“I’m proud to say I live in Leelanau County, where people live in houses they built with their hands,” crooned singer-songwriter and former Leelanau resident Louan Lechler, who passed away on March 4 at age 77. According to her obituary, Lechler “died of a worn-out heart from caring too much.”
After a 2020 pandemic hiatus, the Beach Bards are back! The Friday night bonfires featuring poetry, storytelling and music on the beach at The Leelanau School will take place four times this summer: June 25, July 9, July 23, and August 6.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Leelanau School has canceled all Beach Bards Bonfire storytelling and music events and all public stargazing and constellation lessons at the Lanphier Observatory for summer 2020.
Who knew?! No one imagined that an idea hatched on bar stools at Art’s Tavern (the source of many brilliant ideas) by Bob Sutherland and me over 30 years ago would live so long.
Since the Lanphier Observatory was built 40 years ago during the bicentennial year of 1976, visitors to the Glen Lake area and the Leelanau School have oohed and aahed at the wonders of the universe they can see through a 14-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegranian telescope.
Fuzz Foster, along with original Beach Bards Bob Sutherland, Anne-Marie Oomen, Les Dalgliesh and me, and long-time Bards Bronwyn Jones and Joe VanderMeulen, kicked off the 23rd season of by-heart poetry, storytelling, and music on The Leelanau School beach on Friday, June 24.
The Beach Bards Bonfire — the storytelling and poetry festival on Friday nights at The Leelanau School beach north of Glen Arbor — begins its 23rd season tonight. Children’s hour starts at 8 p.m., and the adult portion begins at 9 p.m. Bards Norm Wheeler, Anne-Marie Oomen, Bronwyn Jones and Joe VanderMeulen typically lead the performance (stories and poems are recited by-heart, and not read, according to the oral tradition). And musicians usually make an appearance around the fire.