Stuck in Glen Arbor, Jamaican workers worry about families after Hurricane Melissa ravages island

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Patricia Brown hasn’t heard from her 4-year-old daughter who lives with her grandmother on the southern coast of Jamaica, which Hurricane Melissa pummeled on Tuesday, Oct. 28, as a Category 5 hurricane. Telecommunications are spotty around the country in the aftermath of the storm—the strongest to strike the island in modern history. Brown has worked as a seasonal employee at The Homestead resort in Glen Arbor for the past 14 years. The Homestead employs 35 Jamaicans as housekeepers on a seasonal basis. Some have returned to the job in Glen Arbor for 20 years. They work hard, and play an indispensable role in Leelanau County’s tourism-based economy. We’ll update this story as we learn how the families are doing—and how the Leelanau County community can support them as Jamaica recovers from Hurricane Melissa.

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Celebrating songs of Leelanau: André Villoch’s “Cedar”

Our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with André Villoch’s “Cedar.” “This song was written around 1996,” said Villoch. “I was in college at the time working summers as a dishwasher in the kitchen at a summer camp in Leelanau County. We had a cook’s assistant named Marcus who was quite adventurous—like a big brother who was great about encouraging us out of our comfort zones. A couple of us in the kitchen played guitar and without television or internet, we spent a lot of our evenings teaching each other songs outside our bunkhouse or down on the beach.

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Greg Miesch looks back, forward at The Homestead

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Chef Greg Miesch knew he had a lot to learn. Despite decades in the hospitality industry, taking the reins of the culinary department as senior manager of Food & Beverage at The Homestead was different than anything he’d done before. It was a challenge he was eager to take on, but he wanted to make sure he understood what worked and what didn’t before he made any big changes. “I didn’t know how a resort of this size truly functioned,” he says. “I didn’t think it was good to go in (and make changes) when I didn’t know what worked.” Now, after a summer spent studying the ins and outs of the resort, he’s looking ahead. That look ahead actually started last month, when he was able to open Nonna’s Ristorante, which features classically-inspired contemporary Italian cuisine.

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Odawa artist extends deceased animals’ purpose “in a good way”

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On a wall in Hank Bailey’s bedroom is a can’t-miss photographic print on a large canvas. Bailey, an Odawa (Ottawa) elder of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, is the unmistakable subject. He’s in his powwow dancing regalia in a “bending of the knees” pose, as the Anishinaabe word for powwow—Jingtamok—translates. Bailey wrote in the Sun in 2017, “I can say without being ashamed that I have been brought to tears during dances. I have felt so good while dancing it seemed like my feet were not even touching the ground.”

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Habitat for Humanity makes waves for new homeowners

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Two new families are moving into the New Waves neighborhood in southeastern Leelanau County. The Habitat for Humanity project welcomes Misty VanderMeulen and Jedidiah Spiers and their three children, and Khan and Razma Totakhil and their five kids, with a dedication ceremony Oct. 10. For the Totakhil family, dealing with road construction would be only a minor inconvenience. Their journey to their new home began more than 7,000 miles away. Khan worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and when the Americans left in 2021, he was able to get a visa. He says the opportunity for a better life for his family was the overriding factor in leaving his home country.

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Bee Well in Cedar buzzes with excitement

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When the building across the street from the Cedar yarn shop Wool & Honey had a vacancy, its landlord approached the owner. Liz Neddo immediately was intrigued: It would be a great place for her excess inventory. “I’d always been interested in that space for storage,” she says. Then she had another idea, one born in part from personal experience. Two and a half years ago, her daughter Cecily was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 7. The subsequent surgery and follow-up treatment took up time, money, energy and joy. Cecily was able to recapture some of the lattermost when playing with other kids at Detroit’s Gilda’s Club, the nation-wide organization for those battling cancer and their families. So as she looked around the space, Neddo reflected on the family’s journey and Cecily’s ongoing recovery. “I went in and the wheels started turning,” she says. Instead of just using it for storage, she decided to transform it into a space where children could enjoy toys, games and one another, a place that was worry-free for parents. “In Leelanau, we have art, food, etc., but we don’t have places for locals where kids and parents can relax,” says Neddo.

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Dave’s Garage owners, Olvey family ready to race or repair

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Cars have been a passion for Craig Olvey for as long as he can remember. The owner of Dave’s Garage in Empire can’t exactly say when his love affair with automobiles began, but it was early on. “Growing up, I always had a fascination with cars,” he  says. “I lived down the street in Cincinnati from a Porsche dealer. I grew up working at a carwash.” And it appears he’s passed his passion on to his sons. Craig and his older son Caden will be participating in the Empire Hill Climb Sept. 13.

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Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Chris Skellenger’s “Old Yellow Dog”

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Skellenger, who has played nearly every music venue and hot mic in the County, wrote “Old Yellow Dog” about 30 years ago as an homage to small towns. The song was “inspired by trips I took from college back in the late ’70s, where—to a city kid—Leelanau looked like a place out of a Field & Stream magazine in a barber shop,” said Skellenger. “It was remote and wild. I expected to see a moose! “The roads and beaches were pretty much empty. If you’re too young to have experienced the old Leelanau, you missed something special.” This is part of our ongoing series featuring songs inspired by Leelanau and the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

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Serenity Ranch: a lesson in the healing power of horses

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Serenity Ranch, founded by Dawn and Phillip Chippewa in 2020, is on a mission firmly rooted in helping people in need of emotional healing through the mitigating power of horses.  Set on a beautiful 65-acre parcel just north of Suttons Bay in Leelanau County, the property is blessed with grazing pasture areas, woods, trails and fenced pastures, several barns and other outbuildings as well as an indoor riding arena. The ranch currently has 17 horses including four miniature ponies, a mule, a donkey, two very curious goats and the always eager to greet visitors, their affable dog Makwa, meaning “Bear” in Chippewa.

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Brandon Chamberlain heralds a new generation at Blu

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The Chamberlains knew change was in the air. After owning and operating the fine dining restaurant Blu on the shore of Lake Michigan in Glen Arbor for 16 years, Randy and Mari Chamberlain decided the time was right, and last spring they turned the business over to son Brandon. He was ready, though a bit surprised at the timing. “I thought they were going to be here longer,” Brandon says. A 20-year veteran of the restaurant industry, he had worked his way up from busing tables at age 16 to now taking over the flagship restaurant Randy and Mari had made into a local institution.

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