The next installment in Community Conversations: Exploring What Matters to our Neighbors—a storytelling project of PerSisters and Leelanau Indivisible—features Kendall McNitt, a 17-year-old Empire resident and Glen Lake high school senior. “I would personally like to see people that are willing to talk to each other more, and have conversations even if they don’t agree politically,” said McNitt.
Each year on September 11, Glen Arbor holds a memorial ceremony at the Fire Department at 8:30 am to commemorate the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. This year marks 25 years since the attacks. Glen Arbor resident Ted Peterson designed the memorial which sits in front of the Fire Department and features a beam that was salvaged from the wreckage at Ground Zero in New York City standing over a reflecting pool. That beam came from the Twin Towers and arrived in Glen Arbor in 2012.
According to MI School Data, the Michigan state government’s official education data source, all public schools in Leelanau County have a lower K-12 student body count than they did 23 years ago. though to varying degrees. In the 2002-2003 school year—which is how far back the available data goes—Glen Lake and Suttons Bay had similar numbers: 931 and 1050, respectively. In the 2025-2026 school year, Glen Lake had the highest student body count in the County at 779. While this is 16% less than 2002-2003, Glen Lake School has experienced rising enrollment for the past several years. Glen Lake’s increasing enrollment is an anomaly in Leelanau County, where school-age children are increasingly harder to come by.
Lucky 7’s took the gold medal for the best chili at Glen Arbor’s annual Winterfest held on the deck at Boonedocks on Saturday, Feb. 14. The crew at Crystal River Outfitters finished second. Boonedocks placed third. Meanwhile, Paul Blome won the inaugural Ken Fosmore Memorial Ice Fishing Tournament on the Glen Lakes with a 14 and 1/8-inch perch. Nick Rice finished second with a 13 and 5/16-inch catch. Madeline Carrol took third-place honors with a 12 and 7/8-inch fish. And Ron McNeal finished fourth with a catch of 12 and 3/4 inches. Proceeds from Winterfest are given out on senior scholarship night at Glen Lake School to deserving students to help offset college tuition.
Julie Bennett, who has Glen Arbor roots, plans to row 2,800 miles across Pacific Ocean. “We know it takes a whole community of people to get us on the water,” said Bennett, as she prepares to take on the World’s Toughest Row next summer—a 2,800 mile trek over 50 days across the mid-Pacific Ocean from Monterey, Calif., to Kauai, Hawaii. Bennett will become the first woman in Michigan to make this Pacific Ocean journey where she will bring along her crewmates. She is proud to represent Leelanau County, her Christian school in Grand Rapids, and the greater rowing community.
The Glen Lake Woman’s Club awarded seven college scholarships to graduating Glen Lake seniors at Awards Night on May 22. Five of these students will attend Northwestern Michigan College (NMC), one will attend Alpena Community College, and one will attend Muskegon Community College. Awards will also be given to six second-year students and one adult Glen Lake graduate beginning at NMC. “We are honored to award these scholarships to help such promising graduates on their future career paths,” said Virginia Woessner, chair of the Glen Lake Woman’s Club Scholarship Committee.
This year’s Memorial Day weekend ceremony at the Glen Arbor Cemetery will begin at 10 am on Friday, May 23, and will feature a eulogy of veteran Ruell Welch, one of the four Civil War veterans buried at the cemetery. Poetry by Anne-Marie Oomen will be read, taps will be played by Norm Wheeler, and the Glen Lake School eighth graders will claim the names of those buried at the cemetery whom they each have studied.
The four public libraries of Leelanau County are pleased to host Nita Prose on Saturday, May 17, at 7 pm at the Glen Lake Schools Auditorium. She will discuss her first book, The Maid. Prose has authored a sequel, novella, and a third book in the The Maid series, “The Maid’s Secret,” which was released in April. She will be interviewed by guest host Sarah Bearup-Neal of the Glen Arbor Arts Center.
Glen Lake School will not consider turning 180 acres of forestland which it owns on Benzonia Trail into affordable housing—at least not yet. School Board members were to hear presentations at the meeting on Monday, Dec. 9, concerning the property which is currently managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Informational presentations were scheduled that would feature forestry and conservation director Ellie Johnson explaining how Glen Lake’s forest can be used under current DNR provisions, as well as a session from the Sleeping Bear Gateways Council, which was approached by Glen Lake School in summer 2023 to consider how the land in question could be used for affordable housing—an acute and dire need in Leelanau County, where home prices have surged. Instead, Glen Lake superintendent Jason Misner announced that the board would hear no such presentations.
A Special Holiday Tradition continues on Nov. 15 as the Friends of the Glen Lake Library kick off their annual call for children’s books. The Friends are once again collecting donations of new children’s books for those whose families are in need of assistance this holiday season. Any family can find themselves in hard times and the goal is to make sure the children still have some holiday joy in the form of a special book. The list is compiled from Glen Lake Elementary School, Parenting Communities, The Benodjenh Child Center, Leelanau Children’s Center and Family Daycare Homes and is available at the Glen Lake Library in Empire and at the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor.