizers of the local sauna movement—co-organized the Michigan Sauna Fest, which takes place in Traverse City’s Clinch Park from Friday, April 10, until Sunday April 12.

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Power to the books: local nonprofit spreads literacy

An idea born in Suttons Bay has spread across the state. In just 10 years, Kara Gregory’s PoWeR! Book Bags program has grown from concept to some 130 sites in more than one third of Michigan’s counties. It has distributed more than 750,000 books and 120,000 PoWeR! Literacy Bags.

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Former Gilchrist cooks Jackson, Tootla compete on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef”

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Leland resident and former Gilchrist Farm Winery chef Jennifer Lee Jackson found herself once again in the racetrack pit during the opening episode of “Top Chef”—just as when she cooked burgers and fried chicken sandwiches as a teenager at the racetrack her father operated in rural Georgia. But this time she honed her craft in front of hundreds of thousands who watched her on television. Jackson and her partner, Detroit native Justin Tootla, are competing in Season 23 of the popular Bravo show, which premiers March 9. Competing on the show “was so much harder than we thought it would be,” Tootla told the Glen Arbor Sun. “We’ve been huge fans of the show and have watched it since Season 1. For 20 years we’ve played ‘Monday morning quarterback,’ judging contestants as much as they were judged on the show. “But when you’re in the mix, when the clock starts and you’re cooking, it’s intense! Being in other people’s kitchens, you have to adapt on the fly.”

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New Michigan program aims to help farms continue by connecting buyers with sellers

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For the past three years, David Weeks has searched for a young farmer to take over his organic vegetable farm, La Casa Verde, in Cedar. But, so far, he hasn’t found a buyer who intends to keep the property as a working farm. “I strongly want to see this property remain in agriculture and remain a part of the resilient Michigan community and economy,” he said. “The last thing I want is for this property to get bought by some gazillionaire and they knock down the old buildings and build an estate house, and they’re there two weeks out of the year.” In October, Weeks began advertising his farm on MIFarmLink, a new program that helps match aspiring farmers with those looking to retire and hand their operations over to the next generation. One goal of MIFarmLink is to ensure farmland remains farmland amid a push by big developers to convert rural properties to data centers, solar or wind farms, housing, and other projects.

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Leelanau Coffee’s journey from Empire to Glen Arbor

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John Arens reflects on the coffee company—and Glen Arbor mainstay—he and his brother Steve launched 33 years ago. They sold the company early this year to Grand Rapids-based Schuil Coffee Co. Leelanau Coffee opened in 1992 on Lake Street, sharing a 500-square-foot space with another startup called Cherry Republic.

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The Folded Leaf finds new home at Commongrounds Cooperative in Traverse City

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The Folded Leaf, an independent new & used bookstore and community gathering space rooted in Cedar, has announced a new home within Commongrounds Cooperative at 414 E. Eighth Street in Traverse City, marking a transition shaped by reflection, care, and a continued commitment to community. The announcement comes with mixed emotions for many who have found connection and comfort within The Folded Leaf’s Cedar location. Since opening in April 2025, the space has served as more than a bookstore—it has been a place to gather, rest, and feel less alone. That history remains central to the organization’s identity.

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Art that turns INward

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Winter in Leelanau County draws life inward. In a place so deeply defined by outwardness—by land, water, and expanse—the shift, nevertheless, feels instinctive, even necessary. The season arrives not only as weather, but as a kind of inversion, reshaping both landscape and psychology. Which makes the Glen Arbor Art Center’s (GAAC) first exhibition of 2026, INteriors, so timely and so entirely relevant. The concept for INteriors was developed by Sarah Bearup-Neal, gallery manager of GAAC, whose curatorial instincts invariably have a way of calibrating exhibitions with the emotional temperature of the season. Ever the wizard behind GAAC’s most resonant ideas, Bearup-Neal had been pondering winter itself: what happens when cold and darkness bends attention toward introspection, and how that shift might be reflected, challenged, and expanded through the arts.

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Revelers Wassail at Tandem Ciders

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Locals know a secret about Leelanau County winters. The season lends reprieve from chaos, re-rooting and grounding us after the busy, crowded summer season. Having this sacred place to ourselves for a fleeting moment allows for deeper camaraderie and connection to place. Tandem Ciders co-owners Dan Young and Nikki Rothwell have hosted a wassail celebration at their tasting room on Setterbo Road north of Suttons Bay since 2009, offering an opportunity for locals to connect with each other under the constellations in the depths of Leelanau’s winter. At Tandem Cider’s 16th annual wassail celebration, buoyant echoes of raucous partiers standing around a bonfire are somehow harmonious with the silence that vibrates from the black, night sky of deep winter. A collection of familiar faces represents a community slow to change, slow to grow, until the Covid migration occurred. These are faces that connect our past to this place we call home.

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Fundraiser continues for The Homestead’s Jamaican workers two months in the dark

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Longtime seasonal residents at The Homestead, John and Belynda Hudspeth, offered this Dec. 26 update for their crowdsourcing fundraiser to support 35 seasonal Jamaican workers at the Glen Arbor resort whose communities were impacted by the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa on Oct. 28. Their campaign has raised $48,000. However, the more than 80 people (including children and the elderly) directly impacted by this fund are only in the very early stages of a massive rebuilding process, write the Hudspeths. Click here to read more and for a link to donate. … In the closing days of 2025, we’re updating key stories that the Glen Arbor Sun published this year.

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The Folded Leaf: A Dream Embraced by Community Connection

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Rachel Zemanek reflects on The Folded Leaf, which opened its doors this Spring in Cedar. Together, with Liz Neddo, owner of Bee Well, and niche jeweler Dana C. Fear, a creative community built on connection was formed. Now, their survival in the town they call home is at risk, following building inspections and a notice that gatherings are not allowed unless the entire building officially changes use.

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