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Polish immigrant receives National Park award for saving lives at Platte Point

Park rangers at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore often refer to Lake Michigan as “the boss.” She’s calm and soothing on some days and deceptive and deadly on others. Sometimes private citizens make decisions that save lives. On July 19, 2024, Polish immigrant Marcin Arszylo saved the lives of a family that drifted a mile into Lake Michigan near the mouth of the Platte River. They floated in inflatable tubes but were not wearing life jackets. Arszylo was honored with the Citizen’s Award for Bravery at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore headquarters in Empire on July 18—one day shy of the one-year anniversary of his heroic act.

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Pier Pressure: remembering a drowning in Frankfort

Lane Frame was 12 years old when he saw the Great Lakes for the first time. According to his aunt, Joy Frame, he was very excited. It was September 21, 2020. Lane was in Michigan on a family vacation. The family drove up from Tennessee, and stopped in Frankfort—a small, Lake Michigan beach community.  Jewell Frame II—Lane’s uncle and Joy’s husband—thought the lake was the ocean. A vast difference between the smaller lakes they were used to. This story was adapted from Points North, a podcast by Interlochen Public Radio.

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Glen Arbor Sun wins seven awards from Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest

The Glen Arbor Sun won seven awards in four different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest among local news media for stories published between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. The Sun won two awards in Best Opinion, three awards in Business/Agriculture News, and one award each in Feature Story and Spot News. Winners included Abby Chatfield, Katie Dunn, Alexandra Dailey, Jacob Wheeler and Julie Zapoli.

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With drowning deaths on the rise, Park increases water safety awareness

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Last June 22, before Scott Tucker had finished his first week as the new superintendent at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a vacationer drowned while snorkeling in Loon Lake near the Platte River. Two weeks later, an 81-year-old man from southeast Michigan perished in Big Glen Lake when his boat drifted away while he was swimming. And on Sept. 5, a 21-year-old died when his kayak capsized near Platte Bay in Lake Michigan waters. Three drowning deaths in or near our National Lakeshore.

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