Empire

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Indigo Bluffs app connects travelers to the best of Leelanau County

For a few seasons now, campers at Indigo Bluffs RV Park and Resort on M-72 east of Empire have enjoyed a free-to-download app that details things to do in the area. It highlights everything from hiking trails to wineries, restaurants to farmstands, and sorts the attractions not alphabetically, but instead by distance (in miles) from the campground. A “favorites” button was added most recently for users to easily save the things they’re interested in, “which is way easier to work with instead of a billion screenshots from Google,” said Gary Becker, the owner of Indigo Bluffs.

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Glen Arbor hosts tree lighting, holiday marketplace

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Glen Arbor (and nearby Empire) will host special holiday events in the hours and days after Thanksgiving. On Friday, Nov. 28, Glen Arbor businesses host a PJ Party from 6-9 am the morning after turkey day. Following that is the town’s Bed Parade from 9-9:30 am. Later that morning in Empire, the Glen Lake Library hosts a Community Blood Drive from 11-3:30. Glen Arbor’s Tree Lighting, Caroling + Marketplace Preview Party at the Township Hall start at 6:15 pm. The Town Hall hosts the Holiday Market from 6:30-8 pm.

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Empire, Glen Arbor host seasonal holiday markets

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With the holiday season comes the panoply of seasonal markets, where artists and artisans, bakers and makers alike showcase their wares. For many, the season starts with the holiday shows in Glen Arbor and Empire that take place the weekend after Thanksgiving. The Glen Arbor Holiday Marketplace kicks off Friday night, Nov. 29, at 6:15 p.m. with the lighting of the Christmas tree and caroling. The town hall opens for shopping at 6:30 p.m. and goes until 8 p.m., then welcomes shoppers again on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “It’s been going on a long time. I put it together with a ton of other people,” says organizer Cre Woodard. “It’s like a machine.” The vendors line the walls at the town hall, the center of the room and the stage as well. Throngs of shoppers fill the room, perusing the displays of jewelry, mittens, art, holiday décor and more. Woodard has no problem signing up vendors, and when she runs out of room, she knows where to send them – just down the road to Empire. If there’s room there. “I filled up very fast,” says Linda Payment of this year’s Empire Artisan Marketplace, held in the Empire Town Hall. Payment has coordinated the daylong event for the last several years, which takes place the Saturday following Thanksgiving, Nov. 30. It runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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A place called home: Leelanau’s need for affordable housing

Affordable housing in Leelanau County is in short supply. That isn’t actually burning news. It wasn’t even news in 1995, when I became an Americorps worker whose mission was to help start a five-county housing nonprofit organization called HomeStretch. What makes it relevant, even urgent, today is that housing in the county—for workers with college degrees, skills and good jobs, families, people with low incomes, seniors, young adults—is evaporating more quickly than the water levels on Lake Michigan. When the basic needs of a community aren’t met—whether through a confluence of circumstances, lack of initiative, an adverse business climate, or refusal by its members to take action—then the whole community suffers.

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Fall for Art in Leelanau

Fall For Art, the annual Leelanau County gallery tour, is Oct. 11-13. This self-guided tour, now in its eighth year, offers participants a chance to sample the arts for which Leelanau County is known.

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Endurance Evolution holds second Sleeping Bear Marathon

Join Endurance Evolution on Sunday, Oct. 6, for a scenic marathon and half marathon in the heart of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Both races start and finish in Empire. The out-and-back marathon course will take runners by the Dune Climb, past Little Glen Lake, and through Glen Arbor, north to Dunn’s Farm Road, with breathtaking views of the Manitou Islands along the way. At the peak of fall color season, this tree-lined course will awe both runners and spectators.

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Traverse City Track Club offers challenge match for Heritage Trail

Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation Trails, Inc. is pleased to announce that the Traverse City Track Club issued a $25,000 challenge match for the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. The trail campaign has a goal to raise $200,000 to begin constructing the next four-mile segment from the Dune Climb to Empire in 2013. There will be a bonus of $5,000 if the goal is met before December 31.

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Winterfest!

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.

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Cottage Book Shop offers books to needy children

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The Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor reports that, through a generous response to a local book drive facilitated by the Friends of the Glen Lake Community Library, new books will be given to over 240 needy local children this holiday season. But if you haven’t yet participated, the bookshop still has over 50 books — especially for preschoolers.

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Library holds children’s holiday book drive

A special local holiday tradition continues as the Glen Lake Community Library kicks off its 12th annual call for children’s books. The Friends of the Library, in cooperation with Glen Lake School’s “Parenting Communities” program, are once again collecting donations of new children’s books for children whose families are in need of assistance this holiday season.

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