2012 yielded record tourism and profits for businesses in Glen Arbor and Leelanau County. But this was also a year of extreme (and sometimes unseasonable) snowstorms, ruined cherry crops, new bike trails, new businesses opening their doors, shipwrecks discovered, and the welcome news that our county is the second healthiest in the entire United States!
OK, so the world might not end on Dec. 21 (if it does, you’ll have no way to hold us accountable for the faulty prediction). But at least northern Michigan will have a great story to show for the trouble.
The nonprofit Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes works with the management and staff of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to plan and implement projects that the National Park Service is unable to do because of limited budget or staff. This year has been a banner year in terms of volunteer hours and funds provided to the Park, reports Friends of the Sleeping Bear.
Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation Trails, Inc. is pleased to announce that the Traverse City Track Club issued a $25,000 challenge match for the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. The trail campaign has a goal to raise $200,000 to begin constructing the next four-mile segment from the Dune Climb to Empire in 2013. There will be a bonus of $5,000 if the goal is met before December 31.
Despite the wet weather earlier this month, educators and community members from Leelanau, Grand Traverse and Antrim Counties attended the first annual Branch Out! Conference, hosted by the Leelanau Outdoor Center (LOC). This conference was designed to provide attendees with an awareness of the significant impact of getting students outside of classroom walls, and presenters included representatives from the National Wildlife Federation, the National Park Service and the Leelanau Outdoor Center.
Pennsylvania artist and printmaker L.C. Lim will present her work during her residency at the Glen Arbor Art Association on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. The award winning artist teaches painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and in Frankfort, Mich., during the summer. Her work is exhibited at the River Gallery in Frankfort. Prior to her career as an artist, Lim studied engineering and business to put herself through the University of Michigan. She became successful in corporate America managing a large division of a Fortune 100 company before realizing that she was not satisfying an important part of her “inner being.”
The Glen Arbor Art Association has invited Minnesota artist Andy Evansen to teach a workshop titled “Creating Impressionistic Landscapes in Plein Air”. During the four day workshop, Evansen will provide a combination of studio and plein air instruction, October 15-18 at The Homestead Resort near Glen Arbor.
The Glen Arbor Art Association is accepting artwork submissions until Oct. 1 for the 2013 Manitou Music Festival poster. The limited edition posters are hugely popular and sold through the art association at selected shops and art galleries in Leelanau County. Past posters and guidelines for submission can be viewed at Glenarborart.org. Click on “Manitou Music Festival” or “Artists” tab, then on the right side of the screen click on “Call for Entries”.
Artists have long known what others were to learn when the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park was designated by viewers of Good Morning America as “the most beautiful place in America”.
