Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has announced the world premiere viewing details of Water, Sand, and Sky, their new park film. The film will be premiered during National Park Week, April 16-24, at 10 northern Michigan venues with 13 showings in a public campaign called “Sleeping Bear Everywhere.” Venue and event details are listed below, and available on the National Lakeshore’s website at Water, Sand, and Sky Film Premiere (U.S. National Park Service).
Golden, mineral-rich grains of sand from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore are commanding top dollar on a growing international market that has attracted the lust and the pocketbooks of mining tycoons and marketeers, Saudi royals and French models.
For college students and others seeking summer employment in Benzie and Leelanau counties, getting a job is often the easy part. The hard part comes in finding a place to live. “It’s a significant barrier to anyone who’s not local,” said Isabella Beshouri, a University of Michigan student who spent a month in 2021 finding a summer rental after being hired as an intern at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. That barrier is being lowered in 2022 and beyond through an innovative “seasonal employee housing exchange” sponsored by the Sleeping Bear Gateways Council (SBGC) and funded through grants from local foundations and the federal government.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has announced the world premiere of Water, Sand, and Sky, their new park film. The film will be premiered during National Park Week (April 16-24) in a public campaign called “Sleeping Bear Everywhere.” The campaign is intended to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, by providing a variety of public viewing opportunities. The National Lakeshore is looking for local venues who may want to host a premiere at their site.
Although Leelanau County is fortunate to have a national lakeshore to step into with such little effort, it is easy for residents to forget that the park is 35 miles long and spans two counties. We get stuck in our bubbles and forget to explore other angles and ends. As a new year begins, consider stepping out of a routine, working on a New Years resolution, or getting to know the area better by taking on the Trail Trekker Challenge in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore received an Open OutDoors for Kids grant from the National Park Foundation (NPF). Thanks to this grant, schools can join in for free. In the classroom, students will design, build, and test a small beach cleanup machine. These activities help students learn Next Generation Science Standards.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore attracted 14,401 visitors in December, thus setting another annual visitation record. A total 1,722,955 people frequented our local National Park in 2021, topping the previous record, which was set in 2020, by just over 4,000.
With December yet to be counted, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is just 10,142 guests shy of setting another annual record for visitors to our National Park.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is continuing to celebrate the park’s 50th anniversary with the theme of “51 is the new 50.” The Lakeshore and Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes are holding a virtual celebration on the park’s anniversary, Thursday, Oct. 21. This half-hour long Zoom event will begin at 7 p.m. and is free to the public. Links to this Zoom session can be found on the park’s website events calendar.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is pleased to announce that they will be recruiting additional winter interns for the 2021/2022 season to assist with snowshoe field trips, weekend hikes, and virtual distance learning programs.