Fair-trade chocolate shop employs at-risk youth
Nearly two years ago, a chocolate shop opened in Kalamazoo, called Confections With Convictions--convictions as in the criminal justice system. Dale Anderson employs at-risk young people, teaching them...
View ArticleThe Kalamazoo Pipe Band offers bagpipe classes
If you want to start something new in the New Year, you might consider the Bagpipe. Piping classes and practice will start on January 8 at the First Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo.
View ArticleOne-room schoolhouse restorers reminisce about class in rural Michigan
Rural life in a one-room school district was simpler than today. Doors were seldom locked. There is a one-room school in St. Joseph County which has been preserved for students and others to experience...
View ArticleSeniors have fun while tap dancing their way to health
“You don’t even realize you are exercising,” one dancer offered. Another said, “My balance is better. My flexibility is better.” Bob Husser feels that a lot of people would like to tap dance but...
View ArticleCompost tea provides natural alternative to lawn fertilizer
It’s officially spring and while some people are starting to think about fertilizing their lawn, others are using compost tea.
View ArticleRetiree finds new joy in the tuba, despite bad memories
“I didn’t play my horn for a long time because I just got burned out, played too many funerals,” says Kalamazoo tuba player George Forrester Sr. He plays with the Kalamazoo Concert Band. Their concert,...
View ArticleLet worms do the work on your garbage
The next time you put food scraps down your garbage disposal or in your garbage can, consider using nature’s garbage disposal, vermicomposting. Vermi is Latin for worm. So, it’s composting using worms.
View Article'Neither snow nor rain': Museum shows what it took to get your mail
Wanted: Young skinny wiry fellows. Not over eighteen. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages were $25 per week.This is an example of what you might find at the...
View ArticleKids get confident with easy-going music method
“There are some students who may be struggling academically. They come in here and because it’s very hands on and tactile and kinesthetic. They’re able to excel at it. The smiles on their faces going,...
View ArticleOrff music method easy-going for kids
“There are some students who may be struggling academically. They come in here and because it’s very hands on and tactile and kinesthetic. They’re able to excel at it. The smiles on their faces going,...
View ArticleLearn how hard cider is made at Virtue Cider in Fennville
Michigan is one of the top three growers of apples in the country making it a great place to produce what in this country we call ‘hard’ cider. In England, France or Spain, it’s simply called cider...
View ArticleMichigan Shakespeare Fest: Good actors make good Shakespeare
"Shakespeare's plays are never about the day nothing happened. They're always about the day something amazing happened," says Janice L. Blixt, artistic director for the Michigan Shakespeare Festival.
View ArticleJail turned into museum, used in Andy Warhol movie
The old Allegan County jail was built in 1906. It’s now a museum that houses the Historical Society’s collection from several periods of life in Michigan. The museum also uniquely tells the story of...
View ArticleWill your death be green? Environmentalists choose natural burial
There are three certified green burial sites in Michigan. Bobbi Parmer and her husband have chosen to be buried at Ridgeview Memorial Gardens, a non-profit site near Grand Rapids.“My husband and I, we...
View ArticleGoing coast-to-coast by bicycle
Fifty-nine-year old Mel Church of Kalamazoo has averaged 55 miles-a-day bicycling coast to coast this summer. He began June 4th on the Pacific coast and reached Colorado on Tuesday, July 16th. Except...
View ArticleScientist finds her way to glass art
When Gloria Badiner of Mattawan saw some glass art, she instantly fell in love. She was a working scientist at the time.“Glass is a material that has a scientific component to it,” Badiner says, “so,...
View ArticleKids learn bike independence through Open Roads
The Open Roads Bike Program teaches kids how to work on their bikes. Through a Kalamazoo Community Foundation workshop, Ethan Alexander created the five-year-old program.
View ArticleDog park provides social atmosphere for dogs and humans
The muscles in Elliott’s body tighten with anticipation as he spots some dogs pulling on their leaches, heading to the gate at the Fairmount Dog Park in Kalamazoo. The dog park is Elliott’s reason for...
View ArticleFor the love of trees: Growing hundred year old giants
When a seed falls from a tree, what are the odds that it will take root and then grow for 300 years or more? Norm Bober in Van Buren County increases the possibility. As a teenager, when his family...
View ArticleNative Americans not just a page in history, says Nokomis Learning Center
The word Nokomis means grandmother in Anishinaabe. The Nokomis Learning Center in Okemos, Michigan does what grandparents do in native culture; they pass down the education, the wisdom and the traditions.
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....