Encore-2012-001

t JANUARY 2012 www.encorekala www.encorekalamazoo.com

Bobby Hopewell

Leads the Way

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

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Meeting with the family, we listened carefully to their wishes that any new trusts should be structured in a manner that provided for current needs, while limiting withdrawals to ensure long-term capital. We took on their administrative headaches, and oversaw the intricate account transfers from numerous banks and holding firms. We reapportioned inappropriate investments so as to align risk and safety. And, over time, by creating educational trusts, generation-skipping trusts and related sub-trusts, we simplified and clarified “the rules of the road” so that the family’s intrinsic values would be upheld for generations to come.

Family trust—in every good sense—was restored.

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Alyssa Thompson, Schoolcraft, Michigan, May 31, 2011

If Bronson Positivity has impacted your life, we’d like to hear from you. Share your story at bronsonpositivity.com.

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WE NEVER EXPECTED to work in the same place, side by side. In fact, early in our marriage, I used to tell Krieg that we could never be employed by the same place. He is all Type-A manufacturing man, and I am more creative and fluid. He is the Myer-Briggs poster child for ESTJ; I am INFP. Even when we labored together on home renovation projects, I always handled the hammer a bit differently than he thought appropriate. I saw the glory at the end; he was focused on all the niggling steps to getting there.

Secretly, I wished I could be a fly on the wall in his office at the plant. I wanted to see him in action and how he managed people, projects and products. He didn’t get to be Mr. Manager Man at home — not for lack of trying — but he learned pretty quickly that persona was best left at the door.

Turns out I got that wish. My husband’s office is a mere 20 feet away and I have a close-up view of the man in motion. We are doing what we thought impossible: working together, running a business. We are gaining new appreciation for each other’s strengths and talents. We are learning to communicate in an entirely new way — we throw our often loud, disparate views on the business into a blender and spin it around until something coherent and workable comes out.

Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell, who graces our cover, would call that collaboration. He would know, as collaboration is behind his successful efforts to improve our community. As is revealed in writer Bill Krasean’s feature, for Bobby, working together is the only way to work.

Simply by accident, working together is a prevalent theme in this issue. Like Krieg and me, sisters Colleen Carpenter-Ullrey and Danette Carpenter-Littel have learned to never say never. They, too, found themselves surprised at how life’s circumstances brought them together to run the Portage roller-skating rink started by their parents. But they keep rolling along happily.

It’s that connection with another as you travel down a difficult path that works well for members of the Southwest Michigan

Photo: Penny Briscoe

Working Together

Sometimes it helps to keep a holly bush between your co-worker and you (Krieg and me, in this case).

Institute of Recovery. By pairing people suffering with mental illness and substance abuse with a peer who has been in that same dark place, this organization improves chances for their members to maintain their recoveries and lead full lives. Three of those peer support specialists tell us about their experiences.

On a lighter note, Dan Sytsma, chemist by day and improv comedian by night, describes not only how these two divergent aspects of his personality manage to meld, but also how he and the other members of the improv troupe Crawlspace Eviction can create on-stage magic when they have no idea what their castmates are going to do.

Perhaps, though, our best model of working well with others is the Scotese-Dacoba family of La Cantina and Mangia Mangia restaurants.

For 80 years, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters have worked side by side to bring great Italian food to West Michigan.

Anyone who has had a LaCantina pizza knows that this family’s kitchen collaboration is true art.

As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success.”

— Marie Lee, Editor

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Publisher Encore Publications, Inc. Editor Marie Lee Consulting Editor Penny Briscoe Advertising Sales/ Business Manager Krieg Lee Office Manager Ronald Dundon Copy Editor Cherri Glowe Poetry Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil Feature Photographers John Gilroy Erik Holladay Contributing Writers Kaye Bennett Theresa Coty O’Neil Bill Krasean Brian Lam Larry Massie Maureen Massie Patrice Mindock

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MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

6 Kalamazoo Mayor BOBBY HOPEWELL continues his mission of making the region ‘a great place to live.’

10 Life keeps rolling along for the sisters that run LONG LAKE ROLLER RINK.

SPECIALS 4 FROM THE EDITOR 22 SPIRIT OF KALAMAZOO

The City’s Past in Full View

Contributing Poets Arnold Johnston Kirby Snell Designer Brakeman

14

23 CREATIVE KIDS

Serving Italian fare is all in the family for La Cantina’s DACOBAs.

24 Foto STOP

From Backyard to Big Screen Picturing Life in SW Michigan 26 MASSIE’S MICHIGAN

The Buzz About Bees

19

37 TRIVIA PURZOOT

Improv comedian DANN SYTSMA

40 EVENTS OF NOTE

brings the unexpected to stage.

Photo: Brian Lam

Encore magazine is published nine times yearly, September through May. Copyright 2012, Encore Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising correspondence should be sent to 350 S. Burdick, Suite 214, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. Telephone: (269) 383-4433. Fax number: (269) 383-9767. Email: Publisher@Encorekalamazoo.com. The staff at Encore welcomes written comment from readers, and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to print or return them.

To learn more about us or to comment, you may visit www.encorekalamazoo.com.

Encore subscription rates: one year $27.00, two years $53.00, three years $78.00.

Current single issue and newsstand $4.00, $10.00 by mail. Back issues $6.00, $12.00 by mail. Advertising rates on request. Closing date for space is 28 days prior to publication date. Final date for print-ready copy is 21 days prior to publication date.

Photo: John Gilroy

POETRY 36 At O’Hare International Airport

30 Peer relationships fuel the work of the

45 The Poet Celebrates His Moon

Goddess

SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN RECOVERY INSTITUTE.

Cover photo: John Gilroy Photography W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

5

Bobby Hopewell Working well with others works for Kalamazoo’s Mayor.

K

By Bill Krasean

6

ALAMAZOO MAYOR Bobby Hopewell likes to quote his former boss, Mark Meijer, about why paramedics come in twos.

Mark, currently president and CEO of Life EMS Ambulance, notes that it’s not just because one drives while the other cares for the patient.

It’s also because there are two brains working together to pursue the best possible patient care outcome.

That kind of collaboration, in a nutshell, is at the base of Hopewell’s philosophy and path in life that has led him to prolific community service and three terms as mayor of Kalamazoo.

“There are a lot of great brains in Kalamazoo,” says Hopewell, 47, and a Kalamazoo native. “When you focus those brains in an effort to do the best for the

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community, we can continue to make this an attractive place to live.

“I don’t have a definition of what it means to be a great place to live, but look around. Larry Bell started Bell’s Brewery, Mark Smutek started Water Street Coffee Joint, there’s the Kalamazoo River Trail, the AirZoo, WMU, K-College and KVCC. We have the Kalamazoo Promise, we have an award-winning library and downtown.

“This is what is called ‘place making,’ making a place that is attractive where people want to live, play and work. That is the work I am trying to do with others.”

Hopewell, director of hospitality services at Borgess Medical Center, was born April 2, 1964, in Borgess not far from his current fifth-floor office. His bookshelf says

Photo: John Gilroy

a lot about his interests: Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope,

by President Barack Obama; Lessons in Service by Charlie Trotter; and Community Capitalism by Ron Kitchens, CEO of Southwest Michigan First.

Hopewell graduated in 1982 from Kalamazoo Central High School where his best subject was government. His mother, Magnolia Bodley, was his first role model for community service; she was active in her church, scouting and other community agencies and organizations.

“I always knew I wanted to participate in community service,” says

Hopewell, who currently sits on a number of boards and has devoted three decades of work to one of his passions, Pretty Lake Vacation Camp.

After graduation from high school, he took courses to become a paramedic, working for Cereal City Emergency Medical Services in Battle Creek and Gull Lake Ambulance Services in Richland.

He quickly moved up the administrative ladder, but still took time to attend Western Michigan University in hopes of teaching.

In 1990 he was promoted and named director of program development at LifeCare Ambulance. He later became operations director at Life EMS, eventually developing the company into one of the first ambulance firms in the nation to receive national accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services.

Over the years he earned an associate degree in health technology from Kalamazoo Valley Community College and a bachelor of arts degree in public service and EMS administration from Sienna Heights College. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in human resource development at Western Michigan University.

At Borgess, he leads a team of more than 250 people who work to provide a clean, safe and comfortable environment for employees and patients. He is responsible for clinical and organizational nutritional services, courier services, environmental services, housekeeping and recycling, the mailroom and switchboard.

Prior to joining Borgess in 2005, he was community relations manager for Bronson Healthcare Group for seven years, working to promote community health improvement and wellness efforts.

His first stint in city government came in 1992 when he was appointed to the City of Kalamazoo’s Zoning Board of Appeals, serving for two years. Three years later he became chairman of the city’s Planning Commission, serving until 1999. At that time the City Com-

mission passed a rule that a resident could only serve on one board at a time — and then promptly made an exception for Hopewell.

“They called it the ‘Hopewell Exception,’” he says with a smile.

He subsequently chaired a charter review process that made several recommendations to the City Commission about elections and other changes, only one of which was adopted by the commission. “The recommendations would have made changes that commissioners knew would affect them and they decided not to make the changes,” he explains.

In 2002–2003 he was a member of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation Community Investment Committee. At that time he decided to run for the City Commission and earned 4,818 votes in his first run for office. He served his rookie term under then-Mayor Robert Jones during what would be Jones’ last mayoral term.

“This is what is called ‘place making,’ making a place that is attractive where people want to live, play and work. That is the work I am trying to do with others.”

Hopewell ran again in 2005 and was elected vice mayor. In 2007, he was elected mayor by a 54-vote margin. He was re-elected mayor in 2009 and again in 2011.

“We always ran our campaigns with the understanding that we would run for the top seat, but even if we didn’t get it the fact that we ran hard ensured that I would be on the commission,” he says.

“We worked hard enough to demonstrate to the community what good leadership could bring.

“Once I was elected mayor, I enjoyed the journey and wanted to stay on that journey with this wonderful city.”

W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

7

Hopewell

His role as mayor allows him to pursue his desire for collaboration. “As a collaborator, I don’t need the credit,” he says. “It’s not about me, it’s about working with others to accomplish positive things for the community.

“I love not necessarily being the one to lead the charge. Sometimes you drive the car, sometimes you let someone else drive while you navigate and sometimes you sit in the back seat resting, waiting for the right time to help.”

While he devotes his time to the City of Kalamazoo, his view is more wide-ranging — what’s best for the county and for Southwest Michigan.

That includes the City of Portage, a contiguous community where leaders in the past have not always lived in harmony with those in Kalamazoo. No longer.

“I consider Bobby to be a friend and a close colleague,” says Peter Strazdas, the four-term Portage mayor. “While we don’t talk to each other every day, we both have the other’s cell phone number and we talk frequently.”

Bobby’s commitment to children is evident as he reads to youngsters in a park.

Peter says that while the two cities have somewhat different cultures and values, he and Hopewell respect each other enough to overcome differences.

“Well before our time it was not a very good situation between our two cities,” Peter says. “But in one year — 2005 — the cities had an extraordinary change with two Trained as a paramedic, new mayors and two Bobby was once the head of operations for new city managers.

Life EMS. It was the year that Hannah McKinney and I were elected.

That was a bellwether moment. There was no more old baggage. And since then Bobby and I have maintained the same good relationship.”

“The only real difference between Portage and Kalamazoo is Kilgore Road,” he says. “We are separate cities, but some of the issues we face should not have 8

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a definitive boundary and the Kilgore Road boundary continues to blur.”

Given his job and community service, Hopewell barely sits still. In his off hours — and there aren’t many — he enjoys riding his road bike around the community and especially on the new trail system that will hopefully link Battle Creek and Portage with South Haven sometime in the near future.

He is particularly partial to the new Kalamazoo River Valley Trail that connects the downtown to the venerable Kal-Haven Trail, describing it as “awesome.”

“I’m also an avid movie goer,” he says. “I love going to the Rave Theater, especially on Sunday nights.”

His two decades of public service have been a lifelong aspiration as is (continued on page 37)

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Sisters Danette, left, and Colleen, keep the Long Lake Skating Rink rolling along.

The first skate in the “new building” in 1958.

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HIS IS THE STORY of two little girls who, quite literally, grew up in a roller-skating rink.

And how those grown-up girls have devoted their lives to preserving that skating rink and shepherding it through economic ups and downs toward its 60th anniversary. And it’s the story of the rink itself and the magic that happens there.

It was 1943. Robert (Bertie) Carpenter met Alta (Al) Landes at a roller rink in Kendall, Mich. He had enough time to

Miller bands playing there. For a while, the building housed the Ranch House restaurant, but later years weren’t so kind to the site.

By 1952, when Al and Bertie came to Portage, the pavilion had been standing empty for a few years. Its owners, Chet and Carol Leathers, decided to lease the building to the Carpenters to see if they could make a go of the roller-skating business.

The fine old building was transformed

“Mom didn’t focus on cooking,” the sisters say. “Her best dish was cheese and crackers.”

The floors were spotless, however, and, more importantly, the girls had both parents at home all the time.

“That’s the benefit of a family business,” Danette says. “Mom practically invented Take-Your-Daughter-to-Work Day.” The little girls would nap under the counter inside the rink’s front door — the same counter and the same door where

Sisters Keep Wheels Turning

By Kaye Bennett

teach her to skate and fall in love with her before he shipped out overseas.

When World War II ended, Bertie and Al, who married in 1944, decided to open a skating rink of their own.

Some family members were not pleased.

“Gramma Carpenter called it a carnival job,” says Bertie and Al’s younger daughter, Danette Carpenter-Littel.

But the young couple had their dream. Some friends owned an old dance pavilion on Long Lake in Portage. The building, erected around 1920, had originally been part of a summer home park linked to Kalamazoo by trolley. A beach house was on the lower level, a dance floor was upstairs, and canoeing and tobogganing made the pavilion a yearround destination. Old-timers remember the likes of the Tommy Dorsey and Glenn 10

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into a rink, and on June 20, 1952, opened for business. According to Danette, “Mom always said they opened with a ’37 Buick and $40 in their pockets.”

The business was a huge success from the start, and the Carpenters purchased the building from the Leathers family. The lower level of the rink became the couple’s home, and the family grew. Colleen was born in 1955 and Danette in 1960. Both girls grew up thinking that it was normal to have a skating rink upstairs.

“Our friends’ houses,” recalls Colleen Carpenter-Ullrey, “were so different.”

Other homes seemed so small compared to theirs, which came equipped with maple skating floors, a snack bar and a six-car garage where Bertie restored cars and built airplanes. Their friends’ homes also had real kitchens.

Danette and Colleen work today.

Bertie and Al Carpenter were local legends during their long careers at Long Lake Roller Rink. Judy Imanse, 70, grew up in Vicksburg and still lives there today, remembers skating at the Long Lake rink when she was in junior high school. She and her friends “. . . always thought Al was so beautiful, with her long dark pony-tail.”

A thrill, she says, was the “Couple’s Skate,” when Bertie dimmed the lights and skaters rolled to the “Tennessee Waltz.”

Al ran the business side, while Bertie wore the skates, playing music, teaching lessons and supervising games. It was exhausting, but at 5 p.m. every day, the family sat down to dinner together.

Both parents were frequently too tired for conversation, but family dinnertime was sacred, say their daughters.

Bertie Carpenter (right) taught Alta (Al) Landes (left) to rollerskate before shipping off to war. He married her upon his return.

Colleen (above) and Danette (right) thought it was normal to grow up in a house with a roller rink upstairs.

The original building had just one skating floor, the smaller of the two maple floors in the building today, now known as the beginners’ rink. In 1958, the main floor was added. According to Colleen, who was just three years old when it was built, that addition is still known in the family as “the new building.” The “new building,” the Carpenter daughters say, has aged gracefully; its floor is still in beautiful shape and its acoustics are amazing.

Al and Bertie modeled the behavior

bankruptcy court handed the keys back to the Carpenters in 1983.

Three years of neglect had taken a toll on the building, so family members, friends and lots of skaters banded together to paint, clean and refurbish it. Soon the Carpenters and the rink were back in business. This time, oldest daughter Colleen was helping out. “I came to paint,” she says, “and I’ve been here ever since.”

Bertie Carpenter died of cancer in 1990. According to the priest at his funeral — which started 45 minutes late,

later, with the groom, minister and the bride in her wedding dress all on skates.

Just two years after Bertie’s death, cancer would also claim Al. Danette says she took her mom to the hospital in 1991, and then she, too, ended up back at Long Lake, working at the rink with her sister.

They both had looked toward theater careers (see related story); neither ever envisioned themselves working back in Portage at the family’s roller rink.

But after Al’s death in 1992, “we couldn’t bear to shut it down,” the sisters

The girls who grew up in a roller rink come full circle. they wanted to see, not only in their own daughters, but also in the hundreds of youngsters who skated at the rink. According to Danette and Colleen, their dad “was an amazing judge of character” and their mom “always remained a lady.” There were rules at the rink and Al and Bertie made sure they were strictly enforced. Colleen recalls that the New Year’s Eve skating parties were “the only night Dad would allow kissing. . . but no necking!”

Al and Bertie once tried to get out of the roller skating business, but it was not to be. After almost 30 years, they wanted a change and Colleen and Danette had, in their words, “. . . made it clear we had no interest in running the rink.” So in late 1980, the Carpenters sold the business.

But the buyers turned out to be not only broke, but unprincipled, and the federal

thanks to the overflow crowd who wanted to pay its respects — Bertie had a lot of children who looked up to him through his nearly half century at the rink.

Their father’s death hit the girls hard.

Shortly after Bertie died, both Danette and Colleen were married, just five weeks apart. Both were married at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Portage, with receptions held at the family rink. When your family has a skating rink, they explain, you never have to rent a hall.

Colleen says that many of the “rink kids” wanted to attend her wedding, but she was afraid that her attention at the actual ceremony would be too divided between the children’s safety and her own role as bride. To accommodate them, she and her new husband, Steve Ullrey, held a second ceremony at the rink a few months

say. Keeping the rink going also helped the daughters work through the grieving process.

At first, they viewed running the business as a chance to complete their parents’ legacy. “Those first years without Mom and Dad were scary and intimidating,” says Danette.

The work is hard. Colleen estimates that for every hour the rink is open, she and her sister spend five hours behind the scenes. In contrast to their parents, both Danette and Colleen are always on skates when the rink is open. Their mother did not wear skates when she wasn’t on the skating floor, but her daughters have discovered that, not only can they move faster on skates, but the skates “make us taller.”

Friday evenings at the rink have, from the earliest days, been a time for

W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

11

Long Lake

Rink Not So Far From Stage After All

kids. The rink provides a safe place for kids to learn socializing skills as well as skating. Colleen and Danette say that the age group most attracted to the weekly kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skate is that between elementary and seventh grades. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are too old to be with their parents all the time, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re too young to be anywhere alone ever,â&#x20AC;?

Danette says.

Like their father, the Carpenter sisters enforce behavioral rules, but they also look for teachable moments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If a kid doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember to take his change at the snack bar,â&#x20AC;? says Danette, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll track him down and give him a math lesson.â&#x20AC;?

Historically, skating rinks always played organ music, designed to mask the sound of noisy skate wheels on wood ďŹ&#x201A;oors; through the years, however, wheels have gotten a lot quieter and music a lot more varied. At Long Lake, Colleen and Danette still play a lot of retro music and, even when newer music is played, there are rules: The rink will not play any mu-

MORE THAN ROLLER SKATES have kept the Carpenter family rolling along together: Their love of music and stage also spans the generations.

Bertie Carpenter â&#x20AC;&#x201D; who would grow up to play recordings that kept people skating for nearly half a century â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was a ďŹ ddler at barn dances when he was just a child, playing a half-size ďŹ ddle tucked up against his tummy.

Al Landes-Carpenter, his wife, grew up singing in church choirs.

Theater beckoned to Bertie and Alâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two daughters. Colleen majored in theater and music at Olivet College and Danette studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California.

Both daughters were somewhat sic that contains curse words, advocates violence, is sexually explicit or degrades women or minorities.

Since taking over as co-owners in 1991, Colleen and Danette have seen

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surprised to ďŹ nd themselves working back at the family rink after their father died and their mother became sick, but neither believes theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve abandoned their love of theater. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Something happens when that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Openâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sign comes on,â&#x20AC;? Danette says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like putting on a show.â&#x20AC;?

The show biz bug has even bitten the next generation. Danetteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest daughter, 26-year-old Joanne â&#x20AC;&#x201D; who acts under the name Joanna Carpenter â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is a working actress living in New York. A 2004 Vicksburg High School graduate, Joanna has appeared in regional theater and with the touring group of Cirque Dreams Holidaze, which appeared at WMUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Miller Auditorium in November. roller-skating roller-coast, economically.

The meltdown in their industry hit immediately following Sept. 11, 2001. After the attacks in New York and Washington, they explain, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Parents were afraid to take their children to places with large groups of people.â&#x20AC;?

After a few years, Americansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conďŹ dence began coming back, but unfortunately for the roller skating industry, that coincided almost perfectly with the rise of inline skating. Suddenly, lots of people were skating, but they were doing it outside, on trails and sidewalks. During those years, hundreds of rinks across the country closed. Then, when the rest of the country was starting to panic ďŹ nancially, around 2007, roller-skating began a resurgence. Young families had to tighten their belts and discovered roller-skating as an inexpensive activity all family members could do together. They began coming back to the rinks.

The Freeds are typical of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s young skating families. Ed, Kammi and their three young children found that Long Lake Roller Rink offered a comfortable way for them to make new friends after they moved to Portage from Philadelphia two years ago. Kammi Freed called the rink to schedule an anniversary party, and, before long they found themselves regulars at the Thursday night coffee

skate, where they could make new grownup friends but still skate with their kids.

“It’s our home away from home,” Kammi says. Colleen and Danette “scooped us up and took us in.”

The Carpenter sisters have seen some changes in their customers through the years. Many of today’s younger parents, they say, are so busy and overscheduled that they look forward to getting to the rink, where they can relax and just concentrate on skating around in circles. Kids have changed, too. When a young skater stopped in the middle of the floor to text message recently, other skaters started running into her and Colleen says she had to clear the floor. That was a problem Bertie Carpenter never had.

Some trends come and go. Long Lake Roller Rink was one of the first rinks to introduce video games, back when Pac Man and Space Invaders were new. Then, in 1985, Long Lake removed its video games.

“When it was time for the couple’s skate,” the Carpenters explain, “the boys all went over to play video games and the girls just stood there.” Today, the rink remains video-free.

Skating lessons have always been an important part of life at the rink. Colleen and Danette have no idea how many thousands of youngsters have learned to skate at their family’s rink over the last 60 years; they wish they’d kept count.

The ideal age to learn to skate, say Colleen and Danette (both of whom learned while they were still in diapers) is between 18 months and 2 ½ years. This is counter-intuitive for many parents, they believe, because parents don’t want to see their tiny children fall. But at that age, children are used to falling. By age five or six, when parents are more comfortable with the idea, kids have learned they don’t like falling, and the learning process is much harder.

Skating also forces kids to use gross and fine motor skills at the same time. By having a visual cue to focus on — such as the bar along the wall — children can make progress that surprises even their

parents. Such successes can be especially important for children with physical or emotional challenges. In 2010, the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek Autism Society of

America held its Halloween party at Long Lake Roller Rink and Colleen succeeded in teaching more than 90 percent of the (continued on page 45)

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A Family Affair La Cantina relishes its 80-year history as popular Paw Paw eatery.

W

On most days, 90-year-old matriarch Norma Scotese Dacoba still greets the diners at La Cantina.

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By Patrice Mindock

H HEN 88-YEAR-OLD NORMA DACOBA greets guests at La Cantina Ristorante Italiano & Pizzeria, she is carrying on a family tradition nearly as old as she is.

It Nestled on the shores of Maple Lake in Paw Paw, La Cantina was born in the N mid-1930s as a small town eatery. The family business has thrived in its nearly 80 years, becoming a popular destination in the heart of Michigan’s wine country for those who love traditional Italian cuisine.

Most days, the 88-year-old matriarch of the family, Norma, can still be found greeting patrons at the door or mingling with diners. “I still like to think of our customers as guests coming to visit and enjoy a meal,” she states.

Since she spends an average of 10 hours per day, six days a week at the restaurant, La Cantina is, indeed, Norma’s “second home.” Many of her customers and long-standing clientele are local friends or neighbors, but the warm atmosphere and the bountiful Italian fare attract seasonal tourists and diners from all across West Michigan.

“She unlocks the door most days at 7:30 a.m. to allow our suppliers to make their early morning deliveries, and she’s often the one who is locking the door at night,” her son, Emilio says proudly.

La Cantina is a family business in the truest sense of the word, having been the lifeblood of three generations of Dacobas.

Norma’s parents, Emilio (“Amo”) and Rose Scotese, started the family restaurant in 1936. Most of the extended Scotese family emigrated from Naples, Italy, to Chicago in the early 1900s. Amo and his brother, Ray, moved to Paw Paw as young men, where Amo started a coal and ice delivery company. Ray’s branch of the Scotese family operated the Dyckman Hotel, which at one time contained a restaurant called Scottie’s Manger — a play

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Even as a young child (below) in Cuba, Anthony “Tony” Dacoba cut a dashing figure. He left Cuba in 1948, eight years before the photo at left was taken.

on the family moniker.

Norma was born in Chicago but grew up on the family grape farm in Paw Paw with her sister, Nancy.

After school, the two girls would often help out around La Cantina, assisting their mom, Rose, by stirring sauces, making minestrone soup, dusting or cleaning tables.

“Back then, Nancy was much more involved with the cooking than I ever was,” Norma admits. “She became the chef and I was more interested in the business aspect of running a restaurant.

Everything we served was homemade, from the sausage to the meatballs and

Nonna Rosa — as the family called Rose Scotese — ordered tomatoes by the truckload to make and can her own sauces for the restaurant.

Cantina. Dacoba emigrated from Cuba in 1948 to work as a translator for The Upjohn Company in its International Affairs Division. Their connection was one of those loveat-first-sight tales of romance, often retold at family gatherings.

“My sister Nancy and I drove

The La Cantina restaurant overlooking Paw Paw Lake today (opposite page) is a far cry from the small eatery that the family started in Paw Paw 80 years ago.

pasta. We would buy prime beef and whole hogs and our father had a designated butchering and grinding area in the restaurant to ensure that the meat was all fresh.”

Norma Scotese first met her husband Tony Dacoba through family connections and while working part time at La

back and forth between Chicago and Paw Paw to help out at La Cantina on the weekends,” she recalls. “Tony and his boss from Upjohn came to eat dinner at the restaurant one Sunday night and I served them. It was a busy night and I was running around a lot. Every time I looked, Tony was watching me. Eventually, he

came up to the bar area to talk. He was a perfect gentleman, very handsome, well dressed and dignified. Afterward, he formally shook my hand and said, ‘It was a pleasure meeting you, Norma, and I must tell you right now that you are going to be the mother of my children.’ Then he left. I just stood there, completely stunned.”

At the time, Norma was attending college and living with Nancy and her husband in Cicero, Ill. Her sister and brother-in-law owned a music studio and taught piano, accordion and other instrumental lessons. After graduating from Nazareth College in Kalamazoo, Norma taught at a Sisters of St. Joseph “school for boys” in Detroit for two years. She moved

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La Cantina

on to work in a city government position in Chicago, eventually graduating from Loyola University with a master’s degree in social work.

Just a few days after the encounter with Tony Dacoba at her family’s restaurant in Paw Paw, Norma looked out the living room window of her sister’s home in Cicero to see none other than Tony walking up the sidewalk. “I could not believe my eyes and wondered how on earth he had found me,” she says. “It turned out that he had approached my parents and asked their permission to court me. My mother liked him so much she gave him my address in Chicago.

He took the train from Kalamazoo to Chicago, stopped at Marshall Field’s downtown and bought me a present, then took a cab all the way out to my sister’s house.” That very first gift Tony gave to Norma was a lovely pink leather handbag that is still among her most cherished possessions.

In the 1940s, congenial host Emilio “Amo” Scotese could be found tending bar on most nights and weekends.

Tony rode the Greyhound bus quite often during the next two years to see Norma in Chicago. “He got to be good friends with the bus driver since he came down almost every weekend,” Norma says. His wit, manners and Old World charm won Norma’s heart. After a proper two-year courtship, they were married in 1950 and invited the bus driver to the wedding.

“When Tony and I were married in 1950, we bought our own 150-acre grape farm in Van Buren County,” Norma recalls. “He continued his work at Upjohn, helped manage the farm and pitched in as host and bartender at La Cantina on weekends. We all worked

hard and enjoyed our family time. Our crops were sold to the local outlets, like Warner’s Vineyards, St. Julian Winery and Welch’s juice plant.”

As with most farm families, the Dacoba’s four children — Emilio, Rosemary, Ava and Tony — chipped in on some of the minor chores when they weren’t in school, but much of the intensive labor was done by hired migrant workers.

Tony’s work for Upjohn kept him traveling extensively in Latin America for 35 years. Norma tagged along sometimes, spending time in Cuba with the Dacoba family before the country became offlimits to Americans after Fidel Castro took power in the late 1950s.

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Sisters Nancy Scotese, middle, and Norma Scotese, right, stand with friend Theresa (Fiochietti) Cekola in 1938.

“We made that trip to Cuba every Christmas for 10 years,” Norma remembers. “We’d stay in Havana for three weeks and it was so beautiful there. In April 1960, it started getting too dangerous, so Tony’s parents and his sister fled the country and came to Paw Paw. They had to leave their beautiful home and everything behind. They grabbed what they could carry, got in the car, boarded a ferry to Miami and drove here to Michigan.”

Like Tony, his sister, Olga, found work as a translator for Upjohn after she left Cuba. Norma and Tony Sr.’s son, Tony Dacoba Jr., also followed in his father’s footsteps, working in the Transportation Department for the pharmaceutical giant for 31 years. The senior Dacoba died of a sudden heart attack in 1983 at age 57, shortly after retiring from Upjohn. Norma never remarried, and almost 30 years later, she still sighs a bit wistfully when adding that sad note to her family’s historical timeline.

The history of La Cantina’s success brings a smile of extreme pride to Norma’s face, however. Emilio now oversees the culinary and business operations at La Cantina. He and wife, Maria, are also the owners of Mangia, Mangia, located on the downtown Kalamazoo Mall (see related story). Emilio has his personal office in Kalamazoo, spending most of his daytime hours there and most nights at La Cantina. His sister, Ava, a retired teacher, works the “front of the house” aspect of the business with Norma, as does their brother, Tony. The other Dacoba sibling, Rosemary, also a retired teacher, ran the restaurant’s thriving take-out business, but now has Alzheimer’s and is no longer able to pitch in.

“Long hours are a given when you own and manage restaurants,” Emilio

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La Cantina

says. “I often make several trips back and forth to Paw Paw each day to hand deliver something crucial, or to put out fires.” (Those are figurative fires, not literal ones. They can be as simple as the need for a case of heavy cream to the more complex managerial issue of settling an employee dispute.)

While much has been modernized at La Cantina, such as shiny stainless steel replacing the old wooden butcher block, the sausage is still made fresh, as are the tomato-based sauces from the old family recipe. Even the pizza dough is made by hand.

The rising popularity of the locavore lifestyle among consumers makes Emilio chuckle a bit, because the trend isn’t anything new to his family.

“We grew up as locavores, growing our own fresh vegetables on the farm or buying local for our restaurant business,” he says. “I tell people that my grandmother was a locavore 75 years ago. She wasn’t calling up a large distributor to buy cans of tomato puree.

She canned her own tomatoes by buying a flatbed truck of produce from a local farm, then spending two weeks making sauce, putting it into Mason jars for storage until the next harvest. That (continued on page 38)

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Mangia Mangia! Blends Old World and Modern Tastes “Mangia Mangia” is Italian for “eat, eat!”

It’s also the name of the popular downtown Kalamazoo eatery run by Emilio and Maria Dacoba.

Emilio — named for his grandfather — has crafted a more metropolitan feel for the urban center restaurant compared to his family’s traditional Italian restaurant, La Cantina in Paw Paw. The decision to locate on the Kalamazoo Mall came about from Maria’s history as a proponent of

Emilio Dacoba, wife Maria and daughter Isabella carry on the family tradition of providing great Italian food through their Kalamazoo restaurant, Mangia Mangia.

downtown, having owned the former Bogart’s Teddy Bears & Toys located on the mall for a decade. The location also allows the eatery to be inventive.

“We use sauces that are similar to those traditional family recipes from Nonna Rosa’s repertoire. However, we have more leeway here to try new menu items and explore different avenues of Mediterranean cuisine,” Emilio states. “It’s very labor intensive, since we have a commitment to create everything from scratch. Using fresh vegetables and other fresh ingredients makes a huge difference in the overall quality of our food.”

There’s a real challenge to providing Old World taste and quality in a modern, massmarket world, according to the Mangia, Mangia’s owners. “This is not a short-term investment,” Emilio stresses. “We are in this for the long haul. We don’t cut corners at either this downtown location or at La Cantina, and that tends to be more expensive. It takes a bigger bite out of our profit margin because we spend more on our raw materials. We all feel it’s worth it to present our patrons with a quality meal and an excellent dining experience — all at a fair price.”

It might seem a bit of a stretch to go from being a computer systems analyst and programmer to a chef, but Emilio says (continued on page 38)

D

ANN SYTSMA escaped the vicious jaws of a hungry crocodile, immediately turning his attention to his archrival, fighting him to the death and then, unexpectedly, broke down in tears. It would all seem so tragic if it weren’t so funny.

As Kalamazoo’s King of Improv — or improvisational comedy — Dann is often in predicaments like this. He heads Crawlspace Eviction, a local comedy troupe that performs regularly at the Farmers Alley Theatre and in other local venues. Crawlspace has a loyal and expanding following, thanks in large part to Dann’s training and knowledge of improvisation, a unique comedic art form where performers make it up as they go.

It sounds simple, but to make it funny, Dann says, takes years of hard work.

In the scene described previously, Dann and his fellow performers were doing a sketch based on television genres suggested by their audience.

Audience members yelled out “Animal Planet,” “westerns,” “afterschool specials” and finally “avocado” as the starter word. Within seconds, the members of Dann’s improv troupe jumped into action without any discussion, planning or knowledge of where the other performers wanted to go with the scene. Dann rescued an avocado from the crocodile’s mouth, killed his arch-rival in a duel of avocado pits, and finally g broke down and admitted to his own addiction to the green, mushyy fruit.

A Grand Rapids native, Dann equates improv to performing jazz or scat singing.

“It’s that same experience with an improv show. No one’s ever going to experience that again But, But more than with jazz, jazz the audience is involved in it. it They’re They re helphelp same show again. ing to shape it and to guide where it goes.”

Making up a story on the spot and in front of an audience takes guts, but doing it with others using outside cues andd being funny takes technique.

“There are a few basic concepts, but listening is the most important part of it,” Dann explains. “When your scene partners talk, you have to have an open mind and actively listen. No matter what they say, yourr mind n sett must be, mindset

Kalamazoo’s of

King Improv

By Brian Lam

Dann Sytsma makes mundane funny.

Photos: Brian Lam

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Sytsma

‘I heard what you said, and I’m excited about it.’ After a while, it just becomes second nature.”

If Dann makes improv look effortless, it’s because he’s had his share of stage performances, including traditional theater, which began when he entered high school at Grand Rapids Baptist Academy.

“We had a good drama teacher, who also directed the shows,” says Dann. “She gave me a great opportunity right when I was a freshman. She put me in the main school play in a great, funny role.”

Looking back on it, Dann admits that his high school experience influenced what would eventually become his desire to perform improv because it is an art form without rules or limitations.

“I went to one of the most conservative schools in Grand Rapids,” he explains.

“There was a lot you couldn’t do on stage.”

He recalls the frustration his drama teacher and classmates experienced when they were given the revisions for his final high school play.

“My senior year we did Rebel Without a Cause, but we had to change it to Rebel With a Cause, and the James Dean character had to come out at the end and give a religious speech,” he says. “Every-

At 2, an angelic Dann gave few outward indications of his inner comedian.

one who’s seen the movie knows how it’s done, but we were just so shackled with restrictions that there wasn’t a lot we could really explore.”

This restrictiveness extended to more than just Dann’s theatrical life. “I grew up in a very sheltered, conservative environment,” he says.

“I very much had this shell around me, but I always had this desire to do theater, to perform.”

The regular cast of Crawlspace Eviction is, from left, Dann, Tara Sytsma, Bannon Backhus and Brian Duguay. The group often adds guest performers to their shows.

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After high school, Dann attended Grand Valley State University. To save money, he lived at home with his parents and, as a result, wasn’t meeting a lot of people in college or getting involved in the theater scene. Around this time, a few of Dann’s theater friends began exploring improvisational comedy and one of his Rebel With a Cause castmates told him about an improv troupe at Cornerstone University looking for new members. “I thought, ‘This is perfect. I like comedy, and this is a safe group of people.’”

He was instantly hooked. “The freedom that improv offered allowed me to explore all these different things about our world and about life and human relationships that were so off-limits, and not approached in the subculture I was raised in.”

The troupe, Spontaneous Combustion, was led by Randy Wyatt, whom Dann cites as one of his greatest influences. Dann studied under Randy and practiced with the troupe for months before finally getting up on stage for his first improv performance.

“It’s so funny how intertwined religion is with so much of this because the first place that I performed with them was at a First Methodist Church,” Dann recalls. “It was great. It was a cool stage, I felt comfortable, and some of the games really clicked with me.”

Dann was with Spontaneous Combustion for three years, and remembers how much talent existed within the group. “One guy eventually joined a troupe that toured nationally and even internationally. It was his job,” Dann says. “Another guy headed to Chicago and got involved at Second City and Improv Olympic (iO). He was on a bunch of successful teams.”

Chicago is generally thought of as the hub of the improv universe, with Second City and Improv Olympic as its most revered venues. Many of the performers on Saturday Night Live got their start performing improv with one of these two theater companies, both of which offer extensive training programs.

Each year thousands of improv students

As a child, Dann (left) was a little confused about which end was up on the family cat. His brother Keith (right) didn’t seem to have that problem with the dog.

In one of his earliest roles, Dann is a dragon in a small production of Brave Little Taylor.

walk through their doors, hoping to be the next Tina Fey or Steve Carrell.

Dann had no formal instruction at either, but was exposed to the Chicago school of thought with Vidalia, his next improv troupe. “Some of the cast had gone through Second City,” he says. “It was exciting to pick up on new techniques from these improv institutions through them.”

He did, however, eventually end up performing at Chicago’s iO. “We ended up doing a performance at iO with Vidalia, and did remarkably well,” he recalls. “I remember being on the stage and feeling comfortable and making choices that people were excited about. It gave me more enthusiasm, and made me think, ‘Wow! What else is possible with this art form?’”

He immediately enrolled for classes at iO, studying the freeform theater style for almost a year before the weekly commute from Grand Rapids to Chicago

began to take its toll. “Still,” he recalls, “it was an important part of my improv development.”

Dann was with Vidalia just over a year before a job opportunity found him relocating briefly to Plainwell and then to Kalamazoo. By day, the improviser is a chemist with Eurofins Lancaster Labs Midwest. Dann explains that his job demands both creativity and the rigor of scientific knowledge, allowing him to tap into both sides of his personality.

When he relocated, he brought more than his comedy experience with him. Coming along was his wife, Tara, another member of Dann’s high school drama club who has shaped Dann’s life both on and off the stage.

“We were in Sabrina Fair together when we were in high school,” he says.

“That’s how we got to know each other.

It wasn’t a large cast, and the cast would spend a lot of time together.”

Once in Kalamazoo, Dann jumped right back into theater and improv, joining the 2002 Civic Theatre’s cast of Tony and Tina’s Wedding, a show blending script and improv. But Dann’s commitment to performing started to become a source of tension for the couple.

“You get so involved with the people you perform with. It’s so much fun, and there are so many inside jokes. There’s a self-indulgent element to improv that can be annoying to outsiders. It was hard on her, and I never fully grasped that.”

The solution: Make her an insider.

When Tony and Tina’s Wedding came to Kalamazoo for another production, Tara auditioned, gaining a part in the 2003 cast. “That’s when she got the bug, too,” says Dann. “She did the show and loved it. When the show was over, we sat down with a few other cast members and said, ‘Let’s start an improv team.’” (continued on page 39)

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Spirit of Kalamazoo

City’s Past in Full View

By Tom Dietz

I EXPLORE THE SPIRIT of Kalamazoo’s past. As a local historian at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, I research, write and lecture on various aspects of our community’s past. The people with whom I’ve become acquainted and the Tom examines a cased places they lived are as real to me tintype of Private as they were a century or more ago. Julius Otto of Prairieville whose image will be When I walk downtown or included in an exhibit opening at the museum drive the city streets, I encounter in February. the past. A street name evokes a pioneer settler, now mostly forgotten, but someone I Tom feel I know well. One day, perhaps, it’s Edwards Street, and I’m Dietz reminded not only of Abraham Edwards, the register of the federal land office, but of the frantic crowds of land-hungry speculators who poured into the village, then known as Bronson, in 1835. That early real estate bubble has a contemporary ring.

After a concert at Chenery Auditorium, I head home on the nondescript street that bears the name of Kalamazoo’s first mayor, Allen Potter. Walking along Westnedge Avenue, I smile when I notice the words “West St.” stamped in the century-old pavement. Yes, this was the original western village limit, and the northern and southern limits were similarly named.

I can’t help but wonder how often the town’s founder, Titus Bronson, walked along Arcadia Creek. In front of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, I can see Abraham Lincoln hurrying from the Michigan Central Station to Bronson Park in 1856.

The late 19th-century Second Empire-style building that

Photo: Kalamazoo Valley Museum

If someone were to ask you to describe the essence of the spirit of Kalamazoo, how would you respond? Following is the answer from Tom Dietz, a curator of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.

now houses a bank was once an iron foundry. I hear the clang and clatter of a metalworking industry in which local manufacturers produce agricultural implements, carriages, windmills and stoves. A behind-the-scenes tour of the soon-to-be-renovated Corporation Hall on Burdick Street reminds me of the meetings in the chambers of the Village Board where local leaders decided in 1883 to begin the process of adopting city government.

While undertaking exhibit research on local Civil War soldiers, I study the faces of the men (and a few boys). Most are not famous. Would it have occurred to them that 150 years later a museum curator feels as if he somehow knew them?

Even after 20 years working in the past, I still don’t pretend I know all there is to know. The increased availability of online (continued on page 42)

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From Backyard to Big Screen

By Theresa Coty O’Neil WHEN ALEC ELZINGA was 10, he and a group of his neighborhood buddies got the idea to make a home movie. Their first attempt was so entertaining that it became common to find them filming in their backyards.

Most of these first movies featured ninjas and zombies with sets made from clay and small plants. “Our first summer we made a lot of movies,” says Alec, now a junior at Portage Northern High School and an advanced student in the Education for the Arts’ Digital Video and Film Program. “We made a lot of fake blood, and we used ketchup bottles to spray it when people died. Our parents loved the movies, but they would get mad at us a lot because we would make messes and slam doors.”

As the boys got older, filming from a still tripod transformed into moving shots, editing and adding technical enhancements such as color and animation. After three years, the young filmmakers felt they had a project worthy of being entered into the annual Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Teen Film Festival. Titled Alien Exterminator, it was a four-minute movie trailer for a fictitious movie that starred neighbor Simon Vazquez and was co-written by Alec and Kyle Gregory.

“We were starting to get good by then,” Alec says, “but we were still one of the youngest entrants.”

Surprise: They won the Judge’s Choice award.

That initial Landon Elzinga, 14, avoids the zombies in Alec’s success spurred newest film in progress, A Hazyday.

Creative Kids

Filmmaker Alec Elzinga (right) with younger sibling Carter, 10, who is a frequent star in his brother’s projects.

Alec into further projects. He found he had a strong instinct for film, an assessment that Tom Ludwig, EFA Media Arts Teacher, affirms.

“Alec’s work is technically very well done,” says Tom who has taught at EFA for the past 15 years mentoring students in the successful film and video program for area high school students. “He seems to have a strong understanding of the computer programs, but he also has a great imagination and intuition.

He came here with a lot.”

Since that first formal film attempt, Alec has garnered more awards for his work. His music video, Lisztomania, won Best (continued on page 43)

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See page 46 to learn more about this photo and the photographer.

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{

By Larry Massie

}

THE Buzz ABOUT Bees A honey of a business began with early bee hunters.

“

B

UZZING” BEN BODEN clapped his crude glass tumbler over a bee intent on a clover flower, quickly slid his palm under the mouth of the glass and set it down over a piece of honeycomb. Then he placed his hat over the glass so that his insect prisoner would cease its efforts to escape. After a short wait he removed the hat to observe the bee feasting on the honey. When it had its fill, Boden lifted the container and the bee rose into the air, circled the spot a time or two, and then as straight as an arrow, made a beeline for its hive.

Massie’s Michigan

Boden picked up his paraphernalia, walked several hundred yards away and repeated the procedure with another captive bee. Where that insect’s “bee-line” intersected the first bee’s, the bee hunter knew he would find a hollow tree bulging with nature’s coveted nectar-based sweet.

It was a July day in 1812, and Boden practiced his bee hunting amidst the park-like oak openings and flower-laden prairie of Kalamazoo’s Prairie Ronde Township. Well, actually, he did not. Ben Boden was merely a heroic character concocted by famed frontier novelist James Fenimore Cooper in his 1848 book, The Oak Openings or the Bee Hunter.

The copy before me was a Christmas present in 1918 from Adrian attorney Theodore M. Joslin to his son. The flyleaf inscription states, “The author wrote this book at the old Walker Tavern at what is now Cambridge Junction” in Lenawee County. However, based on historical accounts in books, newspapers and magazines three other Michigan structures

Larry B. Massie, recipient of the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Historical Society of Michigan, is a Michigan product and proud of it. Born in Grand Rapids, he grew up in Allegan and has three degrees in history from Western Michigan University.

The author of 20 books about Michigan history, he shares his enthusiasm for and knowledge of Michigan’s heritage statewide at conferences, school assemblies, libraries, community groups and festivals.

Larry lives with his wife and workmate Priscilla, daughters Maureen and Autumn, and a 35,000-volume reference library in an 1880 schoolhouse in the Allegan State Forest.

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Author James Fenimore Cooper died in 1848, three years after publication of his novel Oak Openings, which was set in Kalamazoo’s Prairie Ronde Township.

vie for recognition as the site where Cooper wrote or conducted lengthy research for the novel: a house in Schoolcraft upon which a bronze tablet was placed in 1915 commemorating the event; the restaurant formerly known as the Red Brick Inn north of Plainwell (now Sam’s Joint); and Horace Comstock’s home located in the community named for the pioneer land speculator and politician.

Alas, as painful as it is to dispute local legends, the detailed diary that Cooper kept documents that he wrote the entire Oak Openings at his own home in Cooperstown, N.Y., making only two hurried trips to Kalamazoo in 1846 and

An early edition of Cooper’s Oak Openings contains a line engraving of Buzzing Ben Boden about to release a bee.

William Z. Hutchinson from Flint is pictured “lining” wild bees.

1847 to attempt to sell lots there in which he had invested. His failure to recoup the funds he had speculated on Kalamazoo land led him to bitterly conclude in his diary: “I expect nothing from Michigan, and heartily wish I had never heard of the state.” Perhaps that is why, when writing Oak Openings, his only novel set in Michigan, Cooper considered “it not a labor of love, but a labor.”

Nevertheless, this first novel to be set in Kalamazoo County and along the Kalamazoo River to its mouth in Allegan County remains well worth reading if only for its apt descriptions of such genuine pioneer activities as bee hunting. The successful quest for wild honey brought welcome variety to the ordinary frontier fare of “pork, pone and potatoes.” Cooper may well have based the Boden character on genuine bee hunters such as Judge Basil Harrison who pio-

neered Prairie Ronde Township in 1828 or Towner Savage of Kalamazoo.

Not indigenous to North America, honeybees were introduced from Europe by the Pilgrims in the early 1600s. Feral bees swept into the western wilderness ahead of the vanguard of settlers.

In The Western Sketch Book published in 1850, author James Gallagher wrote: “Ten, twenty, thirty miles in advance of the white settlements, the honeybee swarms in every forest, filling with delicious honey the hollows in the trees, and often the caverns, crevices and openings in the rocks. … The Indians regard the bee as the certain forerunner of the white man. The moment they find that the bee has penetrated their country, they begin to lament and wail, ‘The white man is coming! We must give up the country!’”

Whether honeybees made their way into Michigan Territory by 1812 when

Cooper set his novel is problematical.

However, by the mid-1820s with the opening of the Erie Canal, pioneers from New England and western New York swarmed into “Michigania,” and as numerous recollections attest, the bees were there and the hunt for honey was on.

By 1865, with the establishment of the Michigan Beekeepers Association, increasing quantities of tame varieties, such as the Italian breed imported to America in 1859, competed with wild bees for nectar. As the century wore on,

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beekeepers imported other variant breeds from Spain, Portugal and elsewhere.

Others continued to hunt wild bees for their honey or to tame them. Paul Fountain, a British traveler who spent several months in the western Upper Peninsula in 1869, described the glee with which the two professional trappers he stayed with pursued a bee to its hive in a hollow tree, stuffed bundles of dry grass in the cavity and lit them, smoking the bees out and securing more than thirty pounds of honeycomb.

The honey was coveted but even more so was the beeswax that made up the comb. Before the ready availability of petroleum-based paraffin, beeswax was used in making fine candles and polishing materials and commanded a high price.

Michigan’s commercial bee industry got a big boost following forest fires that raged across the cutover regions of the state in 1871 and 1881. The burned areas soon became overgrown with fireweed and wild raspberry and blackberry vines, the source of uniquely flavored honey then in great demand. Many commercial beekeepers shipped colonies of bees to northern Michigan and elsewhere in the state by railroad flatcars to take advantage of the savory nectar.

In the first decade after the Civil War, a triumvirate of leading Michigan beemen arose. Born in Owosso in 1842, Albert J. Cook graduated from what was then the Michigan Agricultural College in East Lansing at the age of 20.

Following a three-year stint as a teacher in California and two years of graduate study at Harvard, he returned to his alma mater in 1866 to become a professor of

Grand Rapids-based A.G. Woodman Company offered anything a beekeeper might need while Allegan County’s R.F. Bingham invented a number of beekeeping tools.

entomology and zoology, specializing in honeybees. His Manual of the Apiary, first published in 1876, went through six large editions within five years.

By 1890, A.I. Root, a prominent Ohio apiarist, noted that under Cook’s tutelage: “Every student that graduates goes all over the theory of bees, studies the bee structurally from tip of tongue to tip of sting, and goes through with all the manipulations of the apiary ... handles the bees, clips queens, prepares and puts on sections, extracts, etc.

Probably in no other institution in the country, if in the world, is this done.”

Beginning in 1855, William Z. Hutchinson lived in the dense wilderness near Rogersville in Genesee County. While teaching school at 18, he became enamored with beekeeping, read everything on the subject he could find, visited area apiarists and married the pretty daughter of one of them. In 1877, he started with a modest four colonies, and was soon able to “make a comfortable living” through the sale of comb honey. He moved to Flint in 1887 where he established the popular trade journal, Beekeepers Review. In 1891, he published books, each more comprehensive, based on the articles he wrote for the Review. By 1905, his Advanced Bee-Keeping, a 330-

Not indigenous to North America, honeybees were introduced from Europe by the Pilgrims in the early 1600s. Feral bees swept into the western wilderness ahead of the vanguard of setters.

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page volume published in Flint, was in its third edition.

Hutchinson advocated beekeeping as a sole profession and not as a subsidiary to farming, which was often the case. “In reply to the query, ‘What will best mix with bee-keeping?’ I have always replied: ‘Some more bees,’” he wrote. “If beekeeping must be propped up with some other pursuit, then we better throw away beekeeping, and keep the prop.”

James Heddon, the man who would emerge as the king of 19th century Michigan beekeepers, emigrated with his family from western New York to Van Buren County’s Keeler Township at the age of five in 1850. Ten years later, the Heddons moved to Dowagiac. Sources differ about how he entered the profession of apiarist.

Either his father kept bees and he succeeded him in that venture during the mid-1860s, or he married the daughter of a local beekeeper in 1869 and, after a year of apprenticeship, took over the business.

One fact remains unquestionable: The busy little honeybee made Heddon a rich man. From the mid-1870s through 1880s he maintained as many as 600 hives, each containing 20,00025,000 bees, in Dowagiac and nearby Glenwood, producing more honey than any other apiary in the United States.

He sent 8,500 pounds of honey to Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit and Toledo in 1874. He shipped 10,000 pounds to New York in 1878. Five years later he doubled that amount at a wholesale price of 5 cents per pound. He sold comb honey

An 1881 article in Scribner’s Monthly pictured a beehunter in pursuit of a wild bee colony.

b off out the United States, and the number apiarists declined as a result of complicated management requirements due to the mites.

In 1993, Michigan’s Apiary Law, which was enacted in 1935 to mandate

inspection of colonies to control foul brood disease, was amended to allow freer movement of honeybees to southern states during the winter to better manage mite control.

Michigan beekeepers moved colonies to California for almond pollination, Florida for pickle pollination and Maine for blueberry pollination.

According to the Michigan Commission of Agriculture, by spring 2009, Michigan apiarists moved more than 46,000 colonies back to the state after overwintering in Florida — Michigan had become a “migratory beekeeping state.”

Two hundred years after Cooper’s hero, Ben Boden, pursued wild bees, Michigan remains abuzz with honeybees responsible for pollinating nearly $500 million worth of the state’s annual fruit and vegetable crops as well as producing more than 4 million pounds of golden honey each year.

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at 18 cents a pound, pure honey at $1.25 a gallon.

Heddon worked diligently to strengthen the strains of his bees by improving their habitat and through crossbreeding. He held five patents for his apiculture products including the famous “Heddon Hive.” He launched an apprenticeship program at an apiarist school in Dowagiac in 1883, and two years later, published Success In Bee Culture.

Unfortunately, Heddon was never able to build up immunity to bee stings, a necessity among beekeepers who, despite veils and soothing the bees with smoke, get stung to a greater or lesser extent.

Eventually, even the smell of a hive brought him an adverse reaction. By the early 1890s, he relinquished his honey business, becoming editor and publisher of the Dowagiac Times. In 1897, he launched a totally different enterprise that brought him lasting fame — the manufacture of the Heddon fishing lure, now prize collectors’ items.

Other inventive Michiganders produced tools for the burgeoning beekeeper trade. In what is now the Allegan County ghost town of Abronia, T.F. Bingham manufactured a specialized honey knife he patented in 1879. Bingham, originally from Farwell in Clare County, also invented a bellows smoker that became the most popular on the market. Beginning in 1880, Bingham’s smokers and anything else a beekeeper might need were shipped from the Grand Rapids-based A.G. Woodman’s Company, which maintained a massive “beeware” at the corner of Scribner Avenue and Blumrich Street.

By the early 20th century a bacterial disease of bee larvae known as “foul brood” wrought havoc among the state’s apiaries. Ultimately, that setback was largely surmounted. Then in the 1980s, the beekeeping industry struggled again, this time with the introduction of two parasitic mites. The alien invaders virtually eradicated wild honeybees through-

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By Marie Lee

Shared Experiences

to recovery. ad ro e th s th oo sm t or pp su Peer

“I’ve been there.”

Those three words can be lifesavers to people suffering from mental illness and substance abuse. Every one of the 23 staff members of the Southwest Michigan Recovery Institute knows this from experience.

Tucked in a corner of the third floor of the Park Trades Center in downtown Kalamazoo, the Recovery Institute’s quiet location belies what goes on behind its glass doors. Inside, brightly colored open spaces buzz with voices. Pairs are engaged in conversations, heads together. A facilitator leads a class in one room; a group working on an art project is meeting in another.

Most everyone who walks through the Recovery Institute’s front doors are “peers”—individuals in recovery from substance abuse and mental illness. These peers do the heavy lifting at the Recovery Institute, using their lived experiences to help others develop and manage their own recoveries.

“Peer-supported recovery” is a leading-edge program for millions of Americans affected by mental illness and substance abuse. National studies have shown that those in peer-supported recovery are less likely to relapse, go off medications or be readmitted for hospitalization. At the same time, their likelihood of finding employment success, self-sufficiency and a better quality of life increases.

“Our whole program is about people who have similar life experiences,” says Sean Harris, Recovery Institute’s executive director. “Peers are talking to peers. Because they have these life experiences, they have expertise on recovery that is outside the ‘clinical box.’ They are able to connect in a real and genuine way.”

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Peer Margo Hunt (right) goes over college course materials with Darnell Higgins.

While peer-supported recovery is not a new concept, the way the Recovery Institute has approached it is. The organization is staffed and governed completely by peers. Similar organizations elsewhere are governed by a mix of peers and non-peers. Harris says it’s “a huge point of pride” that every member of the Recovery Institute, from receptionist to the board of directors, has traveled their own dark road of recovery. That is, except one: Sean Harris.

The Recovery Institute began five years ago, built by pulling together a collection of peer-run programs operated by Kalamazoo Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Harris came over from Executive Director Sean Harris KCMHSAS to assist in the organization’s development. In a short time, the Recovery Institute grew from two suites in the Park Trades Center to four. Because of his contributions to building the organization and his passion for peer-supported recovery, the institute’s board asked Harris to oversee day-to-day operations as executive director.

While staff members joke that Harris “just hasn’t been diagnosed yet,” the board makes it clear that it is their choice that Harris, a non-peer, is at the organization’s helm. (continued on page 36)

Faces of Recovery The heart and soul of the Southwest Michigan Recovery Institute are its peer support specialists, individuals trained and certified to help others manage their recoveries from mental illness and substance abuse. What is unique about each of these specialists is also what they share in common: They have each been down the road of recovery and come out the other side. Three of these peers share their stories:

Jamor James Jamor James has a soft voice and a wide smile — a smile that is relatively new. He shows a picture on his phone of a young boy with beautiful eyes and a somber, hard expression. “That’s me,” he says. “I never smiled in any childhood pictures. Now I know why.”

It’s been a long, hard path of discovery for Jamor — one that’s involved drugs, stealing and ultimately, prison.

The son of a single mother who used crack cocaine, Jamor “ran the streets a lot.” He began stealing at 7; smoking cigarettes and breaking into houses when he was 10. By the time he was 12, he was using marijuana, which, he ed onn pa ppage g 332) ge 2)) (continued

Peer Jamor James

Peer Rosie Corliss

Rosie Corliss When Rosie Corliss took her first drink at 16, she got sick and blacked out. And she couldn’t wait to do it again.

Alcohol was a magic elixir for the shy, melancholy girl who grew up in Albion. “I became confident; I was very intelligent, beautiful and sexy. I came out of my shell,” she says.

Rosie drank intermittently until her late 20s, when she began to drink every day. She was a functional alcoholic, able to hold down jobs and keep up outward appearances. Occasionally she used other drugs, such as tranquilizers, pain medications and cocaine. The daughter of a tee-totaling father who disapproved highly of drinking, Rosie felt an immense amount of shame whenever she used, yet found she couldn’t resist how alcohol “took the rough edges off of life.”

Her drinking evolved to the point where she was suicidal, but she held back from harming herself because of her two young daughters. She needed help and had a good idea of where she could go. When she was a little girl, a shabbily dressed, intoxicated man would come to her parents’ door every Saturday to leave a column he wrote for her father’s newspaper. Rosie was fascinated by the man, but her parents kept her away from the door, so she’d watch him from an upstairs window. After a few years, he started coming to their door sober, serious and better dressed. Rosie asked her mom why he had changed and she replied that “He started going to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings.”

“The seed for recovery was planted early for me through him. AA meetings were relatively new to Albion then and I was astounded at the power it had to change him. He lived the rest of his life sober and became a leader in the community. He was just an incredible example,” she says. “It’s a lesson for people that you just never know who might be watching you and what effect you may have on them.”

She thought about that man off and on when she was drinking, and, finally, after taking a couple of drinks for (continued on page 35) W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

31

Jamor admits, “led to a lot more trouble.” By eighth grade he was going to a school for juvenile offenders.

Things turned around, briefly.

Despite his truancy, Jamor did well in school. After an arrest at 17 for trespassing, he stayed out of trouble for a while.

He even applied for and was awarded scholarships to attend college. But he was living a double life.

“I was still trying to go to school and do good, mostly for my mama,” he says. “But I had a street life, too, where I was smoking marijuana, hanging out late and selling drugs.” Jamor longed to be on his own. Without a high-school diploma or a job, he began robbing gas stations and other businesses. Instead of gaining his independence, Jamor ended up in prison.

While incarcerated, Jamor participated in a re-entry program, preparing him for life outside bars. When he was paroled he began classes at KVCC, start-

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“ I told the truth on my applications about the felony, and I couldn’t get another job.”

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ed a job at a fast-food restaurant and looked for a better job. But his felony conviction became a huge obstacle.

“I told the truth on my applications about the felony,” he says. “And I couldn’t get another job.”

Jamor became severely depressed and isolated himself from the world. He developed severe social anxiety, becoming extremely nervous around people.

He refused to leave his home. He didn’t even want to be around his wife and children. He began using marijuana

again. “Here I was on parole,” Jamor says, “but I had incarcerated myself in my own house.”

His parole officer got Jamor to see a counselor, and he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He eventually ended up at Michigan Rehabilitation Services where he was asked if he wanted to work on getting a job or his recovery.

“I remember thinking, ‘What’s recovery?’ I was still using and didn’t think I could get a job, so I chose recovery, although it was a new concept for me.”

He began slowly, getting strong enough to leave his house and attend meetings every couple of weeks. As he began to come out of his depression, he realized this was not the life he wanted his kids to see him living. He started paying more attention to what others were saying in his meetings. He found he related and began to share and participate more. He set a quit date for himself and started talking about his anxieties.

“Things went fast after I started sharing my experience,” he says.

He took classes at KVCC in peer support and returned to his job at the fast-food restaurant. Then Sean Harris, who knew Jamor from the KVCC class, called and asked if he’d like to work for the Recovery Institute. The job was to speak to groups at colleges and organizations about peer support for substance abuse and mental health recovery. Jamor says that the first time he presented to a group was “a defining moment.”

“I wanted to run. But I didn’t run,” he remembers. “I kept repeating my mantra ‘whenever something’s difficult or hard, do it anyway.’”

And he did. The man who was too afraid to leave his house now speaks at conferences, to groups and to anyone who wants to know about peer support and recovery from mental health and substance abuse.

“I know,” he says with a little laugh.

“It kind of weirds me out, too.”

Peer Steve Goodyke

Steve Goodyke To Steve Goodyke, life has been a lot like a bad mountain-climbing expedition. Seems he’d no sooner scale the top of one summit — only to crashing down and have to start over again.

Steve, a Holland native, began using alcohol, marijuana and LSD when he was a teenager. The drugs numbed the pain of his parents’ divorce and his separation from his father. His drug use led to trouble, and he was arrested for breaking into a school and driving around on a golf course in a drunken rampage.

He had times, too, when, he says, he would “get my life together.” School was easy for him, and he had aspirations of being an aeronautical engineer. As he approached high school graduation and his future, he quit using drugs cold turkey, applied to and was accepted at Hope College.

Steve did well at Hope, made friends, and felt like he was on the right road. Unfortunately, after a few years, he says, “Things started getting weird.”

He began to hear “special messages” when people around him were talking.

He became obsessed with what he felt was an abusive relationship with his mother. He was overly fascinated with the Bermuda Triangle and wrote letters to the government asking them to verify planes’ disappearances there.

“I went through a personality change,” the now 48-year-old man says. “I isolated myself from friends, dropped out of school and decided to join the Army. I hung out on campus, acted strangely and made the students so uncomfortable I was banned from campus.”

He was sitting in an Army recruiting station when the police came for him, based on a call by a concerned stranger. He was hospitalized and diagnosed as a schizophrenic.

“That diagnosis just shattered all my dreams,” he recalls. “I had enough

h to know I wasn’t wasn sn’’t’t insight right. I knew that mental illness wasn’t going to be accepted by NASA or the military. So now I had to find a new reality.”

The next 20 years were his self-described “pingpong stage,” where he went back and forth between recovery and going off his medications and drinking again. He had periods of being homeless and delusional.

At one point he was running around the streets of Grand Rapids dressed in Army fatigues, carrying a semiautomatic rifle.

When he was in recovery, he dreamed of going back to school. He began a long-term relationship with a woman who was supportive and helped him. But he’d “rebel,” go off his meds, and it would all come crashing down again. The girlfriend left.

During a period of recovery, he moved to Kalamazoo to take aeronautical engineering classes at Western

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Michigan University. He found a job â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but started drinking again. His ďŹ nancial aid fell through and he was kicked out of his apartment. He became homeless, losing all his possessions and his truck.

He ended up hospitalized again, this time at Borgess Hospital. He moved from there to a halfway house and began participating in recovery classes.

He became involved in a peer support group and then in one-on-one mentoring with peers. He was intrigued by the thought of becoming a peer support specialist. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had pretty much given up being an engineer because of my mental illness, but I had to ďŹ nd something meaningful that I could do,â&#x20AC;? he says.

He started as a group facilitator.

Once he began to talk about his experiences with mental illness and substance abuse, the world opened up for him.

He learned new ways to cope with his illness. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I learned about symptom management and planning for what you will do if you have a crisis,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My illness became something I could control instead of it running me over.â&#x20AC;?

He became a certiďŹ ed peer support specialist and initially joined the Recovery Institute to provide training in computer skills, which utilized his educational background. He also became a public face for recovery, manning the KCMHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Access Center, which is the ďŹ rst stop for people who walk in looking for mental health services.

Steve also provides outreach in the community, and will soon be starting to visit psychiatric patients at Borgess Hospital. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I get to see it from the other side,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was there as a patient and will now come back as a peer support specialist. For me recovery was real one-sided until it addressed my mental illness. Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s complete. Knowing what I know can help others down the path to recovery.â&#x20AC;?

Rosie (continued from page 31) courage, she called a friend who was active in a 12-step program.

He took her to her ďŹ rst meeting, and she has remained sober since June 1988.

A few years later, she was laid off from her job in mortgage banking and was determined to go back to college. She also decided to quit her three-pack-a-day cigarette habit. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when, she says, she â&#x20AC;&#x153;just crashed.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was all I could do to get up and function. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sleep. I spent my time wide awake and curled up in a fetal position,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had worked so hard to be sober, but I still was struggling. I ďŹ nally surrendered to the idea that there was something else going on.â&#x20AC;?

There was. Depression. Her alcohol and nicotine use had masked the chemical imbalance causing the depression and when Rosie quit drinking and then quit smoking, her mental illness couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hide anymore.

She began taking antidepressants, which she describes as

â&#x20AC;&#x153;miraculous.â&#x20AC;? She ďŹ nished college and went to graduate school at Michigan State University. She began working for the Department of Corrections and accepted a position at MRC Pathways in Kalamazoo in 2004. When Sean Harris called her in 2008 to ask if sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to work with the Recovery Institute, she was thrilled about the opportunity to share her recovery experience with others.

Now, at 56, she is a program coordinator who oversees the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team leaders, implementing services, recovery skill classes and developing recovery-oriented workshops for peers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had no idea it would turn out to be this incredible,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This job has given me an opportunity to grow in my recovery and to challenge myself as a person. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to be able to share not only my recovery from alcohol, but also my mental illness. When we actively engage with others in recovery, we learn weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not alone and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re capable of living healthy, productive and meaningful lives.â&#x20AC;?

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Recovery (continued from page 30)

At O’Hare International Airport

“He is a huge advocate of the peer focus of recovery,” says Marcia Probst, a peer support specialist. “We say he’s our token ‘normal person,’ but the truth is he understands the importance of peer support better than anyone.”

The Recovery Institute is a leader in another way: It addresses both substance abuse and mental health recovery. Other programs tend to focus on one affliction or the other, but rarely define recovery as encompassing both.

“Mental illness and substance abuse seem to go hand-inhand,” says Harris. While the National Institutes of Health estimates that more than 60 percent of those who suffer substance abuse also have a mental illness, Harris says anecdotal evidence points to higher numbers. In many cases of substance abuse, people are using alcohol or illicit drugs to self-medicate an undiagnosed mental health condition.

The institute offers numerous programs and classes to give those in recovery the skills and knowledge to lead successful lives. Workshop topics include managing money, crisis planning, computer instruction and preparing for college or trade school. Creative opportunities are also available with groups that discuss writing, play music or create art. The most intangible service the Recovery Institute provides, however, may be its most important: It is a safe, accepting community of people with common experiences.

“People in recovery want a place of their own without the stigma and harsh treatment that they receive other places,” says Harris.

Currently, a higher ratio of peer support specialists is employed in Kalamazoo than in any other community in Michigan. While KCMHSAS’ support has been pivotal, other community entities have embraced the organization’s mission.

Borgess Hospital has peer support specialists meet with patients in its Behavioral Medicine Unit. Kalamazoo Valley Community College offers courses in peer support taught by Recovery Institute staffers. Staff members regularly speak to college classes in nursing, psychology, social work and pre-medicine.

“Kalamazoo is a very giving and supportive community.

From Ministry with Community and Loaves and Fishes to the shelters and other organizations, people can get the essentials they need, like meals, clothing, places to stay. We don’t have to meet those basic needs for our peers,” Harris says. “That allows us the freedom to be here to go beyond providing the basics.

“We can offer options and choices to people in recovery, whether it is helping them to navigate the mental health system or gaining self-determination in making their own decisions about their treatment and lives. In recovery, no one size fits all.

Every person’s recovery is their own.”

A place of constant contradiction, this hub of endless hoping, endless running, a river powered by relentless friction.

An ever-changing, unfolding fellowship, a congregation of coming and going, between deadlines passed and reunions made.

Those in peersupported recovery are less likely to relapse, go off medications or be readmitted for hospitalization.

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You miss a connection, and make another with the mother nursing her baby in a quiet corner, a pool of stillness in the seamless ebb and flow.

Weaving to the bathroom, flowing through the fluent crowd, is brushing shoulders with the world when you’re only bound for Cleveland.

Histories melt away and anxieties blend into a cloud of acceptance, faith, catnaps; our differences grown small below the miracle of entire lives stuffed into suitcases and the revelation of secrets exposed on security checkpoint tables.

A hymn of forward movement — maybe progress — rises in the hum of every language blurred together to the cadence of clacking luggage wheels.

Heading out or homeward bound, this congregation of going and coming shuffles with you, carries you through until you’re torn away, above it all, waiting for the next connection.

By Kirby Snell

Kirby Snell holds a BFA in creative writing from the University of Evansville. She recently moved to Kalamazoo after spending two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Pacific island nation of Micronesia, where she taught English and did community development work. Kirby hopes to return to graduate school this fall to pursue an MFA in creative writing.

Hopewell

evidenced by his long resume of involvements. He has been active in local economic development, serving on the boards of both the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Northside Business Association. He chaired the Leadership Kalamazoo Advisory Board, was president of the Kalamazoo County SAFE KIDS Coalition and currently serves on the Learning Network of Greater Kalamazoo advisory board.

He is a member of the Black Police OfďŹ cers Association, a past board member of the Northside Association for Community Development and is a past mentor of the Kalamazoo Area Academic Achievement Program.

His long-term afďŹ liation with Pretty Lake Vacation Camp is part of his focus on the children in the community. This nonproďŹ t provides a cost-free summer camp experience to more than 700 atrisk youth from Kalamazoo County each summer. Bobbyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s association with the camp started in the 1970s when he was a young camper. He became a staffer there, working at virtually every job including a time as camp director. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I served on the board for 12 years and was president of the camp in the 1990s,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All of my siblings either were campers or staffers at Pretty Lake. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to recognize the mission of the camp and that for 95 years this wonderful place has served the children of this community at no cost to any child, providing all their needs while attending camp.â&#x20AC;?

Hopewell says that Pretty Lake Vacation Camp has expanded to include outdoor adventure programs and collaboration â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that word again â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with school districts in Kalamazoo County.

His afďŹ nity for the camp is clear evidence of his focus on the children in the community. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We know we are a community about our children,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have a huge responsibility now that we have the Promise. The Promise is not a gift, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a responsibility. We have to keep an eye on the ball, an eye on the success and

Photo: Erica Vitkin

(continued from page 8)

While mixing drinks as a celebrity bartender for the March of Dimes, Bobby (above) ďŹ&#x201A;ashes that same winning smile he had as a schoolboy (left).

novation and working with our business partners to improve economic development, which has made the Kalamazoo area one of the two regions in Michigan that had gross domestic product growth.

By continuing to working together we will continue to see this type of success.â&#x20AC;?

excellence of our children, especially because Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Promise has named Kalamazoo One of the Best Places for Young People for the third time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have great colleges and universities in this city and we are driving in-

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(Answer on page 44)

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Mangia Mangia!

La Cantina

(continued from page 18)

(continued from page 18)

the organization and decision-making skills he used in his former profession apply in the kitchen as well. A Western Michigan University alumnus, he moved out of the information technology ďŹ eld and into the family restaurant business when his father passed away in 1983.

Emilio learned to cook by working with his grandmother. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I used to stand up on a wooden beer crate next to her kitchen stove,â&#x20AC;? he recalls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My job was to stir sauces or to punch the bread dough down after it was done rising. She was constantly baking and cooking for our extended family at home, as well as at La Cantina.â&#x20AC;?

Because of those childhood experiences, Emilio ďŹ nds it challenging when he attempts to teach the younger workforce the value of traditional methods of food preparation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such an instant gratiďŹ cation mindset these days,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Life is not a microwave. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just push a button and have everything happen for you instantaneously. Good things in life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and good food â&#x20AC;&#x201D; take some time and effort.â&#x20AC;?

Emilio and Maria have one daughter, Isabella, age seven. She often enjoys acting as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;mini hostessâ&#x20AC;? with her aunt Ava and grandmother Norma at La Cantina in Paw Paw, helping to show guests to their tables. She also works side by side with her mother Maria, setting up for special private parties at Mangia, Mangia.

Perhaps someday, this third generation of the original Scotese family from Naples might carry on with her great-grandmother Rosaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famous recipes in her own establishment. At the very least, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll surely be shared in a rich helping of delicious tradition around the family dinner table.

Nonna Rosa would be proud.

Character Counts!

is the true example of sustainability. These so-called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;new trendsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; are simply annotated versions of our previous traditional agriculturebased lifestyles.â&#x20AC;?

While authenticity is paramount at La Cantina, Emilio notes that its famous ribs are one menu item seen as a spin-off from the more traditional Napolitano cooking. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s barbecue sauce is incomparable,â&#x20AC;? he states. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have customers from all over the world and across the USA who call us and ask to have those ribs, or our signature pizza, shipped Norma (left) stands next to Governor â&#x20AC;&#x153;Soapyâ&#x20AC;? G. Mennen Williams, who was a regular at La Cantina in the late 1940s.

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Tony (right) works with Louis Cinabro in international affairs at Upjohn in 1956. Louis is the father of Kalamazoo City Commissioner Robert Cinabro.

directly to them. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why we stay true to our culinary mission and keep creating the same ďŹ&#x201A;avors and quality.â&#x20AC;?

Emilio recounts one of many stories of celebrities who have enjoyed La Cantinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pizza with a mention of acclaimed ďŹ lm producer Steven Spielberg. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A native Paw Paw woman who once worked for Spielberg in California started ordering our pizzas and they were shipped to his home address for many years,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We assume she shared them with him and his family since she helped to take care of the children. The freight costs were more than the pizza, but she apparently needed a taste of home.â&#x20AC;?

Just as the restaurant is a Dacoba family tradition, it has become the same for many of its longtime customers. Patrons have held their wedding receptions at the Paw Paw restaurant because their parents did the same. Alumni of area colleges such as Western Michigan University hold annual gatherings there. Family reunions abound. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so heartwarming to know that hospitality, friendliness and good Italian home cooking never go out of style,â&#x20AC;?

Norma says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are now serving a multi-generational patron base, with customers returning to share our La Cantina traditions with their children and grandchildren.â&#x20AC;?

Sytsma (continued from page 21) Eight years later, Tara and Dann still perform together. She is a regular cast member of Crawlspace Eviction, and Dann boasts that Tara is one of the great improv teachers in the area. “Improv teams morph and change from time to time,” he says.

“Tara does a great job of getting inexperienced performers up to speed quickly.”

In addition to Dann and Tara, Crawlspace Eviction’s current core cast members include Brian Duguay and Bannon Backhus. Additionally, Dann is connected to most of the other improv teams in town, and it’s not uncommon for guest performers from those troupes to join Crawlspace for a night.

Dann maintains that adding new blood into a show often results in some of the most successful performances.

Want to know the real secret to a successful Crawlspace Eviction show, though? A babysitter. For both mom and dad to perform, 20-month-old Max Sytsma needs an overnight invite from grandma

in Grand Rapids. Since improv has no rules, the language and subject matter can drift into adult content and Dann thinks it might be a few years before young Max watches a Crawlspace show.

In addition to improv, Dann’s theater company, Crawlspace Theatre Productions, produces a few sketch comedy performances each year, as well as some filmed comedy. One of his films was accepted into the American Film Institute’s annual film festival, an experience Dann describes as “surreal.”

While Dann plans to write another screenplay, his focus now is on balancing his family life and professional pursuits, while performing high-energy, entertaining improv shows with Crawlspace Eviction. The improv techniques learned along the way help him keep this balance.

“The way it works in improv is the way it works in life, too,” he explains. “If you truly listen to somebody and respond to what they just said, it does multiple

things: It gives you something interesting to work with, but then it also demonstrates to them that you care about what they just said. That creates a lot of trust between you and that person, and you can build something real on that.”

The Kalamazoo improv guru hopes that those unfamiliar with the art form take an opportunity to experience it.

Crawlspace Eviction, which began by performing at Whole Art Theater, now performs at Farmers Alley Theatre throughout much of the year. Whether they are newcomers or returning fans, Dann is determined to make their encounter memorable.

“Improv comedy as a craft, and an art form, is on the rise right now — in Chicago, Detroit, and all around the country,” he says. “Kalamazoo is a community that appreciates and supports the arts, and my mission is to make sure high-quality improvisational theater is available as one of those art forms.”

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Performing Arts Plays Never the Sinner — A riveting courtroom drama that tells the story of the famous Leopold and Loeb trial of the 1920s. Jan. 26, 27, 28, Feb. 2, 3, 4, 8 p.m.; Feb. 5, 2 p.m. York Arena Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 — This laugh-filled farce spoofs the great murder mystery movies of the 1940s. Jan. 27, 28, Feb. 3, 4, 10, 11, 8 p.m.; Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 5, 2 p.m. Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Musicals & Opera A New Brain — The Civic presents a new musical about a composer faced with surgery and re-evaluating his life’s work. Jan. 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28, 8 p.m.; Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 22, 29, 2 p.m. Parish Theatre, 429 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Rock of Ages — An “We should not let arena-rock love story told our fears hold us through the hits of Jourback from pursuing ney, Styx, Night Ranger our hopes.” and more of the greatest groups of the ‘80s. Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m. Miller AudiJohn F. Kennedy torium, WMU. 387-2300.

Dance Moscow Festival Ballet — Fairytale Fantasy — This classic Russian ballet troupe will highlight four ballets, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Giselle.

Jan. 22, 2 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Chamber, Jazz, Orchestra & Bands From the Top Taping — The NPR show From the Top presented with help from WMUK, featuring talent from the WMU School of Music. Jan. 15, 3 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Faculty Recital — A concert featuring the Western Brass Quintet. Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

The Bad Plus — Fontana Chamber Arts presents this incredible jazz piano trio.

Jan. 28, 8 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 382-7774.

The World of … — KSO music director Raymond Harvey will explore the music of Saint-Saëns with special guest Austin Huntington, 2011 Stulberg winner. Jan. 29, 3 p.m. Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge. 349-7759.

Faculty and Guest Artist Recital — The performers will be Igor Fedotov, viola, and Gary Hammond, piano. Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Vocal Harlem Gospel Choir — This worldfamous choir presents the finest singers from Harlem’s black churches and the New York/Tri-State area, with special guest NAEA GospelFest Choir. Jan. 27, 8 p.m.

Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Visual Arts

Symphony

WMU Richmond Center for Visual Arts (RCVA) 387-2455

American Dance — The KSO welcomes Wellspring/Cori Terry and Dancers to interpret the music of Phillip Glass and John Adams. Jan. 21, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

I’m Over Here Now — This exhibition focuses on six artists and one collaborative team whose ideas dictate their media.

Jan. 12–Feb. 17. Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery.

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Visual Noise — An exhibition of prints from the permanent collection curated by Nichole Maury. Through Feb. 17. Netzorg/ Kerr Gallery.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 349-7775 The Strange Life of Objects: The Art of Annette Lemieux — The artist works in multiple media and covers many themes with her work. Through March 4.

Infrared Photography — Prints by Christopher Light, Kalamazoo resident, are featured. Through March 18.

Hefner Collection of East Asian Art — An exhibition of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramics, metal objects, prints and paintings on loan from the Hefner family.

Through April 7.

ARTbreak — Informal free presentations on art-related topics. George Rickey works, Jan. 3; Ken Freed, KIA faculty member, Jan. 10; Amy Culp, jewelry with found objects, Jan. 17; What Else Could It Be, Edward Weston, Jan. 24; Humor in Contemporary Art, Jan. 31. Bring a lunch to these 12:15 p.m. sessions.

Miscellaneous Midtown Gallery — Featuring works in a variety of media by Stewart Gibson. 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 372-0134.

Art Hop — View the works of local artists. Local venues/galleries in downtown Kalamazoo. Jan. 7, 5–9 p.m. 342-5059.

Literary Events Kalamazoo Public Library 553-7809 E-reader Petting Zoo — Learn about the library’s e-book services and get hands-on experience with a variety of e-reading devices, including Kindle, Nook, iPad, and others. Jan. 5, 6:30 p.m. Central Library.

Movie and Popcorn â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Come and enjoy the ďŹ lm, African Cats. Jan. 6, 2 p.m. Central Library.

E-book How To â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Learn how to check out and download audiobooks and ebooks, including how to ďŹ nd titles and get needed software. Jan. 10, 6 p.m. Oshtemo Branch.

Friends of Poetry â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Nancy Eimers, Judith Rypma, and Janet Heller will read from their new books of poetry. Jan. 31, 7 p.m. Central Library.

Portage District Library 329-4544 Food: One Family at a Time â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibit to teach people how to better grow and prepare their own food. Through Jan. 29.

Combat Veteransâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Writing Group â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A series of writing workshops led by Margaret von Steinen of WMUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Haenicke Institute for Global Education. Jan. 3 & 17, 6:30 p.m.

Solo Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This new art exhibit features watercolor, acrylic and oil paintings from V.J. Kline and Frances BallayWagner. Jan. 6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Feb. 24.

Open for Discussion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Join this drop-in group to discuss The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball. Jan. 17, 10:30 a.m. & 7 p.m.

Introduction to Amateur Astronomy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A ďŹ ve-program series introducing the joys of astronomy. Our Place Among the InďŹ nities, Jan. 14, 1 p.m.; Discovering the Night Sky, Jan. 28, 1 p.m. Registration is required by calling 329-4542.

STEPPING BACK WITH THE ARTS Some architects must be called artists.

The buildings they design and build are works of astounding and awe-inspiring beauty. But in one case, the beauty of the building became a curse on the designer.

Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible wanted eight churches built on Red Square in Moscow, each commemorating a different feast day. That plan was too grandiose, so Ivan hired architect Postnik Yakovlev.

From 1555â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1561, Yakovlev designed and built the incredible Cathedral of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, popularly known as St. Basilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cathedral, on the geometric center of the city. It incorporated eight side churches built around a central church, each

Disease Detectives â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Disease-ďŹ ghting detectives explore an environment to learn more about infectious disease transmission and prevention. Jan. 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;May 28.

Kalamazooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Own: The 13th Michigan Volunteer Infantry â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Discover local Civil War history with author Mike Culp discussing the Michigan regiment. Jan. 22, 1:30 p.m.

Planetarium Programs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The DigiStar planetarium presents various programs.

Invaders of Mars, Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. at 3 p.m.; Sky Legends of the Three Fires, Weekdays, 11 a.m., Sat., 1 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m.; Orion Nights, Tues. & Thur., 3 p.m., Sat., 2 p.m.

Museums

Nature

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 373-7990

Kalamazoo Nature Center 381-1574

Fractals: Mathematics and Science as Art â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Fractals are based on mathematical equations that result in fantastic 2-dimensional images; they are sure to inspire your imagination and curiosity! Through Jan. 22.

Green Living Series: Honey Bees & Beekeeping â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Learn about the only â&#x20AC;&#x153;domesticatedâ&#x20AC;? insect pollinator with the Kalamazoo Bee Club. Jan. 10, 6:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8 p.m.

topped with an onion dome decorated and colorfully painted. The curse came when the spectacular ediďŹ ce was shown to Ivan the Terrible. He declared it so beautiful that, as legend has it, he ordered the poor architect blinded so he could never build a more beautiful cathedral.

Walkinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the Wild Side with Wil Reding â&#x20AC;&#x201D; These walks are designed to promote overall wellness with educational components. Jan. 21, 10:30 a.m.

Boomers and Beyond â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A program geared for adults over 50 who will learn about birds of prey in this interactive program. Bring a lunch. Jan. 31, 11 a.m.

Kellogg Biological Station 671-2510 Full Moon Hike â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Explore the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary at night by the light of the full moon. Jan. 9, 6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;7:30 p.m. 12685 E. C Ave. near Gull Lake.

Birds & Coffee â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Join a bird viewing walk followed by coffee and discussion.

Jan. 11, 8:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;10 a.m. 12685 E. C Ave. near Gull Lake.

Please send notiďŹ cation of activities to: Encore â&#x20AC;&#x153;Events of Noteâ&#x20AC;?

350 South Burdick St., Suite 214 0HONE s &AX % MAIL EVENTS ENCOREKALAMAZOO COM

W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

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Many signs of Kalamazooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s past are present for those who look closely. Here the original western boundary of the city is marked by â&#x20AC;&#x153;S. WEST STâ&#x20AC;? stamped into the pavement on South Westnedge Avenue near Vine Street.

research resources has greatly expanded my knowledge. With more information, however, there is sometimes less certainty.

Take the question of where Lincoln spent that August night in Kalamazoo so long ago. Four locations claim the honor.

I felt certain that he stayed with Hezekiah G. Wells, who had a home where the Civic Auditorium now stands. The proximity, together with the fact that it was Wells who invited him, seemed persuasive. Recently, however, while reading an 1877 Kalamazoo Gazette online, I found an article about the home Wells was only then building on the site.

Now less certain where Lincoln slept, I reconsider David Walbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desk on exhibit at the museum. Our records indicate Lincoln wrote letters at it while spending the night with Walbridge. Perhaps our records are correct, after all.

Other mysteries I may never unravel.

Why, for instance, are the boundaries of the Matchebenashewish Reserve ever so slightly offset from the survey grid of sections and townships? The nine-squaremile Anishnabek reservation encompassed much of the present city. The 1825 survey team was accompanied by a native witness, Goselah. Did he inďŹ&#x201A;uence the Reserve boundary? If so, to what end?

I love Kalamazooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. But the past is not just antiquarian. It shapes our community to this day. We inherited a legacy of philanthropy, support for education, entrepreneurialism and community involvement, which remains strong. And Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll continue to spend my time becoming better acquainted with those people and places who bequeathed such spirit to us.

Creative Kids (continued from page 23) Animation at the 2011 KIA Teen Film Festival as well as Best of Show in the 2011 Michigan Student Film and Video Festival held in Detroit.

“I do more special effects, which catch attention. Most of my recent work has revolved around special effects,” Alec explains.

In Lisztomania, Alec both films and stars in the movie that is reflective, visually rich and with a humorous wry undertone.

“I walk through the city and all the buildings change colors.

The sky is kind of cartoony,” he describes.

Alec relies on after-effects, a process of editing to enhance the film and bring to life his initial conception. Most of his work can be seen online on YouTube.

“I went to the Gagie School, which has a big emphasis on the arts,” Alec says. “I’m pretty good at drawing and have been pretty creative my whole life. When I got to middle school, that interest transferred to film and camera. I get a lot of satisfaction out of showing people the finished project. I like to entertain people.”

Alec’s passion for film was also broadened by a mission trip to Bosnia that he took with his mother, Ti Elzinga. For the trip, sponsored by the Jericho Foundation through Southridge Church, Alec made a promotional video that featured the orphans and children of Bosnia. “This experience made me realize that there are many people not as well off as we are. It also made me want to work harder at what I do.”

Last summer, he worked part time for Absolute Video and Multimedia, a local professional video business, assisting with filming that included live streaming of events at the Kalamazoo Country Club. He also learned to use new taping equipment and editing software.

Alec’s favorite part of making movies is the filming, but it’s

Alec Elzinga directed, wrote, filmed and starred in the video, Lisztomania, which won top prizes at the 2011 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Teen Film Festival and the 2011 Michigan Student Film and Video Festival.

in editing that his initial conception comes closer to being realized. “The hard part is really the editing,” he says, qualifying, “not really the editing itself, but getting myself to edit.”

Alec says his future plans include branching out with the focus of his work and eventually attending film school. He would like to experiment with different techniques, including more use of photos. His newest project, A Hazyday, combines his two loves, filming and longboarding, and stars his brothers, Landon, 14, and Carter, 10, who are accustomed to being featured in their brother’s projects.

Nowadays, the young neighborhood filmmakers from Portage are more independent in their projects. “We try to do stuff together, but it doesn’t happen as often. We start a lot of movies that never end up getting finished.”

But those first home movies helped fan a passion that Alec hopes will continue to motivate his desire to become a professional director someday. “I love that feeling when I have a really good piece that I’ve worked really hard on and other people see it and like it, too.”

Welcome, John!

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Bellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Betzler Life Story Funeral Homes . . . . . . . 46 Borgess Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Bronson Healthcare Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Catholic Schools of Kalamazoo. . . . . . . . . 13

Imagine if just two percent of a 1,000 brochure order we printed for you were to come out smudged, discolored, or folded wrong. That would be 20 potentially negative impressions we would make on you ... and 20 potentially negative impressions you would make on your clients who received those damaged copies.

Cornerstone OfďŹ ce Systems . . . . . . . . . . 42 CTS Communications, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Daveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Glass Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 DeMent & Marquardt, PLC . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Sue Dennis, DDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Encore Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Flipse, Meyer, Allwardt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

At our printing ďŹ rm, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re committed to making sure every impression that comes off our presses is a good one, so that every impression our customers make is positive, too. When it comes to printing, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make you look good on paper.

Fontana Chamber Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Gilmore Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Great Lakes Shipping Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Greenleaf Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Hospice Care of SW Michigan . . . . . . . . . 17 Jansen Valk Thompson & Reahm . . . . . . . 17 Jeff K. Ross Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Kalamazoo/BC Airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

1116 W Centre Avenue 323-9333 PortagePrinting.com

Kalamazoo Foot Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

KNI/Southwest Michigan Imaging . . . . . . . 48 Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. . . . . . . . 39 Keystone Community Bank. . . . . . . . . . . 43

Answer!

Photography Way Back When

(question on page 37)

LaCantina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Mangia Mangia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Midtown Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Midwest Business Exchange . . . . . . . . . . 46 The Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Oakland Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Paw Paw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Portage Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Sharp Smile Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 What A Do Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 WMUK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 YMCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

In 1894, a group of investors bought the defunct Page Manufacturing Company and merged it with the Columbia Sled Company to form the Kalamazoo Sled Company.

By 1906, the Kalamazoo Sled Company was making more sleds than any manufacturing company in the world. During WWII steel became unavailable due to the war effort, so the company resorted to again making all-wooden sleds. Even though the company developed ďŹ berglass disks and other novel sliding equipment in postwar years, it never matched the success of its pre-war production. The company was bought out by the Gladding Corporation and the factory closed in 1969.

Trivia Column by Maureen Massie 44

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Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to share your poetry with Kalamazoo-area readers. Please submit a short personal proďŹ le to accompany it. ,UJVYL 4HNHaPUL J V 7VL[Y` ,KP[VY : )\YKPJR :[ :\P[L 2HSHTHaVV 40 LKP[VY'LUJVYLRHSHTHaVV JVT

Long Lake (continued from page 13)

Roller-skating is still popular among the middle school set such as siblings, (from left) Jordan, Cross and Samantha Hutchison.

kids to skate. “I’ve seen moms cry because they didn’t know their kids could handle skating,” she says.

Danette has three daughters, all of whom have been raised in the family business. Bertie and Al were gone by the time the girls would have been old enough to remember them, but they’ve gotten to know their grandparents by following their path at the rink. “They even run the same music equipment their grandpa did,” says their aunt Colleen.

Both sisters supplement their income from the rink with other jobs. Colleen works at Martell’s as a waitress, noting, “If they’d let me wear my skates, I’d be much faster.” Danette works at Key Blooms Country Gardens nursery each spring.

“We took over the rink to learn about our parents, to raise my children and to serve our community,” Danette says.

“The rink is a special place,” the sisters conclude. “There’s something happening here that’s good. Kids throw their arms around you when they leave: No paycheck can match that.”

As their parents did, Colleen and Danette close the rink for six weeks in June and July each year. They use the time to plan for the coming year and get some much-needed rest. The busiest time in the roller-skating world, they report, is between October and April. “March Madness has nothing to do with basketball in our world,” they say.

The rink has a snack bar and skate rental, and offers Zumba classes four days a week. The pro-shop, “Bertie’s,” honors the memory of the man who, with his pretty wife Al, started the family business six decades ago.

The Poet Celebrates His Moon Goddess She keeps her distance, circles him; she knows He’s crazy, knows her distant calm fazes Him constantly. Her least aspect raises A tide. Her face, the one she always shows, Wears beauty well. But he wants more, what throws Light on her far side, the part that dazes Him with mystery, that wins his praises, While she remains content with what she chose.

And now, in this old way, his words make more Than two lovers may be: Luna; the Earth.

They are themselves, human and small, and soon They may be gone, with no fanfare before Or after. So he begs: “Accept the birth Of love, and celebrate this, our blue moon.”

By Arnold Johnston

Arnold Johnston’s plays and other written works, in collaboration with his wife, Deborah Ann Percy, have won awards and been produced and published across the U.S. His poetry, fiction, nonfiction and translations have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. A past winner of Kalamazoo’s Community Medal of Arts, Arnold was chairman of Western Michigan University’s English Department from 1997 to 2007 and taught creative writing for many years at WMU. He is now a full-time writer.

W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

45

Foto Stop

Profile

Entries Wanted!

Where most see a building, ERIK HOLLADAY sees a graphic composition, as is evidenced in his richly colored image of the pedestrian bridge linking two downtown buildings.

Erik began his career at the age of 15, when he started taking shots for a Grand Rapidsbased weekly newspaper. He graduated from Grand Valley State University and became a staff member at the Grand Rapids Press in 1995 and worked briefly at the Flint Journal. In 2009, he left the world of photojournalism and opened his own business as a photographer and visual artist. He also recently started teaching at Michigan State University.

Erik can be seen many nights wandering the streets of Kalamazoo, camera in hand. “I am mostly a night owl, so dusk is my favorite time to be out,” he says.

Catching this shot required Erik’s patience and ability to crouch.

“I am always drawn to graphic compositions and the stairs and crosswalk instantly caught my

eye. I waited there for an hour to attempt to catch someone walking down the stairs just to have one more element in the composition. But it was a quiet night in downtown Kalamazoo and I ran out of patience and light,” he explains.

“Due to the low dusk light, I used a slightly longer shutter speed so I could hand-hold the camera as I propped myself up in a crouching position under the catwalk. I needed to be as stable as possible and reduce the amount of camera shake caught in the image.”

A sports enthusiast, Erik is also a self-confessed “information nerd” that loves perusing the Internet and reading.

To see more of Erik’s images, visit his website www.eholladay.com.

The gift of giving. $

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Host charity: Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan

46

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Photographers! Please submit your favorite photograph to Encore for consideration in the photo centerfold feature.

Be it the wonders of the natural world in our area, a local cityscape that causes fond memories, or an individual or group activity that seems to speak of Kalamazoo-area living, we’d like to see it.

We invite photographers of all ages and abilities to submit photos for publication. Please e-mail editor@ encorekalamazoo.com or contact Midtown Gallery’s Terry Nihart (midtownkalamazoo@ yahoo.com), who is assisting with this photography feature. Please provide a short rationale detailing why your photo is representative of living here, along with personal profile information and the specifics of taking the image you submit.

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Safe. Simple. Convenient.

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KNI will continue to introduce area physicians to new developments in breast imaging, cardiac imaging, neuroimaging, orthopedic imaging and functional imaging.

So, when medical imaging is important to you or your family, learn more about your options at www.kniimaging. com.

KNI partners with Borgess to provide the most powerful and versatile medical imaging equipment available in Southwest Michigan. Working with Premier Radiology, KNI has the medical expertise to provide your physician with the test results you need.

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