On the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Glen Arbor Sun writers Anne-Marie Oomen, Mike Buhler, Mary Sharry, Pat Stinson, Waleed Al-Shamma and Jacob Wheeler reflect on September 11, 2001.

I walk to the island in my mind. I start in Leonia, New Jersey, the town I grew up in. At some point I am sixteen again and wearing heavy-duty hiking boots as I trudge up the stairs to the pedestrian walkway that leads across the massive, vibrating George Washington Bridge. The broad, serene Hudson River lies far below and the buildings of Manhattan stretch out to the distant lower end of the island. The World Trade Center isn’t there yet. I remember the feeling of space, and slight dizziness, suspended at such a great height; the exhilaration of crossing from one state to the next on foot.

The 651 Project has been established to assist students nationwide in their pursuit of agricultural skills and knowledge. Specific areas of focus include organic farming, viticulture, construction technology, agritourism, responsible landscape design, and green energy technology. Farm 651 in Cedar will serve as a learning campus for the endeavor.

Six women from the Leelanau Independent Women for Democratic Action (LIWDA) attended the Democracy Convention in Madison from Aug. 24-27. They included Barb Schneider, Betty Bushey, Jenny Olson, BJ Christensen, Betsy Johnson and Elsie Peterson.

This Sunday, Sept. 11, the water access nonprofit 11 Oaks will hold its sixth annual Music Fest and Fundraiser, at Boonedocks in Glen Arbor. Featured bands beginning at 2 p.m. include Song of the Lakes, New Third Coast, Andre Villoch and Doug Zernow/Zack Light. According to 11 Oaks’ Chris Skellenger, technologies in extreme urban gardening and gravity fed drip irrigation will be on display for all to see.

After decades of wrangling with State bureaucrats, Glen Arbor will finally have a four-way stop at Western Avenue & Manitou Boulevard. Better known as M-109 & M-22, the intersection has been the cause of scores of accidents and innumerable near-misses. Persistence by nearby property owners and Township leaders led the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to evaluate the intersection this past July.

Glen Arbor will hold its annual Labor Day Bridge Walk over the Glen Lake Narrows Bridge on Monday, Sept. 5. Participants will begin at noon on the north side of the bridge (in front of On The Narrows Marina) and proceed to the south side, where an inexpensive lunch and after-party will unfold at McCahills Crossing (formerly the Dairy Bar).

Cindy Hollenbeck surprised herself this past winter when she took a personal day and drove to Lansing to join a demonstration against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Manager bill — which was signed into law on March 16 and gave the governor the right to dissolve economically troubled schools and public municipalities and appoint his own fiscal managers to run them.

With summer comes thoughts of romance. Those of us who have spent any time around Glen Arbor and Glen Lake during the summer can attest to the alchemy of sun, sand, water, hot days, warm nights, and gorgeous surroundings, all tossed together to yield the alluring gold of romance. You could say that Glen Arbor is the elixir of love.

When I first started researching the early land transactions of the unincorporated village of Glen Arbor, I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but I certainly didn’t expect to discover that a woman would play a dominate role in the land market and that other women did most of the buying. Harriet Fisher, the wife of John Fisher, one of the early settlers of Glen Arbor, owned most of the land that was to become the village of Glen Arbor that we know today.