As we travel across this country, we pass giant mounds of landfill—unpleasant evidence of how much we throw away. A group of dedicated neighbors in Northport have been trying for approximately 50 years to reverse that trend by recycling unwanted clothing into rugs. On Tuesday mornings, the members of Rag Bee gather around a table at Trinity Church to accomplish their mission. The next opportunity to purchase rugs is during the Women’s Club bake sale at Trinity Church on Dec. 6.
On Saturday, Nov. 22, at 10 am, the Glen Lake Community Library in Empire invites the public to explore the U.S. Constitution, the foundational document of our democracy. In partnership with Michigan Writers, author and Empire Township resident Anne-Marie Oomen will lead this hands-on workshop, with participants copying the entire Constitution, section by section, then reading aloud and discussing their compiled work. This exercise will help refresh and refine our understanding of this core framework of democracy. Contact the library to register in advance. The Sun interviewed Oomen about her inspiration for initiating this event.
Jim Harrison returns to northern Michigan on Dec. 8. The longtime Leelanau County resident, widely considered one of the finest literary voices of his generation, died in 2016 after penning 21 books of fiction and 14 books of poetry, which influenced a generation of writers. Todd Goddard’s biography of Harrison, titled “Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, a Writer’s Life,” published on Nov. 4. He will appear at the National Writers Series at the Traverse City Opera House on Dec. 8. The Glen Arbor Sun interviewed Goddard in late October about researching and writing the book. Read and watch the interview here.
On the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald—the most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes—our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with Paul Koss’s “The Last of the Leelanau Schooners”. Koss wrote his classic homage to the era of the tall ships back in the early 1990s when he was working with the Maritime Heritage Alliance preparing to launch the schooner Madeline. “I always had a love of sailing and maritime history because my Grandpa on my Mom’s side was a sea captain in the Merchant Marines,” Paul said. “The Madeline was modeled on a school ship moored in Bowers Harbor, and working on it planted the seed of an idea for a song. Not a song about “The Boat”—Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers had already written those songs—but I wanted to write a song about the end of the tall ship era in our corner of the Great Lakes.” As Paul says when he performs this song: “The boat doesn’t sink and nobody dies!”
The Sun interviewed Jen Kruch and Taylor Moore, co-chairs of the Northwest Michigan Democratic Socialists of America chapter in mid-October—several weeks before Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election in New York City on Nov. 4. Mamdani’s swift rise to power has been a shot in the arm for Democratic Socialists nationwide, at a moment when many feel alienated by the two country’s two main political parties. We asked Kruch and Moore about: their inspiration for launching the local DSA group; their thoughts on the Democratic Party and on Mamdani’s win and what it means for the DSA nationwide; what particular issues or policy proposals they may champion locally, and what misconceptions exist about DSA.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.