Cherry Republic plans to hire as many as 200 additional “elves” to help meet the anticipated gift-giving demand at its Empire Distribution & Fulfillment Center this holiday season. The workers yet to be hired are in addition to the seasonal retail staff and mail order phone representatives already lined up for this busy time of year.
Join us the Sunday before Halloween, Oct. 29, from noon until 4 p.m., for a fun afternoon of trick or treating in downtown Glen Arbor. Dress up in your Halloween’s finest and bring the whole family for treats from participating businesses.
Glen Arbor will hold its second annual Pumpkin Fest on Saturday, Oct. 21, from noon until 4 p.m. This celebration of fall will take place at the Township Park, giving participants time to carve their artistic creations, enjoy live music and plenty of activities and contests, followed by a Pumpkin lighting at 6 p.m.
Lissa Edwards can remember Glen Arbor before it had sidewalks, or much asphalt. “Everything smelled like hot sand and sumac,” she laughs, over a glass of Chardonnay. “Every once in a while a certain smell takes me back to those days. I spent every summer in Glen Arbor in the 1960s. This town is deep in my DNA.”
At one time, it was lovely and serene. “We begin in a peaceful place in the woods among the tall timber and wildflowers of Leelanau County,” wrote author Leonard G. Overmyer in his 1999 book Forest Haven Soldiers: The Civil War Veterans of Glen Lake & Surrounding Leelanau. “A site, by Forest Haven Road and M-22, where lies the old Glen Arbor Township Cemetery. It was used primarily in the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s for the early pioneers of the area. This quiet location holds the final resting-place of several Civil War soldiers.”
Will Sleeping Bear Dunes break last year’s record for annual visitors to our National Park? 1,683,553 people visited Sleeping Bear in 2016, smashing the previous record of 1,535,633 set in 2015. The visitation tally in 2017 is more than 26,000 people ahead of last year’s pace, following a strong April and September, and a monster July.
Work began late this summer to implement the Glen Arbor Park improvement plan which was presented to the township earlier this year and approved by voters Aug. 8. The plan includes removal of many oak trees—some of which have already been taken out—and the two signature pine trees which frame either end of the tennis courts.
“Rock, Scissors, Paper” brings the work of three visual artist working in narrative forms to Center Gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor, from Sept. 15-Oct. 8. A reception to open the exhibition is Friday, Sept. 15, 6 – 8 p.m.
One of the highlights of living or vacationing in Leelanau County during the summer is the proliferation of fresh fruits and vegetables and locally produced meats, cheeses, honey, maple syrup, jams and jellies, flowers and baked goods found at roadside stands and farmers markets. For many, a weekly, or twice weekly, visit to one of the county’s five farmers markets is a tradition, not only for purchasing local products but for chatting with vendors, socializing with other customers (and dogs!) and taking photos.
Many school groups from Traverse City and Leelanau traveled to Innisfree on Pyramid Point for environmental education. The fifth or sixth grade students stayed for four nights at the camp within the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. The program operated all year round within sight of the Manitou Passage. Students were led on beach hikes and woods hikes by a crack team of naturalists. In the winter snowshoe hikes and ski trips. Canoe trips on the Crystal River was a staple activity as were “get lost” hikes.