Don’t miss this rare opportunity to view and purchase artwork from over 100 Michigan artists under one roof. Enjoy music, refreshments, original films and support the Women’s Cancer Fund. From Women’s Hands is a one-of-a-kind, all-female art exhibition and sale. It is also a fundraiser for the Women’s Cancer Center. After a two-year hiatus, this year’s show looks to be the best one yet.

Attend a ranger-led program at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this April during “Saturdays at the Lakeshore”. Explore the park while learning about myths and legends, spring love , becoming a Junior Ranger, and figuring out what is lurking in the trees, all while getting healthy. Join a Park Ranger as they share some of their favorite places.

A boat wash workshop will be held on April 28 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Leelanau Community Government Center Community Meeting Room, lower level. Learn protocol for washing your own watercraft and recreational equipment and the importance of using the boat wash at the DNR site on Little Glen Lake.

The Leelanau Peninsula Chamber of Commerce will hold its first annual Bird Fest, June 1-5. This event is billed as “a unique birding festival with a conservation theme.” The festival will offer a wide variety of unique field trips including Birding by Tallship, endangered Great Lakes Piping Plovers, a 300 acre prairie, and pontoon boat to the Leelanau Conservancy’s Cedar River Preserve.

The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) will present the next event in its popular “Talk About Art” series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31 at the GAAA building, 6000 Pine St., in Glen Arbor. The talk is free and open to the public. The evening’s speaker will be Traverse City artist Flora Ricca Hoffman, whose wide-ranging practice includes printmaking and construction of found-object assemblages.

The National Park Service (NPS) is planning to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) for a Great Lakes Invasive Plant Management Plan (IPMP) for the following 10 parks located in the Great Lakes region: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Grand Portage National Monument, Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, St. Croix National Scenic River, and Voyageurs National Park.

The first annual Benzie County Water Festival in nearby Frankfort on Saturday, March 19 is a community water celebration designed to engage folks in the stewardship of the Great Lakes, the global freshwater crisis and the cultivation of a vibrant and sustainable local culture.

Both Empire’s and Glen Arbor’s annual Winterfests are coming up on Saturday, February 19. Take the Polar Plunge in Empire’s South Bar Lake, and come to Glen Arbor’s Perch Fishing contest from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. and the Chili Cookoff on the deck at Boone Docks from noon until 3 p.m.

The Port Oneida Rural Historic District — the picturesque tapestry of late 19th century farms, fields and rolling hills, just east of Glen Arbor on M-22 — will soon have a Cultural Landscape Management Plan, which Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service, or NPS) will develop together with an Environmental Assessment.

Start your Holiday shopping with Glen Arbor’s Pajama Party sales, Friday, Nov. 26, from 5-7 a.m. The Township Hall will host tree lighting and carols at 7 p.m. Return on Saturday for the Holiday Market Place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also on Saturday, don’t miss Empire’s Artisan Market Place from noon to 5 p.m. in the Empire Township Hall.