Dune Bird Winery makes breakout debut at San Francisco Chronicle wine competition

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Dune Bird Winery, the newest member of the Harmony Estate Wineries of Leelanau, announced a standout first showing at the 2026 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, earning a Double Gold and multiple additional medals in one of North America’s most competitive wine judging events. Among nearly 5,500 entries from 950+ wineries, Dune Bird captured top recognition for its Leelanau Peninsula whites—an early milestone for the young label and a major win for Northern Michigan on a national stage. “This is a first win for Dune Bird, and it’s especially meaningful to debut with a Double Gold,” said winemaker Blake Lougheed. “It reflects the focus we put on site expression and precision winemaking in every lot.”

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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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Benzie seeks funds to open Wellness and Aquatic Center

People running around the track. Pickleball and basketball. Swimming lessons and water aerobics. These are some of the activities that will take place at the Benzie Wellness and Aquatic Center, located at the former site of Crystal Lake Elementary in Benzonia. That’s the hope and the plan, but the reality is still years away. “We anticipate the capital campaign … for two or three years, with construction in 2029 and opening in 2030,” says Diane Tracy, vice president and development chair of the non-profit BWAC board.

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Youth for Christ in Leland, Twin Flames raid, Trump’s government cuts, Art’s Tavern sells—Glen Arbor Sun’s most read stories of 2025

A controversial youth missionary group recruits inside Leland school and rattles the community; Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel orders a raid of the Twin Flames Universe cult’s home near Suttons Bay; Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore leadership and staff face cuts and uncertainty under Trump and DOGE’s wrecking ball; Barb and Paul Olson acquire Glen Arbor’s iconic Art’s Tavern, and tribal fisherwoman Cindi John survives a mass stabbing at Walmart in Traverse City. Those were the most-read online stories of 2025 in the Glen Arbor Sun. Here’s a list of our top 10, by online views.

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Read our 2026 editions

Read our 2026 editions of the Glen Arbor Sun in PDF form.

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Glen Arbor hosts tree lighting, holiday marketplace

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Glen Arbor (and nearby Empire) will host special holiday events in the hours and days after Thanksgiving. On Friday, Nov. 28, Glen Arbor businesses host a PJ Party from 6-9 am the morning after turkey day. Following that is the town’s Bed Parade from 9-9:30 am. Later that morning in Empire, the Glen Lake Library hosts a Community Blood Drive from 11-3:30. Glen Arbor’s Tree Lighting, Caroling + Marketplace Preview Party at the Township Hall start at 6:15 pm. The Town Hall hosts the Holiday Market from 6:30-8 pm.

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Black Star Farms continues run of awards

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Best wine hotel. Best American Riesling. Business of the year. The accolades continue to roll in for Black Star Farms. Managing owner Sherri Fenton says they are a testament to the staff at the Suttons Bay business fulfilling the vision of her father Kerm. “It’s exciting,” says Fenton. “It plays into the original vision of my father (for) world class customer service.” Earlier this year, The Inn at Black Star Farms was named the Best Wine Country Hotel in the country by USA Today Reader’s Choice Awards. Black Star Farms was first nominated for the award in 2020, when it was named to the top spot. Every year since it has been in the top three, and won the award again this year.

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Harvest with Heart Deer Donation Program feeds Empire Food Pantry

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A collaboration between Buntings Cedar Market, local deer hunters, the Empire Area Community Center (EACC), and the Empire Area Community Food Pantry is supplying high-quality protein to families experiencing food insecurity during this hunting season, which runs the second half of November. A total of 14 deer (and counting) have been donated by local hunters to the Harvest with Heart Deer Donation Program, just a couple day into this year’s rifle hunting season. The initiative is financially supported locally by donations through EACC and its new Basic Needs Initiative Fund, which launched during the federal government shutdown and pause in SNAP benefits. Venison processed at Buntings will be donated to the Empire Food Pantry, which is run out of the Glen Lake Church in Burdickville.

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Government reopens: hot coffee brewing at Sleeping Bear Dunes visitor center

The federal government has reopened after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history—nearly one and a half months. At the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore headquarters in Empire, Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes executive director Laura Ann Johnson discovered a full parking lot this morning and hot coffee brewing inside the visitor center. “It felt so good to walk into a bustling office full of park employees again,” Johnson wrote in an email. “We are deeply grateful that the government has reopened, and we know there is much work ahead.”

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Inspired by Mamdani’s win in New York, Northwest Michigan Democratic Socialists organize

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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.

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