By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
Artemis Fowl has done many things in his short life. He has mastered criminal enterprise. He has taken on Russian mobsters to save his father’s life. He has even saved the entire faerie world from a master criminal pixie. What a teenager! In this adventure, Artemis has met his match in a girl named Minerva, who kidnaps a demon, one of ten families of faerie, from an opera house in Italy.
Author Eoin Colfer is a former educator who had amazing success with the first Artemis Fowl novel and has continued to toss the boy genius into exciting adventures. Colfer’s stories have been compared with C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia as well as J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter series. Children around the world love the way Artemis uses technology, education and logic to expose the faerie world, endanger it, and then ultimately save it.
Artemis has always been a lonely, unique boy. Minerva is his ultimate competitor.
The Artemis Fowl series contain enough world travel, fantasy and mystery to intrigue any child. Who knows, it may even give the grandchildren some ideas! Start with the original Artemis Fowl and end the series with The Lost Colony. Your grandchildren will love them!
By Brenda Long, Michigan State University Extension
The majority of U. S. households, 63 percent, have equity in their own homes. For many, it’s the largest piece of their asset portfolio, according to U.S. Census data and University of Illinois Extension. Regular maintenance and repair should be in your plans so that you can retain the value of your home. It requires time and money, whether you do the work yourself or hire someone else.
Home maintenance should be done monthly, seasonally or annually, so the expenses should not be a complete surprise. Prepare by setting aside money each month toward a home maintenance fund so that it will be there when you need it. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureaumonthly payment worksheet says a common rule of thumb is to plan to invest one percent of your home value in home maintenance each year. For example, if your home’s market value is $100,000, then 1 percent is $1,000. This amount may vary depending on your home and needed repairs.
It’s a good idea to walk around inside and out monthly to visually inspect for potential issues. Look up as well as down. Use a checklist such as this one from the University of Georgia Extension.
Water Drainage/Damage: Rain (and snow in cold climates) can cause serious water damage to insulation and drywall. Be sure gutters and downspouts are working. Look for stains and mold growth, damp carpeting, loose tiles, and cupping wood floors.
Heating/Cooling Issues: Yearly cleaning plus regularly change the filters (monthly is recommended by experts) for both long life and efficiency of these systems. If you have a fireplace, annual flue cleaning is essential to prevent the considerably higher expense relining the flue.
Roof Damage: Heavy snow, heavy rain and high winds can influence roof quality. Look for signs of damage on the roof and in the attic for water leaks. Asphalt shingles generally last about 20 years, and aluminum or steel shingles last about 50 years. Avoid walking on the roof and do not store heavy items in your attic.
Windows: Although aluminum windows are less costly, wooden windows last about ten years longer. Check regularly for peeling paint, cracks and chips in the glazing.
Several government assistance programs are available to better afford repairing and improving your home. Home improvements such as the cost of insulation, energy-efficient exterior windows, and energy-efficient heating and air conditioning systems qualify for IRS residential energy tax credits. Installation costs do not qualify. Visit the Energy Star website, energystar.gov/taxcredits for details.
Plan ahead to fit home maintenance tasks into your schedule and expenses in your budget. Find tips in Jinnifer Ortquist’s article on Planning Home Improvements and Costs. Doing small repairs promptly can save you from large, costly repairs later. For example, small leaks in a roof can lead to significant damage in internal walls over time. Also learn about assistance programs and energy tax credits to stretch your dollars. For more information about homeownership in Michigan, go to the Housing link at www.mimoneyhealth.org.
Wyoming Lee football team at practice this week. (WKTV)
By Micah Cho, WKTV Sports Intern
ken@wktv.org
Wyoming Lee has something to prove this week against NorthPointe Christian, a solid team that finished last season with a 6-4 record. With a Rebel win this week, Coach Tom DeGennaro and his squad could be a team to look out for this season.
Lee could go 2-1, if their offense can protect the quarterback, an issue DeGennaro thinks won’t be a problem.
Wyoming Lee Coach Tom DeGennaro. (WKTV)
“Our offensive-line, especially on the right side, is really big and strong,” DeGennaro said to WKTV this week. “And they’re pretty seasoned. That would be the strength of this team.”
Despite their record in seasons past, DeGennaro is confident in his rebuilding Rebels.
Winning only one game in 2016, DeGennaro was able to bring his team to a 3-6 overall record in 2017. When asked what changed, DeGennaro said it wasn’t him.
“It’s just the kids buying into the system, working out in the weight room and committing themselves to being here every day” DeGennaro said. “It has nothing to do with coaching. All of the success goes to the kids.”
NorthPointe finished strong last season. And with a competitive team like the Mustangs, DeGennaro thinks that Friday night’s game will be a well-matched contest.
“NorthPointe is always a well-coached and well-disciplined team. They like to run the ball out of the spread, but it seems that they’ve been throwing it a little bit more. So we expect to see a pretty wide-open game.”
These and other sports events are cable broadcast either live, immediately after the event and/or in rebroadcast, on Comcast WKTV Channel 25 and on AT&T U-Verse Community 99.
WKTV’s featured football games are rebroadcast on the night of the game (Thursday or Friday) at 11 p.m. and Saturday starting at 11 a.m. See WKTVjournal.org/sports for complete schedules.
WKTV’s coverage of high school sports and select community events are also available on-demand within a week of the event at wktvondemand.com.
Local nurses were on a hike at Dead River Falls, in the U.P.’s Marquette, but their day hike became a case of being in the right place at the right time. (Supplied)
A group of emergency department nurses from the Grand Rapids area ran into a scary situation recently when a planned vacation to Marquette, Mich., turned into an emergency medical incident.
The day, Aug. 25, started off as any other: 10 nurses packed up the supplies they would need for the day and drove to Dead River Falls, in Marquette, for a hike. After getting their start, bystanders who were witness to an emergency situation a half-mile up the trail flagged the nurses down. Because of their emergency medical training, the nurses determined they were could possible help.
A young man who was visiting the falls with friends that day ended up with serious injuries because of a fall off one of the cliffs while peering over the water.
Rylee Kuiphoff and Nicole Schoenborn, two City of Grand Rapids residents who were part of the group of nurses, sat down with WKTV to talk about their story.
Kuiphoff recalled the incident as a challenge. With little to no resources that a standard emergency department nurse would usually have, making the best out of the situation is all they could do.
“Initially, it was hard for us because when you see the patient there’s a list of things at work that we go through …,” Kuiphoff said. “But when you’re in the wilderness you don’t have any of that.”
Schoenborn said the most important thing, to her, was keeping the young man calm. Holding him still, she made sure he was awake, stayed still, and was talking.
After the young man was stabilized, it was time for the group to assist local emergency medical providers in getting the boy out of the trail area. With the use of a backboard to transport the young man, the team brought him back to the mouth of the trail, a process that was not easily accomplished. Walking up hills, trudging through water, and navigating rocky terrain, the hike back up took about an hour.
“It was a lot of communication …,” Schoenborn said. “We couldn’t see where we were stepping so the fact that everyone was really great at communicating to get this boy and ourselves out safely was amazing.”
Once back back home, the nurses said they were thankful that they were there to help. But Kuiphoff and Schoenborn wanted to make it clear that they did what anyone else with their type of training would have done.
“We were just doing what we were trained to do” Kuiphoff said.
Although it was a tough situation, Kuiphoff doesn’t believe it was a just coincidence that they were on the trail at the right time.
“I fully believe God placed 9 ED nurses on that trail for a reason,” she said.
We’re only one month away from Bark in the Dark 2018!
This family and dog-friendly glow-in-the-dark 5k and 1 mile fun run/walk is bound to be a blast! Before the race, attendees will enjoy family activities including balloon animals, face painting, and a pup-a-razzi photobooth! Afterwards, enjoy local beer, wine, hard cider, treats, and music with your fellow animal lovers.
All proceeds from the event benefit Humane Society of West Michigan, a 100% donor funded 501(c)3 non-profit that promotes humane treatment and responsible care of animals in West Michigan through education, example, placement, and protection. Be sure to register for the event, enter your pup in the costume contest, and start fundraising for great prizes!
Humane Society of West Michigan is 100% donor funded so participants are encouraged to help our animals by asking friends and family to make donations which help to provide the daily care our furry friends need until we find their forever homes. When you sign up for the event a fundraising page is created for you which makes it super simple for friends to make a donation online on your behalf!
Your donations at work:
$10 provides a behavioral evaluation for 1 animal
$20 provides microchips for 5 animals ensure proper identification and help unite owners with lost pets post-adoption
$30 provides 1 day of care for 1 animal at HSWM
$50 provides for the spay or neuter of 1 animal
Event Details:
Saturday, Oct. 6
Riverside Park
5:00-6:30pm: Registration/Check-In and Family Fun Activities (including: balloon animals, face painting, live canvas painting of pets, the Independent Bank dog costume contest, and a pup-a-razzi photobooth)!
6:30pm: Run/Walk Begins
6:30-9:00pm : A celebration complete with a beer tent sponsored by Alliance Beverage featuring beer, wines, and hard ciders, complimentary snacks from Herb & Fire Pizzeria, Yesterdog, Flo’s Sports Bar, and more, plus doggy approved music by DJ Shannon Williams!
Fall Arts Celebration opens this year when Grand Valley State University’s Art Gallery showcases the historical fascination surrounding the planet Mars during the Mars: Astronomy and Culture exhibit. This exciting exhibit brings together photographs, drawings, movie posters, book covers, and video projections to show the impact of the “Red Planet” on popular culture, even before the 20th century.
Also, the internationally acclaimed Tesla Quartet partners with Grand Valley music faculty to perform a reflection of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s love of Italy through the composer’s famous String Sextet in D Minor, Op. 70 Souvenir de Florence.
Art–The Mars: Astronomy and Culture Exhibit reception is Thursday, Sept. 13, 5-7pm at the Art Gallery, Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts on the Allendale Campus. Exhibit dates: Aug. 24-Oct. 31.
Music–An Italian Journey: Tesla Quartet performs Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence on Monday, Sept. 17 at 7:30p at the Cook-DeWitt Center on the Allendale Campus.
Lauren Whitaker spent long stretches of her childhood in the hospital.
Minor colds turned into pneumonia. Even when she wasn’t hospitalized, “my parents basically ran a hospital at home,” she said. They treated her daily with lung exercises, breathing treatments and a special mechanical vest that helps move fluid through her respiratory system.
“I was kept away from kids, play dates, birthday parties,” Whitaker, 17, said. “And no preschool. They didn’t want me to be exposed to viruses. I was prone to getting sick often and for a long time. And it happened so much doctors were worried my lungs would become damaged.”
Whitaker was born with tracheomalacia, a condition in which the cartilage that keeps open the trachea, better known as the windpipe, is soft and frequently collapses.
The condition restricts airflow, which allows fluid to frequently build up in Whitaker’s respiratory system. And when Whitaker coughs, the trachea can close, which prevents the fluid from clearing out.
For every 100 children with asthma, about two or three have Whitaker’s condition, said John Schuen, MD, division chief of pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
There are no good surgical options, Whitaker was told. There are no long-term cures.
But after years of suffering—hospitalizations every four to six weeks, missing kindergarten, missing out on playdates with other children—Whitaker and her family found a remedy in an unlikely place.
The music room.
Whitaker learned to play the flute in fifth grade. She fell in love with it a couple years later. It has not only contained—and mostly solved—her medical issues, it has given her a life path.
“She’s really turned a disability into an ability, and it seems to be a tremendous ability,” Dr. Schuen said. “Now she’s on the cusp of launching a brilliant, brilliant career.”
‘Like beavers building a dam’
Dr. Schuen first met Whitaker at age 4. Her family had been struggling with her recurrent pneumonia.
“She was in and out of hospital, in and out of our office, in and out of her primary doctor’s office when we first met,” Dr. Schuen recalled. “This has been something that’s been ongoing ever since she was born.”
In a healthy person, Dr. Schuen said, the airways produce thin watery secretions, which are constantly moved and which provide defense against germs and trap inhaled particles such as dust and dirt. The secretions eventually move to the throat and mouth, where they’re coughed out or swallowed, thereby protecting the lungs.
“The airways are like tiny streams or streamlets that join up to bigger rivers, until they dump into Lake Michigan,” the doctor said. “That would be what’s normal.”
But with tracheomalacia, “it’s kind of like beavers building a dam in the middle of the river,” he said. “The water doesn’t move normally. It pools behind the beaver’s dam and it just stands there. It’s great for beavers trying to make a home, but not good for homeowners.”
The buildup of fluids in the respiratory system makes infections and bronchitis much more likely, he said.
Dr. Schuen had a suggestion: In addition to daily chest exercises and use of the vest, he recommended Whitaker learn a wind instrument. It could strengthen her lung function.
If the lung muscles were stronger and produced more air and pushed that air through Whitaker’s system more forcefully, she could more easily blow through that dam, reopening the river of air.
Whitaker and her parents took his advice.
In fourth grade, her school had a presentation about joining fifth-grade band. Whitaker jumped at the chance.
“Dr. Schuen said it would be a good thing for me to play an instrument,” she said. “He said the quality and quantity of life would be better with an instrument. But honestly, I just wanted to do it. Obviously there were health benefits, but I was like, ‘Oh, an instrument, that sounds cool!’”
She originally chose the clarinet, but couldn’t produce a sound. But she was one of only two children who could produce a sound on the flute, so she said, “Let’s do this one.”
By seventh grade she began taking it seriously, practicing more and more each day. And sure enough, her health slowly improved.
“I started getting less sick with colds,” she said. “It wouldn’t hit me nearly as hard. … When I get sick now, it’s just a minor cold, not 15 days in the hospital.”
Aiming for a career
Whitaker has turned her condition into a strength.
Before her senior year of high school, she enrolled at Interlochen Center for the Arts, a boarding school with an acclaimed music program.
“I went to their summer camp for one week and liked it so much I wanted to stay the whole year,” Whitaker said.
The flute program has only 14 students, half of them international. Only two are from Michigan. Most of the curriculum is arts-based. She takes two academic classes and the rest of her curriculum is courses like music theory, band, chamber music and orchestra.
She plays the flute as many as eight hours per day. She won two concerto competitions in 2017. And she was recently accepted into the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
She hopes to make a career as a flutist.
“We keep our fingers crossed,” said her mother, Laurie Whitaker. “It’s a very, very competitive field. But it’s really been neat. She got to play at DeVos (Performance Hall). She got to do a solo. It was quite an honor.
“It’s been a wonderful journey,” Laurie added. “Her health has been so great, partially because she’s playing a ton. When she gets sick, she picks up the flute and she feels like she can breathe better. And now she sails through colds and viruses like her peers. … I’m just so proud of her.”
Dr. Schuen called Whitaker’s story inspirational. The idea that a disability can be turned into an ability with the right mindset and commitment, he said, could resonate with a lot of patients.
“She’s turned a negative into a positive,” he said. “She could wind up going to Juilliard, Boston Conservatory, she could play with national or international fields.
“There are many people who have problems like Lauren. But she and her parents were, (1) proactive, and (2), very positive and innovative. When we made suggestions, they ran with it. … Lauren’s an incredible young woman. I’m really happy and excited for all of them.”
Get up close and personal with animals in West Michigan! Here, you’ll find animals that are native to the area, educational zoos, and even collections of extinct species. No matter what you’re looking for, West Michigan is sure to have a unique animal encounter for your entire family.
West Michigan zoos
John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids is home to over 1,400 animals including lions, tigers, grizzly bear, chimpanzees, penguins, and many more. During the summer months, they even offer a zipline, ropes course, petting corral, and many up-close animal encounters.
Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park in Alto is a unique, hands-on experience for the entire family. The park boasts a distinct collection of exotic animals and reptiles, making Boulder Ridge anything but your average zoo!
Even if you’re visiting Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek when they aren’t hosting an event, they’re still a great place to bring the family. Discover spectacular views of wild animals from elevated boardwalks, and get nose-to-nose with one of the largest giraffe herds in the country as you explore Wild Africa.
West Michigan wildlife hotspots
The city of Lansing is a great spot to take in some beautiful nature and unique animal encounters. From zoos and parks to exotic pet shops, there is something for everyone in Michigan’s capital city!
Looking to enjoy some Pure Michigan wilderness? Michigan State Parks are always a safe bet. From nature trails filled with deer and birds to lakes and rivers bursting with local fish, you are sure to see some astonishing nature on your next trip.
There are some great zoos not far from the city of Sault Ste. Marie. This summer, stop by to tour a couple of the state’s best zoos that the kids will surely never forget!
If you think that the bustling city of Grand Rapids doesn’t have much noteworthy wildlife to take in, then think again! Sit outside on the patio at JW Marriott’s restaurant, six.one.six, or The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck to take in local dogs being walked, birds flying by, and even potential fish jumping out of the Grand River.
The city of Bellaire is the perfect place to get your animal and wildlife fix this summer! Stop by the Grass River Natural Area to catch a glimpse of rare birds, turtles, snakes, deer, bobcat, fox, and much more. Or, head on over to Shanty Creek Resort. With 4,500 acres to explore, the resort offers a variety of options to get outside and be one with nature. Grab a pair of hiking boots, walking shoes, or even a bicycle to enjoy the on-site trails.
Gull Meadow Farms in Kalamazoo will be opening this September and you will not want to miss out! They offer an exceptional petting zoo, family-friendly activities, an apple orchard, pumpkin patch, and more. This is the perfect spot to kick off your West Michigan fall.
The city of Charlevoix is a great spot to take in some beautiful West Michigan nature and animals! Whether you decide to brush up on your reptile facts and stop in one of the historic museums in the area, or simply go for a stroll through a park, you are sure to see some wildlife, along with everything else the beautiful destination has to offer.
Head on over to Muskegon to take in some wildlife like never before! The area has some great animal rehabilitation centers and animal sanctuaries that you will want to have on your summer bucket list.
Coldwater Country is home to some must-see animal sanctuaries and wildlife gardens. From being able to feed alligators to enjoying guided tours, there is something for everyone in the family to enjoy.
Other unique ways to interact with West Michigan wildlife
Critter Barn in Zeeland is the perfect spot to learn all about farm animals and have the chance to get up and personal with chickens, ducks, rabbits, sheep, goats, cows, and so much more!
Stop by Nelis’ Dutch Village in Holland to visit their adorable and friendly petting zoo and have the rare opportunity to take a goat for a walk!
This summer, take the family to enjoy pony rides, hayrides, fishing, barn animals, and feed the sheep and goats at Teusink’s Pony Farm in Holland.
Take the kids to the Grand Traverse Butterfly House in Williamsburg where they can learn all about the wonders of butterflies and their bug relatives. Stop by to take part in educational presentations, classes, outside nature walks, or even host your next private party or wedding in the beautiful and scenic garden!
Stop by Double JJ Resort in Rothbury for the horseback riding adventure of a lifetime! From riding lessons to scenic trail rides, there is something for every experience level.
Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids is sure to blow you away with their beauty! They have many informative animal exhibits, not to mention the hundreds of exotic butterflies fluttering around.
Cran-Hill Ranch in Rodney is the place to be this summer. This remarkable youth camp offers a variety of great outdoor activities, including fishing, a petting zoo, and local favorite, horseback riding.
While the 2018 Metro Cruise was all about classic cars of the past, a scan of this year’s Cruise entries, especially the muscle cars and sports cars, makes evident that what was once futuristic in style and technology has always been part of what has made a car an eventual classic.
As part of its DreamWheels 2018 coverage of the Metro Cruise event, held Aug. 23-25, WKTV took a look at how technological advances in automobiles have always been, and continues to be, a desirable element of classics cars. We also looked at electric cars, delving a bit into the past but more so into the present and future.
It would not be far-fetched to say early 2000s cars such as the Dodge Viper, Ford Shelby GT and Corvette Z06 are all destined to be considered classic cars. And one thing they all had in common: evidence of the expansion of carbon fiber body parts from being a Formula 1 racing advantage to being a way to make street-legal muscle cars lighter in weight and, some would say, a bit cooler.
WKTV visited one local company — Walker’s Plasan Carbon Composites, Inc. — which makes carbon fiber body parts for a wide range if cars and talked with Adrienne Stevens, President & CEO of the company.
Then WKTV looked at the past, present and possible future of electric cars, ultimately asking the question: Is Tesla a classic-car must-have of the future? To find out, we asked a young — real young — car collector, Byron Center’s own Blake Dahlquist.
Each week WKTV features an adoptable pet — or few — from an area shelter. This week’s beauty is from Crash’s Landing. Crash’s Landing and Big Sid’s Sanctuary rescue organizations were founded by Jennifer Denyes, DVM (Dr. Jen), who is on staff at Clyde Park Veterinary Clinic (4245 Clyde Park Ave SW).
Beguiling, handsome Bunsen Honeydew is the coolest boy—we kid you not! Even if you ignore his twisty half-tail that curves to the right and those gorgeous ocean blue-green eyes of his, you can’t overlook his charm and the super-chill, surfer-dude vibe he gives off.
This fabulous four-year-old (born in the summer of 2014) came to us from the west side of Grand Rapids in late July 2018, after he was wrangled and whisked to Focus on Ferals to be tested for FELV and FIV (both negative, thank goodness) and neutered. He was initially thought to be a bit of a wild child; he appeared a bit rough around the edges (just look at his tattered and torn ears) from living on the streets for so long, had an upper respiratory infection and was terribly flea-ridden.
Once rescued, the boy gobbled down two entire cans of food in a flash — proof-positive that the way to a wayward boy is through his stomach.
At our free-roaming facility, Mr. Honeydew here instantly meshed with his new surroundings; in fact he is so laid back that he literally hangs out on top of our intake cages (doors are always open) and simply waits for a volunteer to approach him, make eye contact and wander on over to receive kisses! He is oblivious to the presence of the other cats as it is human companionship that he craves with every ounce of his beautiful being.
We would LOVE to be able to place him in a home where he can be the center of attention; though he won’t demand it, he will reciprocate with the sweetest gestures of gratitude and affection. If you are looking for a people-pleasing, sweet and stunning cat to be your cuddle buddy, Bunsen Honeydew is exactly whom you need to take home with you!
More about Bunsen Honeydew:
Large
Domestic Short Hair
Adult
Male
House-trained
Vaccinations up to date
Spayed
Not declawed
Good in a home with other cats, children
Want to adopt Bunsen Honeydew? Learn about the adoption process here. Fill out a pre-adoption form here.
Can’t adopt, but still want to help? Find out how you can sponsor a cat!
Crash’s Landing and Big Sid’s Sanctuary have a common mission: To take at-risk stray cats off the streets of the Greater Grand Rapids area, provide them with veterinary care and house them in free-roaming, no-kill facilities until dedicated, loving, permanent homes can be found.
David Alvarez grew up on the thin slice of rock between earth, sky, and sea called Gibraltar. With a view of the dying vestiges of British colonialism in his own life, he launched on a career of researching and telling about that provocative legacy in other lands. He chats with us about S. Africa, Palestine, and Healing Children of Conflict.
It is hard to believe it is time to start putting our gardens, lawns and flowers to rest for the winter. Michigan State University Extension offers these tips to make next year’s spring and summer vegetable and herb gardening easier and more fruitful.
As you pick and preserve your garden’s current crops, take time to prepare your soil for next year’s growing season. Remove all non-bearing, dead and diseased plants as you harvest your current crops. After frost has blackened the leaves on the remaining plants, pull them up and compost them. If they are diseased, take care not to add them to your compost pile, as many pests are able to overwinter and come back with a vengeance next spring.
Easy-to-do fall gardening chores for your vegetables
Remove all weeds and debris. This reduces homesteads for overwintering insects and diseases.
Till the soil. Fall is a great time to oxygenate the soil.
Tilling should be done once in both directions—a rough till is fine in the fall.
Tilling in the fall reduces the need for tilling wet, spring soil. Tilling wet soil is never recommended. Soil can be too sticky in early spring.
Adding organic matter, humus and manure in the fall allows time for it to become married to the soil. Organic matter is not immediately available for plants, so giving it time will have your plants functioning at peak performance earlier next spring.
Microorganisms are not as active in early spring; feeding them in the fall gives your garden a head start in the spring.
You may also choose to till in the organic matter.
A cover crop can be planted as an option to help improve your soil.
Winter wheat and cereal rye are good options for a Michigan garden cover crop.
If you have a very unruly area that has just gone to the weedy side, cover it with black plastic or cardboard and leave it until it’s time to plant in the spring to kill all sprouting seeds.
Easy-to-do fall gardening chores for your perennial herbs
Keeping your herb healthy during the growing season with well-drained soil, regular watering, fertilization and pruning is key to their winter survival.
Most herbs will also benefit from a good 2-to-4-inch mulch cover. Do not mulch heavily until after the first heavy frost—doing so before can actually weaken plants. Winter mulches help maintain soil temperatures and reduce frequent freezing and thawing.
It is a good time to cut dead wood from sage, oregano and thyme. Trim off dead flower heads.
Windbreaks or a covering of evergreen branches may also aid in the survival of many herbs, protecting them from harsh winds that tend to dry out less cold-tolerant herbs.
"Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving."- Albert Einstein
Love to Ride His Bicycle
Kentwood resident and avid bicyclist Ken Smith, 70, whose father was a fireman and son is a fireman, is riding from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean — Seaside, Oregon, to Boston, Massachusetts — in hopes of raising $30,000 to provide for possible care of and therapy for his grandson Jakob. He returned home last week, riding more 2,500 miles. He is set to continue the journey soon. Ken Smith has set up a Facebook page (facebook.com/rideforjake/) and a GoFundMe page (gofundme.com/ride-pacific-to-atlantic-for-jakob) to detail his journey and raise the funds.
Food for Thought
Hank Meijer
Meijer Chairman Hank Meijer, along with Richard Norton Smith, will be the featured lecturer this Friday for the Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. The topic is “Mackinac Conference at 75,” which will be presented at 7 p.m. at L.V. Eberhard Center, Room 215, 301 W. Fulton St. The series, which continues through Dec. 5, will feature eight speakers who will encourage meaningful discussions about leadership and the search for common ground at a deep level, without the heated political rhetoric of the day.
And While We’re Talking Food
You might want to put a big food truck doodle on Sept. 15 as that is when Kentwood will be hosting its third annual End of Summer Food Truck Festival. Nearly 30 trucks are expected to participate at this year’s event. We know it will be the end-of-summer celebration you won’t want to miss because Managing Editor Joanne Bailey-Boorsma is still talking about last year’s event and all the food choices. Oh, and for the beer lovers, there will be a beer tent running from noon to 10 p.m. featuring a selection of craft beers.
Districtwide, all students are receiving free breakfast and lunch this school year, and they say it’s a big benefit to families.
“It’s helpful because a lot of people don’t have a lot of money and they have to use money for other things,” said Wyoming Junior High School ninth-grader Carlos Mejia as he ate a healthy lunch of leafy-green salad and fresh fruit. Around him, in the cafeteria, students noshed pizza, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese and submarine sandwiches.
“Now, my parents don’t have to worry about paying for me,” said ninth-grader Hayde Rodriguez.
Joining Grand Rapids and Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, approximately 4,400 students at Wyoming’s four elementary schools, the fifth- and sixth-grade Intermediate School, the junior high and Wyoming High School now have the opportunity to eat school meals at no charge. Also, Godwin Heights Public Schools, which has already offered free breakfast and lunch for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, is expanding free meals to all high schoolers.
Mike Slager, Wyoming and Godwin Heights food service director, said Wyoming has become eligible through the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. CEP allows schools with a high percentage of low-income familie to provide all meals free without collecting household school meal applications.
Food service workers Cheri Arend and Debbie Sheick serve up lunches, now free for all students
Feeding Hungry Students
“I anticipate we will serve more children,” Slager said. “It erases any sort of a stigma that kids who are eating lunch in the cafeteria are the free-lunch kids. Clearly it is going to enable folks to have more disposable income.”
About 73 percent of students districtwide qualified for free or reduced-price lunch last school year. According to 2018 data, Wyoming Public Schools served 52,417 breakfasts schoolwide, of which 36,140 were free and 5,016 were at a reduced price. The district served 62,805 lunches, 45,242 of them free and 6,669 reduced.
Full-priced lunches were $2.75 for fifth- through 12th-grade students and $2.25 for kindergartners through fourth-graders. Reduced lunches were 40 cents. Breakfast was already free for kindergarten through ninth-grade students and $1.50 for high schoolers.
Principal Jon Blackburn said some families who did not qualify for free or reduced lunch were right on the cusp of qualifying. Also, students would run out of money in their school meal accounts and not reload it.
“This will have a huge impact,” Blackburn said. “Some families were so excited. … It is nice to know every kid will have access to a lunch.”
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) has announced that a brand new show will begin this fall in the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium line up! Beginning, Saturday, Sept. 15, The Queen Light Show: From Mercury with Love, “will rock you!”
New life is brought to the wildly popular classic rock light show format with an original production set to the music of Queen. Experience 10 of Queen’s greatest hits in this brand new show, including favorites like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust” and “You’re My Best Friend.”
The Queen Light Show: From Mercury with Love is brought to the Chaffee Planetarium from Longway Planetarium in Flint, MI.
The Queen Light Show will play at 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Planetarium tickets are $4 each with purchased general admission to the Museum, $5 each for planetarium-only tickets and free to Museum members. For more planetarium show times and to purchase tickets, visit grpm.org/Planetarium.
While Rich Robinson is in no way forgetting his past roads travelled, or the musical legacy he and brother, Chris, formed with the Black Crowes, he is moving on musically with a new journey and a new band, The Magpie Salute.
Among other proofs is the name of his new band, which will make a stop at 20 Monroe Live in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
“I’ve always loved the element of crows, but they have a dark connotation,” Robinson said in information supplied to WKTV. “Magpies are revered by ancient and indigenous cultures around the world, because they walk that bridge between dark and light. A magpie is also a cousin to a crow. This band (is) a cousin to the Crowes.”
Robinson, in an interview with WKTV, dug a little deeper into the relationship between his past with the Crowes and his present with Magpie.
“The music I wrote for the Black Crowes, with my brother, was what it was, you know,” Robinson said. “The way I write music is the way I have always written music. I do not believe in changing the way you write music, or to try to sound like something or to try to not sound like something. I think it should just be natural. That being said … I think there is a little bit of both, but hopefully it comes down the listener, what the listener choses to hear and get out of what you do.”
Pulled together in 2016 by guitarist/songwriter Robinson, Magpie Salute includes Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Sven Pipien, vocalist John Hogg, and keyboardist Matt Slocum and drummer Joe Magistro, both of whom have played with Robinson before.
Together they have recorded their full-length debut of original material, High Water I, released this year, with High Water II to come in 2019. The band’s debut recording, in a twist on the usual sequence of recording events, was actually recorded live, The Magpie Salute (Live), last year.
Forming Magpie Salute “was really like a bunch of friends getting together to go on tour and have fun, to celebrate some of the songs and the music we have made in the past, covered, and even ones that we have made individually,” he said. “That is really what it was. It was a very natural process. We just put this band together … there wasn’t a master plan. We did not necessarily know what it would be in the future. What I like about it is that it is pretty unconventional. You don’t overthink anything like that.”
As far as the songs on the new album. Those, too, came naturally.
“Towards the end of the tour, last year, we started writing songs knowing that we wanted to make a record, to become a band, and that is ultimately what happened,” he said. “Toward the end of last year, we just started messing around with some ideas that Marc, John and I had. It was really cool at that time. As the tour came to an end, we knew what we wanted. … and we took some time in January to make that happen.”
For now, Robinson said, doing something new — performing with Magpie Salute and with the guys in the band — is where is he at right now.
“Everything is new and everything is going to go in the way it chooses to go,” he said. “Ultimately, this is what I have done since I was 19 … 30 years later I am still doing this. It is always cool to find different avenues, different contexts to play in, with different people. Those elements are what I am interested in and why I continue to choose to make music.”
Blue Spoon will again be at Kentwood’s End of Summer Food Truck Festival. (WKTV)
By City of Kentwood
The City of Kentwood will host the third annual End of Summer Food Truck Festival, with nearly 30 food trucks scheduled to be on hand, on Saturday, Sept. 15. The event is in partnership with GR Loves Food Trucks.
The free-to-attend event will run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., in the parking lot of the Kent District Library – Kentwood (Richard. L. Root) Branch. Throughout the day, there will be live music, a beer tent and a variety of local eats.
“We think there’s something for everyone at the End of Summer Food Truck Festival,” said Val Romeo, Kentwood Parks and Recreation director. “It’s meant to be an event you can spend the whole day at enjoying food, drinks and live music and meeting your neighbors.”
Food trucks attending the event include: Blue Spoon Catering and Event Planning (kabob, Tex-mex); Maui Wowi (Hawaiian smoothies and frozen coffees); Ice Box (gourmet ice cream bars); Ananda Ice (rolled ice cream, shaved ice); Doughrunts (miniature topped doughnuts); Patty Matters (gourmet burgers and fries); Silver Star Café LLC (sandwiches, wraps); Moochies (popcorn, ice cream, cotton candy); Fire and Rice (vegan and gluten-free paella); Pig Out on the Fly (pulled pork topped fries); Tamale Rose (tamales, burritos); Coffee Rescue (coffee drinks, frozen lemonade); Kona Ice (shaved ice); Porters BBQ (barbecue); Rise and Grind (coffee drinks, frozen lemonade); Crepes by the Lake (sweet and savory crepes); PorkFat Slim’s (barbecue); Saladino Smoke (barbecue); Do Your Wurst (brats, hot dogs); Underground Cookie Club (gourmet ice cream sandwiches); Lazy Man BBQ (barbecue); Daddy Dough (cookies, with gluten-free and vegan options); D&D Gluten Free (topped fries, rice bowls, chicken tenders, all gluten-free); Summer Pops (gourmet ice pops); Babatuck (gyros, kabobs); D&W Eatery (smoked tacos, smoked vegan options); Detroit’s Original Coney Island (hot dogs, chili dogs); Yochef (gyros, tacos).
“Food trucks offer foodies a delightful mix of talented chefs and fast-food time frames,” said Alan Stone, president of GR Loves Food Trucks. “When we have an event like this where so many food trucks come together, you can really feel a bustling community atmosphere.”
Local live music will be featured on stage starting at 1 p.m. with bands such as Allie Garland, Erika Scherry, Kari Lynch and Orquesta Ritmo.
A beer tent will be open from noon to 10 p.m. and feature craft beer and cider.
Teams of two will be able to compete in a corn-hole tournament during the event. Anyone can register by calling the Parks and Recreation Department at 616-656-5317.
While the festival includes free-entry, cost for food and beverages varies by vendor.
At one time in China, a woman’s value was judged by her marriage and children. For Imperial wives and concubines, this could mean life or a secret death. Author Anchee Min introduces Tzu His who became China’s last empress. Orchid, as she was known in the Forbidden City, began life as an innocent country girl who became the Emperor’s fourth wife.
While others have told Empress Orchid’s story, author Min uses her own childhood in China to tell this story of a girl turned goddess. Orchid rises above all other women in the Forbidden City to become her Emperor’s favorite wife. She gives him an heir and, when enemies threaten China, leads her people as regent for 46 years.
Min’s native tongue helps give the story its scope. Her descriptions tell a tale of a time when the Boxers were gaining power and the Imperials were losing it. It was a time when the wives and concubines of an emperor fought for the chance to have an heir and the power and security that a son could bring. Orchid is the Cinderella of 19th century China: a woman who had to become more than a simple country girl to rule her people in peace and justice.
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
The Commissario Guido Brunetti Series
by Donna Leon
Your plans for a trip to Italy fell apart? Until you can visit Rome or glide through Venice’s canals, do this: Take up with a policeman.
Donna Leon, an American living in Italy, has just brought out the 15th book, Through a Glass Darkly, in her mystery series set in Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti is patient, principled and long suffering in the pursuit of justice in a bureaucracy that is often corrupt. He is married to Paola, who cooks wonderful meals and provides shrewd commentary. You finish a book feeling you’ve had a privileged homestay and seen sites far from the tourist track.
It’s best to begin the series with the first book, Death at La Fenice, since the author often refers to earlier incidents. Here, in the celebrated opera house, the world-famous conductor Maestro Helmut Wellauer, is poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Brunetti, accustomed to the mazey corruptions of Venice, is surprised at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top. That title is followed by Death in a Strange Country, in which the body of an American soldier is found in a canal. Next in the series is Uniform Justice, in which a cadet from Venice’s elite military academy is found hanged. The investigation leads to a wall of silence and hostility.
The series is very popular throughout Europe, and is gathering lots of fans in the U.S., many of whom also couldn’t vacation in Venice this year.
By Bill Hill, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
March of the Penguins
by Luc Jacquet and Jerome Maison
It is a strange life.
The Emperor penguins are born into darkness at the coldest end of the earth. To get to their mating territory 70 miles inland, they must waddle in short steps for a week through a hazard of up thrust ice scored by crevasses. As deep winter comes on, the females hatch one egg each, pass it to their partner and make the long march to the shore to feed and recover. The male Emperors stay behind cradling their precious eggs on the tops of their feet. They will huddle together through the long Antarctic winter going without food for as much as four months.
The darkness and terrible cold ease as the sun climbs higher. Shortly after the eggs hatch the females return, ready to spell the exhausted males who now must totter to the sea. The parents take turns shuttling to the sea for food till their chicks are old enough to make the journey themselves, and the cycle begins again.
Despite its billing as the “Official companion to the major motion picture,” this book is a distillation of the movie in 160 pages of photos with the movie’s narration for text. There is a short end chapter on the making the film. The publisher, National Geographic, has produced a handsome and fascinating book, one that could be shared with the rising generation.
By Bill Hill, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Dakotah Treasures Series (Ruby; Pearl; Opal; Amethyst)
by Lauraine Snelling
Hearing that her father is dying, Ruby Torvald takes her little sister Opal and leaves New York City for the wilds of Little Missouri in Dakota Territory. When they arrive in this pioneer town, they are shocked to discover their father is very near death and owns Dove House — a sordid bar, complete with barmaids. Before he dies, Per Torvald makes Ruby swear she will “take care of the girls” — the soiled doves in residence. Ruby finds herself suddenly faced with life on the frontier in a barely-there town.
Over the course of four books, Snelling tells the story of Ruby Torvald and Little Missouri. The author focuses on each of four women: Ruby Torvald, Pearl Hossfuss, Opal Torvald, and Amethyst O’Shaunasy. These women find themselves in circumstances often beyond their control in a time when women were not considered strong in body or emotion.
Ruby finds herself taking on the reform of Dove House while her younger sister Opal confronts societal views of women in the West. Pearl goes from riches in Chicago to a one-room schoolhouse in Little Missouri, and Amethyst comes to find her lost nephew Joel in Medora. The four women learn something about themselves and about God in this Inspirational Fiction series.
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
You don’t always remember what they say, but you remember how they make you feel. The people we encounter throughout our day have the ability to improve our lives one interaction at a time.
In their various roles in service industry jobs Jen Joseph, Dave Janes and Chris Testillo interact with many people every day. They’re on their feet all day, working long hours, yet they serve their patients or customers with care, respect and a smile. Their service has been so impactful to others that they have been recognized for it!
These three outstanding employees are Essential Service Awards winners. Here is some of what their employers/customers have shared about them:
Jen Joseph, nurse aide, Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, 2017 winner
For almost 30 years, Jen has worked tirelessly with our staff and patients to ensure the best care possible. She approaches every situation knowing exactly how to help or what to say. For example, there was a family whose mother was not making a lot of progress. The family was upset. Once Jen walked in, the patient lit up and the family’s mood shifted.
Dave Janes, post office clerk, US Postal Service, 2016 winner
Dave makes going to the post office a delightful experience. He provides true customer service to each individual waiting in line, regardless of their attitude. I’ve seen Dave diffuse tense situations with angry customers through humor. He genuinely cares about his customers and attempts to connect with each one personally.
Chris Testillo, CNA, Sunset Retirement Communities & Services, 2015 winner
Chris will pick up shifts on the schedule even when she doesn’t want to, to ensure her team is always staffed. She is often helping others once she knows her assigned residents are well taken care of. Our follow-up satisfaction surveys always mention Chris by name as someone who went ‘above and beyond’ for them for their stay.
Do you know someone who goes above and beyond in their service industry job? Nominate them for a 2018 Essential Service Award: westmiworks.org/esa.
Employment Expertise is provided by West Michigan Works! Learn more about how they can help: visit westmiworks.org or your local Service Center.
By Joy Fountain, Vision Technician Supervisor at Heart of the City Health Center
Do you use a computer, cell phone or tablet at work, school or home? You may have noticed symptoms related to excessive use of these digital devices. Computer vision syndrome, also known as digital eye strain, is the combination of vision and eye problems associated with the use of any device with an electronic display.
Some of the most common complaints reported with computer vision syndrome include:
Eyestrain
Tired eyes
Glare
Irritation
Redness
Blurry vision
The good news is an eye exam can help make your eyes more comfortable while using these devices. Anti-glare lens coatings are available for glasses. This will significantly decrease the computer screen glare (as well as glare from headlights). Often times, a person experiences blurry vision, because the eyes do not focus well. In this case, making the text larger on your device or using glasses would help.
If you experience any of these uncomfortable side effects with use of a digital device, please schedule an appointment to get your eyes checked today.
Celebrating its 50th year, the annual Fallasburg Arts Festival is presented by LowellArts and will be held on Sept. 15 and 16. The two-day festival includes 100 fine art and fine crafts booths, timeless craft demonstrations, live music, children’s activities, and food booths.
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 10am-5pm.
Admission is free.
Location: Fallasburg Park, 1124 Fallasburg Park Drive, Lowell, MI, 49331.
Artist booths are juried and a broad range of different mediums are represented including jewelry, sculpture, ceramics, glass, fiber, mixed media, wood, painting, drawing, photography, floral, basketry, print-making, and more. Demonstrators of traditional crafts are located in the pavilion. Visitors of all ages are invited to watch the artisans at work. Demonstrations include iron forging, mosaic, fly tying, leather craft, origami, quilting, wood carving, weaving, and more.
Musical entertainment is held on an outdoor stage both days of the event, featuring a variety of music styles.
Saturday music line-up:
10:15am The Bruce Matthews Band
11:30am Paddy’s Cure
1pm Fauxgrass
2:30pm Hawks and Owls
4pm Josh Rose and the Founding Fathers
Photo courtesy LowellArts
Sunday music line-up:
10:15am Lighting Matches
11:30am Steam Powered Bluegrass
1pm The Cheater B’s
2:30pm The Adams Family
An enclosed Children’s Area provides children the opportunity to decorate and take home a pumpkin. Food booths offer an array of fall-inspired and festival foods, offered by local community organizations. Visitors are invited to purchase raffle tickets to win one of over 90 artist-made items donated by festival artists or the grand prize quilt created for the event. Annual attendance estimates are 25,000. This year’s event sponsors are Fifth Third Bank, Meijer, All-Weather Seal, and Local Spins.
Fallasburg Park is located off Lincoln Lake Road north of downtown Lowell at 1124 Fallasburg Park Drive, Lowell, MI. Lowell is located 14 miles east of Grand Rapids and 1-hour from Lake Michigan and Lansing. For more information, contact LowellArts at (616) 897-8545, e-mail info@lowellartsmi.org or visit lowellartsmi.org.
Karen Gomyo, who had taken up Suzuki violin only a few months earlier, was just 5 ½ years old when she decided she would make music her life’s work. That was after her mother took her to a performance by the famous violinist Midori Goto.
“After seeing Midori, I just wanted to do what she was doing,” Gomyo told the Winnipeg Free Press in November 2012.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Gomyo was scheduled to make her Grand Rapids Symphony debut but had to cancel at the last minute. In September, the Canadian violinist will be on stage to open the Grand Rapids Symphony’s 89th season with Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto.
Music Director Marcelo Lehninger will be on the podium for Beethoven’s 7th at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday Sept. 14-15, 2018, in DeVos Performance Hall. Appointed Music Director in July 2016, Lehninger enters his third season at the helm of the Grand Rapids Symphony.
The opening concerts of the 2018-19 Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series opens with Leonard Bernstein’s Divertimento and conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. The Concert Sponsor is Spectrum Health. Guest Artist Sponsor is the by Edith I. Blodgett Guest Artist Fund.
“It’s such a wonderful way to start a season,” said Lehninger. “Not only with Beethoven, but with that Beethoven Symphony.”
In the climactic scene of the 2010 film The King’s Speech, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, King George VI overcomes the stammer he’s had since childhood to announce on radio that The United Kingdom was at war with Nazi Germany.
As King George VI, portrayed by actor Colin Firth, addresses the nation on BBC radio, the gravitas of the moment in the film is supplied by the solemn and stirring allegretto from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
Beethoven’s mature Symphony No. 7 in A Major is known today for the rhythmic vitality of all of its movements. All four are in a faster tempo than was normal for the time, giving the symphony a fiery energy seldom heard in the concert hall.
Leonard Bernstein’s Divertimento, a cheeky work full of nods to other composers, inside jokes and extraverted humor was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1980.
Samuel Barber, best known for his Adagio for Strings, composed his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14, just before his 30th birthday. The neo-romantic work looks nostalgically to the past in its first two movements while the finale, which is more irregular and aggressive, looks to the future.
Gomyo (pronounced “GAHM-yo) has performed with top American orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra in the United States as well as with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Tokyo to a French-Canadian father and a Japanese mother, Gomyo moved to Montreal at age 2 where she began studying Suzuki violin. At age 11, Gomyo moved to New York City to study at The Juilliard School with violinist Dorothy DeLay, the legendary pedagogue whose students include Itzhak Perlman and Sarah Chang as well as violinists such as Midori and Anne Akiko Meyers, all of whom previously have graced the Grand Rapids Symphony’s stage.
At 15, she became the youngest violinist ever accepted on the management roster of Young Concert Artists. In 2008 at age 26, she was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Gomyo, who served as violinist, host and narrator for a documentary about Antonio Stradivarius titled The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, performs on a 1703 Stradivarius violin that was bought for her exclusive use by a private sponsor. Unlike many Stradivari, the instrument dubbed “Aurora, ex-Foulis” never was owned previously by a renowned violinist. Through the entire 20th century, it only had three owners, including Gomyo, which also is rare for an instrument of this caliber.
Gomyo said it took her years to get acquainted with the instrument because an instrument such as a Stradivarius has its own character.
“It comes with a strong personality and you can’t impose yourself on it. You have to let it speak,” Gomyo told Utah based classical music writer Edward Reichel in October 2015. “I’ve had my Stradivarius for 10 years, but it’s only been in the last few years that I can say that I have bonded with it.”
Inside the Music, a free, pre-concert, multi-media presentation sponsored by BDO USA, will be held before each performance at 7 p.m. in the DeVos Place Recital Hall.
Tickets start at $18 and are available at the Grand Rapids Symphony box office, weekdays 9 am-5 pm, at 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 100, (located across from the Calder Plaza), or by calling 616.454.9451 x 4. (Phone orders will be charged a $2 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum.)
Tickets are available at the DeVos Place ticket office, weekdays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. or on the day of the concert beginning two hours prior to the performance. Tickets also may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.
Full-time students of any age are able to purchase tickets for only $5 on the night of the concert by enrolling in the GRS Student Tickets program, sponsored by Calvin College. This is a MySymphony360 eligible concert.
What kicks off with a Labor Day Bridge Walk at 10am and goes all day long? Why, the West Michigan Labor Fest at Ah-Nah-Awen Park, from 11am-5pm Monday, Sept. 3rd.
Enjoy free admission all day to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum; free, live entertainment by Rochelle & the Spoilers, Mustang Band, Evidence, Krystal Klear, and Mark Swanson.
Fun things for the kids include a penny throwing contest, free rides on the kiddie Ferris wheel, jump for free in the Bouncy House, free rides on the Berry-Go-Round. Your little ones can also create sidewalk chalk art, enjoy free Country Fresh ice cream, and face painting.
Don’t forget the food: Patty Matters Food Truck, Coney Girl, Saladino Smoke, D&D Gluten-free Food Truck, Kona Ice, and more to be announced later. Dad (and mom) can check out the beer tent.
Local arts and crafters will be selling jewelry, candles, wood, clothes, crocheted items, fused glass art and more.
‘American Made’ car and motorcycle show and shine, with dash plaques to the first 50 cars in the show!
Following record attendance three years in a row, the Michigan Irish Music Festival is expanding its grounds. The festival’s seventh covered stage will be positioned on The Point at Heritage Landing, space previously inaccessible to festival patrons. The Belfast Stage will feature live music, new dining options, beverage offerings, and more.
The Belfast Stage is named for the capital of Northern Ireland, a fitting choice since The Point is the northernmost location at Heritage Landing. Festival-goers will find everything they need near the new stage, including powder rooms with running water, a Blarney Bucks station, a bar, and two food vendors new to the festival. One such vendor is downtown Muskegon favorite Curry Kitchen, who will be serving butter chicken, samosas, and other Indian cuisines. The second vendor, Camzie’s Pizza, will offer two-topping wood-fired pizzas, as well as an Irish pizza option.
The Michigan Irish Music Festival runs from Sept. 13th-16th. MIMF will kick off the 2018 festival with a Pub Preview Party on Thursday night. The Pub Party will give patrons a preview of the weekend with food, beverage, and three bands in the pub tent only. Admission is $5 (cash only Thursday). The full festival opens Friday, featuring over 30 bands on seven covered stages and an extensive selection of food, beverages (domestic beer, Irish whiskey, Irish cider, and local craft beer), shopping, and cultural offerings – including some returning favorites:
The Celtic Highland Games All day Saturday, the Celtic Highland Games return with competitors, both men and women, participating in the stone throw, sheaf toss, 16-lb. hammer toss, weight for height and distance, and the ever-popular caber toss (a log approx. 18’- 20’ long).
John “Red” Shea The author of New York Times bestseller Rat Bastards returns to the festival after captivating audiences back in 2012. Shea talks about his life in the notorious Boston Irish mob, a compelling story of one of the most powerful Irish mobs in American history.
Celtic Beard Bout Presented by Lumbertown Beard Barons, this family-friendly beard and mustache competition celebrates facial hair of all shapes and sizes and the cultural significance of beards in Ireland.
Celtic Canines Come to meet the dog breeds that originated from the Emerald Isle and learn about what each breed was originally intended to do. If you’re interested in owning one for yourself, chat with the owners to find out if the breed is right for you!
Limerick Contest Awaken the poet within you, or just come and enjoy one of Ireland’s most popular literary traditions. Not for the faint-of-heart, experience our local authors’ pithy and humorous takes on subjects such as sex, politics, love, death, and more.
Learn How to Play the Bodhrán This all-ages hands-on presentation is a great introduction to the bodhrán, a percussion instrument traditionally made with a wooden body and goat-skin head and played with a double-headed stick.
How to Speak Gaelic Through presentations and an ongoing exhibit by West Michigan Gaeltacht, patrons can enjoy learning and speaking the Irish language.
Session Tent Festival musicians are joined by walk-in amateurs as they participate in impromptu jam sessions, carrying on the Irish tradition of “session music.” Bring your instrument and join in the fun!
Wake House Visit Cathy Jo and Steve Smith for a glimpse into the cultural traditions of an actual Irish wake. Much more than a funeral, an Irish wake is a celebration of life with three days full of dancing, drinking, and singing.
Advance tickets and festival passes are available online through Wednesday, August 29th, after which tickets are only available at the Heritage Landing box office starting on Thursday, September 13th. Patrons can save $5 per ticket versus the gate price when they buy online. The festival offers an Early-In Free promotion on Friday only from 5-6PM, sponsored by Family Financial Credit Union. Other major sponsors of the festival include G&L, Van’s Car Wash, and Budweiser. For complete festival information, visit michiganirish.org.
“Without music, life would be a mistake.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
WKTV offers marathon of local concerts on cable
Delilah DeWylde’s shows are always a blast, as her visit to Wyoming this summer proved. (Supplied)
WKTV community media will once again host its Wyoming Concerts in the Park Marathon this Labor Day, Sept. 3. The program will air on WKTV Comcast Channel 26 and AT&T Channel 99, starting at 9:30 a.m. and ending after midnight. For more information, click here.
Labor Day weekend music at Founders
Looking for a little live music, and maybe a brew or two? Jam out at Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids this Labor Day weekend with live performances on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, click here.
Last Meijer Gardens summer concert is Monday, Labor Day
+Live+ is alive and kicking out the jams. (Supplied)
The Meijer Gardens Summer Concert Series finishes its season Monday, Sept. 3, and the +Live+ concert still has tickets available. The multi-platinum band from Pennsylvania have sold over 22 million albums worldwide and earned two number one albums. +LIVE+ has been and remains today a global concert juggernaut. For more information, click here.
And today’s fun fact:
14,320,000
Rounded to 14.32 million, the number of vinyl albums sold in 2017, a Nielson Music-era high, up 9 percent from the previous one-year high — 13.1 million in 2016.
The easiest way to get started is with walking because it’s low-impact and low-risk, and all you need is a pair of supportive walking or running shoes. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)
By Len Canter, HealthDay
Though you may face challenges if you’re carrying excess weight or haven’t been active in a long time, you can still get fit and gain all the benefits that exercise has to offer.
The easiest way to get started is with walking because it’s low-impact and low-risk, and all you need is a pair of supportive walking or running shoes.
Begin by scheduling one dedicated walk each day, and then find opportunities to take additional steps, like going window-shopping at lunch or walking in place instead of sitting while watching TV. You might like the impetus of a home treadmill, which you can set at a slow speed to start.
Our Take
The most important thing is to set up “accountability measures” like telling loved ones of your goals and scheduling exercise time into your calendar each day, said Phillip Adler, a certified athletic trainer with the Spectrum Health Medical Group Sports Medicine Program.
“We all have cell phones: Write it into your schedule and set reminders. That’s the first step,” Adler said.
In addition, telling people of your goals creates “that second layer of accountability” because now there are people who expect you to workout and will encourage you to stay on your plan.
Another simple way to exercise at home is to get more dynamic with everyday activities. For example, pick up the pace as you do household chores, and work in sessions that are at least 10 minutes long.
You can also dive into exercise by working out in water, whether you swim or take a water fitness class. Water makes you feel lighter and more agile, so many people find it easier to move in a pool than on dry land.
Riding a stationary bike is also less strenuous on your body than weight-bearing exercises, even walking. Try a recumbent bike; its seat is lower to the ground and your legs will be extended, which may feel more comfortable to you.
Just don’t let enthusiasm put you at risk of burnout by doing too much too soon. Increase the length and the intensity of your workouts at a slow, steady pace as you progress.
No back-to-school season would be complete without Kevin Henkes’ wonderful picture book, Chrysanthemum. This book tells the story of a young mouse’s first experience at school and the confusion she feels over having a unique name. The story touches on teasing and self-confidence in a gentle and humorous way. Although targeted at pre-school and kindergarten readers, it appeals to slightly older children as well through the universal experiences of Chrysanthemum. A nice family read with a fun twist at the end.
Shugby Jenny Han, follows Annemarie “Shug” Wilcox through the perils of seventh grade: new friends, first crushes and a new school. Han appeals to a wide audience through a main character who is not your average girl. Shug is believable—a real person with real problems, normal family issues and less than perfect solutions. While some of the situations seem more likely to happen to a slightly older girl, Jenny Han is right on with the details, and readers will empathize with Shig’s experiences.
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar uses humor through the viewpoint of a geeky kid named Scott who approaches high school with a very different perspective than his older brother Bobby. Scott sets out to win a classmate’s heart by joining the school newspaper, running for student council and auditioning for a play. Although Bobby is popular with the girls, Scott becomes invisible. Many of Scott’s difficulties appear as hilarious lists dedicated to helping his unborn sibling make it safely through high school. The situations Scott encounters are realistic, and Lubar has a superb comic sense.
Bass Ackward and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain looks at four girls embarking on their first year of college. Written in chapters that feature each of the characters (similar to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares), the story covers four months of their lives as they follow their various dreams. At first, this book appears to be somewhat predictable, but the authors stay true to the characters Harper, Kate, Sophie and Becca in developing the story and keeping it real.
By Laura Nawrot, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Grand Rapids—Community and Industry by Thomas R. Dilley
A second book by Tom Dilley, one of Grand Rapids premiere postcard collectors, has just been released by Arcadia Publishing in their Postcard History Series. This volume covers aspects of Grand Rapids History between 1900 and 1960. Intended to supplement the themes developed in Dilley’s first book, Grand Rapids in Vintage Postcards 1890-1940, the book features 116 postcards, most from the author’s personal collection.
Dilley gives us glimpses of life in Grand Rapids in the first half of the 20th Century. Postcards portray street scenes, scenic views, recreation and local events, such as the flood of 1907 and John F. Kennedy’s visit to the city in 1960. The book features businesses of Grand Rapids, including formerly prominent establishments such as Herpolsheimers, the Pantlind Hotel and Joppe’s Dairy Company.
The earliest postcard views of neighborhoods portray Heritage Hill streets and homes. As the city grew outward, neighborhoods such as Madison Square, Eastown and Ottawa Hills are shown. Ramona Park and Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids became favorite amusement spots, as evidenced by many postcards.
Different types of postcards are reproduced in the book, including rare leather cards and double or panoramic postcards. Dilley also included two collectible series of cards: the Mr. Rover cards and the 1910 Homecoming postcards. Dilley’s book will interest postcard collectors, historians, researchers and anyone who might enjoy taking a stroll down memory lane.
Tom Dilley will be a presenter at the Grand Rapids Public Library’s annual Celebration of the Book on Wednesday, October 18 at 7:00 pm in the Ryerson Auditorium, Main Library.
By M. Christine Byron, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Ken Smith was welcomed by family and friends in his West Michigan home area, while firemen and fire departments have been rallying to his cause across the nation. (WKTV/K.D. Norris.
Kentwood resident and avid bicyclist Ken Smith arrived back home Wednesday, 2,500 miles into a west coast-to-east coast trip to raise funds for his grandson, Jakob, and awareness of all persons with neurological damage.
He biked into town with a photo, and loving memories, of Jakob in front of him and the sure knowledge that his hometown fire departments and fire departments across the nation have his back.
Smith, 70, whose father was a fireman and son is a fireman, is riding from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean — Seaside, Oregon, to Boston, Massachusetts — in hopes of raising $30,000 to provide for possible care of and therapy for Jakob.
And while on the road, and in his West Michigan home area, firemen and fire departments have been rallying to his cause.
“The support from firefighters has been wonderful so far,” Smith said, surrounded by family and firemen at the City of Kentwood Fire Department Station 1, near City Hall.
Smith first gained support when he went to the City of Grand Rapids fire department and got a letter of introduction which he and his sister, Lois Unbehagen, have used to notify fire departments along his route of his pending arrival.
“I’d go up to them (fire departments) and knock on the door, and they’d let me in,” He said. “We stayed at a couple fire halls along the way, or they made provisions to put me up in a hotel. … In Orofino, Idaho, I was met by a police escort.”
And when he came home for his short stay — his wedding anniversary is next week — the Kentwood Fire Department was welcoming and supportive as well.
“When we heard about Ken’s journey, we felt it was important to help provide a warm welcome home,” Kentwood Fire Chief Brent Looman said to WKTV. “Jakob’s father is a firefighter and adjusts his schedule to care for his son. We know first-hand how the fire service is a deeply rewarding, yet demanding vocation. Being there to welcome Ken back to his hometown was the least we could do to show our support for the family.”
It is all about family
Supporting family — specifically son Jason and daughter-in-law Sue, Jakob’s parents — is the driving force behind Ken Smith’s journey. Jason is a firefighter in London, Ontario, Canada.
“At Christmas time (2017) I said (to Jason) ‘What happens if something happens to you?’ He said the biggest challenge they’d have is for a care provider. An emergency care provider. And for speech therapy. … (Jakob, now 16 years old) was supposed to die at the age of two, that is what the neurologist said. They said he’d never speak, never walk. Well, he does walk, but he doesn’t speak. And so he needs speech therapy as well. He just turned 16. But if anything happens …”
“I just had this idea at Christmas time, I said, ‘Well, I’m going to raise funds. What I am going to do is I’m going to ride my bike from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It was an old bucket list, a thing I wanted to do,” Ken Smith said. So far he has travelled about 2,500 miles in 38 days and “I got another 800, 900, a thousand miles to go.”
With every mile, though, front and center on his mind is Jakob.
“He’ll never know, but all the time I think about him,” Smith said, fighting back tears as he spoke. “You have no idea, as I went across the country, people who said ‘My son, my daughter, my sister, my brother, somebody has the same kind of condition. And what your doing is going to touch people.’ I had his picture there all the time. And I will say that not one time during the trip did I say ‘I wish this thing was over.’ The only thing I did say was ‘I wish this day was over.’ ”
And as far as making his $30,000 goal?
“Those funds are earmarked for his care … I am nowhere near that. But I believe the Lord is in control and what will happen will happen.”
Volunteers help Bowen Elementary School first-grader Peng Thang get fitted, while fifth-grader Rosung, 3-year-old Scofield and father Titus enjoy the moment
Hundreds of parents with their kindergarten through fourth-grade students gathered recently at In the Image, a clothing and furniture ministry at 1823 S. Division Ave. in Grand Rapids, to receive a free pair of new back-to-school shoes. In the Image’s annual “Shoes Help Our Elementary Students” program put shoes on the feet of 1,700 students from more than 39 elementary schools this year. Qualifying schools, which have a high percentage of low-income students, included Kentwood, Grand Rapids, Godfrey-Lee, Godwin Heights and Wyoming schools.
Tri-unity High School head football coach Tim Heath talks to his 8-may football team during a practice this week. (WKTV)
By Micah Cho, WKTV Intern
ken@wktv.org
When Tri-unity High School head football coach Tim Heath talks about his 8-man football team, now in its third year of existence, and its home opener against Ashley, he sounds like all football coaches talking football.
After all, just because they play on a smaller field without two lineman and one position player, as compared to the more common 11-man football, football is still football.
So Coach Heath, in an interview with WKTV this week, talked about his team’s strengths and his dangerous Week 2 opponent as the Defenders (1-0) prepared for their Thursday, Aug. 30, clash with Ashley (0-1) at a field at 5651 Gezon Court, Wyoming. The game is WKTV’s featured game of the week, and will be rebroadcast on WKTV cable channels.
“I expect a big, fast football game,” Heath said. Ashley has a “very quick quarterback, on film. The quarterback likes to put the ball in the air. They have very quick and tall receivers who like to catch the ball. They’re bigger than we are defensively.”
This is Ashley’s first year as an 8-man football squad. Tri-unity is in its third year but advanced to the state semifinals in 2016, and finished 11-1 overall, before going 6-4 a year ago.
Tri-unity opened the season with an impressive road win, 82-0, at St Joseph Lutheran, while Ashley lost to AuGres-Sims, 56-12, on the road last week.
Coach Heath’s team has 13 players this year, so many play both ways. But he thinks more about his teams strengths than their numbers.
“We’re very good defensively and we’re fast,” he said. “We’re fast to the ball. A lot of team speed. And something you just can’t trade, experience. We returned seven of eight starters this year from a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs last year.”
These and other sports events are cable broadcast either live, immediately after the event and/or in rebroadcast, on Comcast WKTV Channel 25 and on AT&T U-Verse Community 99.
WKTV’s featured football games are rebroadcast on the night of the game (Thursday or Friday) at 11 p.m. and Saturday starting at 11 a.m. See WKTVjournal.org/sports for complete schedules.
WKTV’s coverage of high school sports and select community events are also available on-demand within a week of the event at wktvondemand.com.
On Saturday, Sept. 8, Crane’s will sit back, fill a glass of delicious hard apple cider, and celebrate its fourth year as a family owned winery. This year’s party will take place in the Walnut Grove at Crane Orchard’s just down the hill from the restaurant, bakery, and winery at 6054 124th Ave., in Fennville.
CiderFest is a day full of live music, cider and wine tasting, delicious food, and great friends, as everyone is invited to join the Crane family to raise a toast. The event will last from noon – 6 p.m. and will consist of two live bands, games, giveaways, pie-eating contests, and much more! Michael Hulett will take the stage first from noon until 3 p.m. and the rock group Pretty Rage will follow up from 3 until 6 p.m. Your ticket will include a commemorative CiderFest pub glass, six tasting tickets that can be used for wine, cider, or different food options offered at the event. Your name will also automatically be entered to win some amazing Crane’s goodie baskets.
Tickets are $15 for pre-orders and $20 at the gate. You can get yours by calling 269-561-2297 or by visiting Eventbrite.com and searching Crane’s CiderFest 2018. What better way to kick off apple season than to come out to the farm in Fennville, pick some apples, eat some pie, and grab a glass of the tastiest cider West Michigan has to offer!
Visitors have their last chance to explore the fascinating and complex world inside our bodies in Zoo In You: Microbes, before it closes on Sept. 2. Trillions of microbes make their homes inside our bodies and Zoo in You allows all ages to discover our microbiome — a dynamic, adaptable and delicately balanced ecosystem much like any other found in nature.
At Zoo in You, learn who our constant microbial companions are, where they live, how diverse they are and in what ways scientists are discovering just how important they are to our personal health. Explore this vibrant world of our inner microorganisms through engaging, interactive, and bilingual exhibits and programs.
“Zoo In You has been wildly popular among visitors all summer long.” said Kate Kocienski, VP of Marketing & PR. “Featuring a variety of games, puzzles, video and digital experiences, this exhibit is hands-on and engaging for all ages to learn more about science. It’s a great way to keep the entire family entertained while learning.”
Zoo in You has three thematic areas: Meet the Microbes, Our Complex Ecosystems and Exploring our Microbiome:
Meet the Microbes
Go on an interactive journey to learn all about the four major types of microbes that live in and on us! From bacteria to archaea, fungi to viruses, these tiny non-human organisms outnumber our human cells ten to one. Through hands-on activities, learn about “good” microbes, watch how our microbiome reacts to every day occurrences, and manipulate a marble maze to learn how a newborn baby is first colonized by microbes.
Our Complex Ecosystems
Delve deeper into the lives of microbes with green screen technology to get a “weather report” on the climate conditions of your nose, mouth, gut or skin, and a touch-screen video game that challenges guests to keep gut microbes in balance. Adults and kids alike are invited to explore the eye-opening hand “washing” station to observe just how long it takes to be free of germs.
Exploring Our Microbiome
Get up close and personal with microbes as they answer tough questions and use a microscope to examine real preserved specimens. Build your own viruses using puzzle pieces, assemble DNA strands as quickly as possible, and even try your hand at matching DNA patterns to the correct microbes. Plus, a unique photo opportunity allows you to imagine what they would look like as a microbe.
Zoo In You is free with general admission to the GRPM and runs through Sept.2. For more information, visit grpm.org/ZooInYou.
Zoo in You was produced and is toured by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This exhibit was made possible by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Sean Blackman presents Mexico in Transit” has been announced as the second event in the Latin Entertainment Series, celebrating Latin culture in Michigan. The series is presented by SMG-managed DeVos Performance Hall and the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority’s Community Inclusion Group (CIG). “Mexico in Transit” is a journey of sounds from Mexico featuring Banda, Cumbia and Mariachi with a fusion of Detroit Soul. The second series event will take place at DeVos Performance Hall on Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 7:30 PM. A third Latin Entertainment Series event will be announced soon!
Tickets go on sale Friday, August 31 at 12 PM. Tickets will be available at the DeVos Place® and Van Andel Arena® box offices, online atTicketmaster.com, and charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000. VIP tickets include a reserved seat in the first few rows and two (2) complimentary drinks.
About Sean Blackman
Sean Blackman has been honored with many Detroit Music Awards, launched and directed World Music Festivals and worked as creative director of entertainment for corporate events for Red Bull, Chrysler and the grand opening of the McNamara Terminal at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport – one of the nation’s most state-of-the-art terminals.
As an established world-music musician, Blackman continues to compose and produce new material that links different genres of music with dance and theatrical performance. Whether on the streets, in front of thousands at a theater concert, or inside a smoldering hidden nightclub, Blackman’s music is disciplined from a lifetime of training, yet his raw passion makes every note seemingly intimate.
Speakers hosted by Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies will generate meaningful discussions about leadership and the search for common ground at a deep level, without the heated political rhetoric of the day.
The Hauenstein Center will feature eight speakers on topics ranging from contemporary politics to history to public health, featuring authors, policy experts, journalists and historians to explain many facets of public leadership and political difference.
The events are a cross-section of the Hauenstein Center’s two main speaker series: Wheelhouse Talks and the Common Ground Initiative. Wheelhouse Talk speakers will focus on leadership experiences while Common Ground Initiative speakers will cover history and the shifting terrain of American civic life today.
The series kicks off with Debra Furr-Holden, Director of the Michigan State University Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions, who works on structural and policy interventions to improve public health for the city’s residents following the Flint water crisis.
Other speakers will include noted West Michigan historians Hank Meijer and Richard Norton Smith, who will discuss the enduring significance of the GOP Mackinac Conference 75 years ago; Dean of Yale Law School Heather K. Gerken, who will discuss how, in a polarized political environment, members of the left and right can use federalism to address their differences productively; and George H. Nash, a presidential biographer and historian who will address “American Conservatism and Populism in the Age of Trump.”
The full fall schedule is as follows. Event descriptions and free registration are available at www.gvsu.edu/hc/events
Debra Furr-Holden: Leading for Public Health in Flint
A Wheelhouse Talk event
Friday, August 31, 4 p.m.
Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, Richard M. DeVos Center, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Hank Meijer
Hank Meijer and Richard Norton Smith: The Mackinac Conference at 75
A Common Ground Initiative event
Friday, September 7, 7 p.m.
L.V. Eberhard Center, Room 215, 301 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Heather K. Gerken: Federalism in the 21st Century
A Common Ground Initiative event
Tuesday, September 18, 7 p.m.
Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, Richard M. DeVos Center, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
William Deresiewicz: What is Art in the 21st Century?
Partnership with Grand Valley’s Fall Arts Celebration
Monday, October 1, 7:30 p.m.
L.V. Eberhard Center, Room 215, 301 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Joe Jones: Empowering Grand Rapids
A Wheelhouse Talks event
Friday, October 5, 4 p.m.
Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, Richard M. DeVos Center, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
George H. Nash
: American Conservatism and Populism in the Age of Trump
A Common Ground Initiative event
Tuesday, October 16, 7 p.m.
Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, Richard M. DeVos Center, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Kathy Crosby: Leading to Build Goodwill
A Wheelhouse Talks event
Friday, November 30, 4 p.m.
Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, Richard M. DeVos Center, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Gleaves Whitney: Seeking Common Ground: A Dumb Idea — or the Best Hope for America?
A Common Ground Initiative event
Wednesday, December 5, 7 p.m.
Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, Richard M. DeVos Center, 401 Fulton Street West, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
All events are free and open to the public, but registration for each is requested at gvsu.edu/hc/events.
Cabildo performed July 10 at Wyoming’s Concerts in the Park.
Not able to make it to the Wyoming Concerts in the Park? Or was there one you missed that you would still like to see?
WKTV has got you covered. The station will once again host its Wyoming Concerts in the Park Marathon this Labor Day, Sept. 3. The program will air on WKTV Comcast Channel 26 and AT&T Channel 99.
The line up is:
9:30 am Wyoming Concerts in the Park: The Porters
11:00 am Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Delilah DeWylde
12:35 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Valintiger
1:35 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Kari Lynch Band
3:10 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Cabildo
4:45 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Soul Syndicate
6:20 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Blue Soul Express
7:55 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Matt Gabriel
9:30 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Yellow Brick Road
11:12 pm Wyoming Concerts in the Park: Adams Family
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
