Sherri Ricard needed a sign to buy Glen Lake Salon
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
Sherri Ricard has been “happily, fortunately” settled in the Glen Lake Salon in Glen Arbor for 8 years now. But she arrived by a circuitous route, and it wasn’t going to happen if she hadn’t got that sign. “I guess I ended up here because originally my dad, Tom Bogardus, used to drive dune buggies on weekends for Jack Harrigan up on the dunes before the national park came. I remember being carried up the dune climb by my mom when I was 3 years old.” So Sherri is not just another blow in. Her love for the area goes way back to childhood.
Born and raised in Saginaw, Sherri went to beauty school in Houghton Lake and then settled in the Bay City/Saginaw area and worked at The Next Wave in Bay City for 12 years. After she and husband Bill moved to Traverse City, Sherri started working at Pavlova. “During those years I was ready for a new job,” she remembers. ‘We were ready to start a business, and we looked around Glen Arbor thinking maybe this place really needed a dog kennel.” They discovered that the beauty salon was for sale. “I was interested,” Sherri says, “but I just didn’t think I could do such a thing. I continued to think about it. My husband Bill said ‘You can’t drive clear out there every day all winter, and we’re not moving there.’ I mentioned it to my mom when I would drive to see her in Saginaw, but then she gradually got dementia. So I just kept thinking about it.”
The years passed, and the Glen Lake Beauty Salon continued to be for sale. And Sherri continued to visit her mom, whose disease reached the point when “she wasn’t talking at all,” Sherri declares. “Suddenly one day out of the blue she looked at me and said, ‘What are you gonna do about that salon?’ Then I knew! That was the sign I’d been waiting for. I bought the salon from Marilyn Dominee in 2011. So fortunately I didn’t listen to my husband, I listened to my mom!”
Sherri feels blessed to live “in one of the world’s most beautiful places with some of the world’s most beautiful people.” She is also blessed with a great staff. “Luckily I got Sara Sanborn to stay. She worked for Marilyn, and she’s an incredible stylist.” In summer when it gets busy, Jessie Smith is there as well, and she does nails. “We stay successful and lucky because the locals support us throughout the winter. We’re open from 9-6, 6 days a week. In winter it’s a perfect mix. Summer is crazier, but we get everybody in. We get as many people in and make them as happy as we possibly can! I was lucky that Marilyn kept it for me. I was praying for one more sign before I’d buy it, and my mother gave it to me.” Glen Lake Salon, 5915 Manitou VW, Glen Arbor, (Village Sampler Plaza), 231-334-3761.
