Barreling along at Cold Spring Farm

Certain moments determine the rest of your life. When she was 18, Haylee Fisher remembers that she “lived in Traverse City in a super-crappy apartment with a dog while looking for a place to board my horse that I could afford.” A lady told her there was a job in Maple City at a horse farm, so she called farm manager Tom Pierson. He said, “You’re too young to watch over all of the brood mares and horses,” Haylee remembers. It was 2001, and the Cold Spring Farm needed help throughout the year, including every winter when the owners went to Patagonia, Arizona.

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Mielczareks take over Leland Harbor House

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Greg Mielczarek and his wife, Maggie, a Leland native, acquired the Harbor House Trading Co. from Richard Roberts on Feb. 1. The Mielczareks will officially re-open the iconic spot in the heart of the village on Feb. 24-26 for the Harbor House’s annual storewide sale, during which apparel, paddleboards and other products will be sold at discounts of 50–70%. Roberts will remain the owner of the building.

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LIFTing teens on the slopes

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This winter The Homestead resort is donating free lift tickets and rentals to area teenagers through LIFT, an out-of-schooltime teen center based in Suttons Bay, which is dedicated to empowering local youth to discover their strengths by investing in their evolution, autonomy, and character. “LIFT is grateful to The Homestead for their kindness in donating free skiing and rentals to our teens!” said LIFT Teen Center founder and director Rebekah TenBrink. “Our time on the slopes has been such a blast, and the conversations on the way home are full of adventurous stories and laughs. Participating in this kind of activity is a great bond- ing experience for the LIFT teens, and provides them with an opportunity they may not have had the resources otherwise to do.”

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Mary Sutherland’s book, Claim Your Self, is reissued

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RIP, Mary Sutherland, a longtime Glen Arbor resident, teacher, feminist and champion for gender equality, who was perhaps best known as the matriarch of a large entrepreneurial, athletic, and public-spirited clan that has had an outsized impact on Leelanau County and the Grand Traverse region. Here is F Josephine Arrowood’s story we published just over a decade ago on the occasion of Mary reissuing her self-help book “Claim Your Self,” which was originally published in 1983. Mary passed away on Saturday, Jan. 28, at age 92, her son Bob, president of Cherry Republic, confirmed.

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Chickens loose in Leelanau!

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Winters in Leelanau County also can be a little lonesome and isolating. To remedy the winter blues, Glen Arbor Wines holds a Thursday Blotter Night. So, what exactly is Blotter Night? Every week, Darci Ricker meticulously reviews the Leelanau Enterprise’s blotter section for light-hearted entries—only the innocuous ones are selected to be read aloud. At 6 pm sharp on Thursdays, locals and tourists alike gather at the counter of Glen Arbor Wines. Ricker’s aim is to provide a bright space in which to share those blotter entries that are amusing (someone’s chickens are loose out on Bodus Road!?)

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Ringing in the new year on the Crystal River

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Leah Turner, Maggie and Dana MacLellan, Isabel and Josh Fast kayaked the Crystal River on New Year’s Eve day, Dec. 31, 2022. Maggie started the annual tradition about a decade ago. Whether frigid or balmy, the friends close out each year bundled in warm jackets and with life vests in tow.

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Glen Arbor Sun’s top 10 stories of 2022

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For Leelanau County, 2022 was a year of new businesses growing in our communities, a year of celebrating historic legacies, and a year of grieving the loss of community pillars who left us. The Glen Arbor Sun’s top 10 most-read online stories of the year included homages to Beryl Skrocki, whose family business Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak helped popularize standup paddle boarding in Empire and along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, longtime Cherry Republic general manager Kathy Baarstad, and storied Glen Arbor realtor and Sugar Loaf ski coach John Peppler.

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Glen Lake graduate engineers New York Times Daily podcast

Rowan Niemisto never took classes in audio engineering. He graduated from Glen Lake High School in 2011, then the University of Michigan in 2015 with a bachelor’s in Sociology. But as a kid he was always fooling around and getting fatherly instructions in his dad Patrick Niemisto’s Holy Wah! Studio near Maple City. And now he engineers The New York Times podcast “The Daily” with hosts Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise. It is one of the most popular podcasts in the United States.

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Boy in the blue jacket

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“Depending on how you look at things, it was either pure chance or divine intervention,” Chet Janik laughed as he described how he was able to leave Communist Poland as a young boy and immigrate to Cedar, Michigan. “Without the town supporting my great uncle, and without the kindness of the consular official, I never would have grown up here.” Reflecting on his life in the United States and his career as he winds down his time as Leelanau County’s longest serving administrator, Chet narrates the journey with vivid details.

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Realtors help new Glen Lake superintendent find local home

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It’s a well-known story. Finding an affordably-priced home in Leelanau County is difficult. For Glen Lake School, finding the right superintendent has also been a challenge. Jason Misner started on the job in August. The local community wanted to make sure the Misner family stayed. That meant finding them a home. Up stepped local realtors, who gave them a head start and opportunity to make an offer before a potential bidding war began on the house previously owned by the late John Peppler.

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