How this small-town, black & white rag outgrew its own clothes

The Glen Arbor Sun turns 10!
When a restless 18-year-old kid just out of high school began knocking on the doors of Glen Arbor businesses in June of 1996, asking for community support to start a small-town newspaper, he figured, at most, he’d pocket a few hundred bucks to help pay for his first year of college at the University of Michigan that fall. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine the Glen Arbor Sun would be alive and still kicking a decade later.
Of course, this is no longer “Jacob’s cute little paper” as Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company owner John Arens once quipped. What you are reading is now a cherished community resource.

Thousands read the Sun every summer on their way to the beach, the dining room table and, God forbid, their drive back down south; hundreds of businesses have advertised to keep this paper rolling off the presses; and dozens have contributed over the years as journalists, photographers, poets, essayists or just well-wishers. Now the Glen Arbor Sun is experiencing a new birth on the web at www.glenarborsun.com. Read us online if you can’t make it up to Leelanau County. We hope you’ll still feel that gentle breeze coming off Sleeping Bear Bay.
With that in mind, this commemorative Tenth Anniversary pullout section is devoted to the local community that has breathed life into the Sun every spring. Many of your favorite photos, bylines, friends, events and unforgettable moments are chronicled in this section’s highlights of the last decade.
Get to know your faithful Glen Arbor Sun staff, past and present, and check out the best photos of the first decade on this page. Look inside this pullout section for the best investigative articles, the best features, the best sports/adventure stories, the best poetry/essay pieces, the best local personalities, the best dispatches from afar, the best food/organic living stories, and the most controversial articles. And read a year-by-year history of the Glen Arbor Sun on page 8. It’s a history in progress.