Encore-2012-004

$4 • April 2012 www.encorekalamazoo.com

On The Right Path

in this issue:

Trails Connect Communities • Land Bank Transforms Kalamazoo Run Camp Creates Bonds • Goodwill Industries’ John Dillworth

t r u e s t o ry

The concrete was cured.

Ditto the headache.

Even with its $8,500,000 retirement plan, the concrete and construction services company could not get its 401(k) provider to meet with the majority of its employees, who were usually on the job at nearby construction sites rather than in the office. “It’s not the way we prefer to do it,” said the plan provider, a large national firm. What a pain. Yet, as unhappy as the company was, it hesitated to move its plan elsewhere. Too much anxiety about something going wrong, too little understanding of what a move entailed, and much too busy to assign one of its executives to the task. So there it sat, with low participation rates and even lower enthusiasm, until the company’s CFO had finally had enough. “Who do you like and recommend?” he asked business acquaintances, whereafter one name emerged as the most reliable, most trusted and most attuned to client needs: Greenleaf Trust.

The plan conversion went off without a hitch. In our fiduciary capacity, we reviewed and recommended fund selections, provided transparency in our fee structure, handled all paperwork and filings, and—to the company’s great relief—traveled to numerous job sites to meet with every employee. In short order, plan participation increased 50% and employee appreciation increased immeasurably.

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Financial Security from Generation to Generation

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“I was 36 weeks pregnant when I suffered a brain hemorrhage. My husband said it was amazing how many doctors responded within minutes at Bronson. After two surgeries and an emergency C-section, my baby girl Makenna was safely delivered, and I was on my way to a full recovery. I thanked numerous doctors and nurses for taking such good care of me. Every single one of their responses was the same: ‘I just love what I do!’ Thank you, Bronson, for saving my baby’s life and mine.”

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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Get Out! ThaT seems To be where we are pointing you this month, dear readers.

This issue of Encore is replete with stories of encountering the world beyond our front doors. After you’ve spent months hunkering down inside, these stories are like that first warm breeze that blows through an open window, beckoning you to make the most of these longer, warmer days.

We all know that being outside is good for us. A wonderful trail and greenway system evolving in our county helps to make it a pleasant experience. But these trails provide more than just recreation, says writer Brian Lam. They are helping Southwest Michigan down the right path by connecting communities and neighborhoods, increasing the area’s desirability and providing economic boosts to the region.

As you venture outside this spring, you may notice some significant changes in the Kalamazoo landscape. From the elimination of derelict buildings to new community gardens, the Kalamazoo County Land Bank is revitalizing neighborhoods within our city. Writer Bill Krasean tells us that by getting rid of blight, rehabbing homes or building new ones, the Land Bank and its partners are putting properties back on the county’s tax rolls while transforming our city.

There are those among us who don’t need any encouragement to get out and move. I must admit my own

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admiration for those packs of brightly clad runners who, starting in February, went dashing through the snow down Bronson Boulevard. Hundreds of individuals can be seen doing the same all over our community as they participate in the Borgess Run Camp to prepare for the Borgess Run for the Health of It’s 5K, half-marathon and marathon events in May. We feature three inspiring stories of “Run Campers” whose training brought them love, motivation and family bonding. Their tales might just make you lace up those sneakers for a little stroll.

Finally, for those of us who think of spring cleaning and taking our used items to a donation site as getting out, writer Kaye Bennett introduces us to John Dillworth, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Southwest Michigan. A highly successful executive at Kellogg, Dillworth left behind the comfy corporate world and its hefty salary for the challenge of transforming this human services agency. Why? Because he’s a father. And he plays the piano.

Marie Lee, Editor CorreCTions Two errors appeared in the March issue of Encore: • The location noted for the Ladies Library Association on page 30 should be South Park Street (not South Rose Street).

• LLA member Barbara Knickerbocker was incorrectly identified as Barbara Baker in a photo appearing on Page 33.

Publisher Encore Publications, Inc. editor Marie Lee advertising sales/ business manager Krieg Lee office manager Ronald Dundon Fotostop artists Matt Clysdale John Lacko

Volume 39 Issue 8 • April 2012

MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

6 TRAILwAyS are taking Southwest Michigan in new directions.

Copy editor Margaret DeRitter Photo: David Roush

Poetry editor Theresa Coty O’Neil

12 KALAMAZOO COUNTy LAND BANK

is changing the city’s landscape.

Photo: Kalamazoo County Land Bank

Contributing Writers Kaye Bennett Theresa Coty O’Neil Bill Krasean Brian Lam Larry Massie Maureen Massie Contributing Poets Melanie Dunbar Gay Guard-Chamberlain Designer Brakeman

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SPECIALS

JOHN DILLwORTH

4 FROM THE EDITOR

is more than Goodwill’s ambassador.

22 SPIRIT OF KALAMAZOO

The Art of Restoring Community 23 CREATIVE KIDS

Photo: Mike Lanka

The Boy Who Loves Bass 24 FotoStop

Urban Wildlife

30

26 MASSIE’S MICHIGAN

RUN CAMP

Green Gold Grows Again

participants find love, bonding and more.

35 TRIVIA PURZOOT 36 EVENTS OF NOTE Photo: Borgess Run Camp

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, two years $53, three years $78. Current single issue and newsstand $4, $10 by mail. Back issues $6, $12 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.

Cover photo by Sam Zomer

POETRY 40 King of The Gypsies 41 Paper and String

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By Brian Lam

Making The Connection Trails are bridging communities, making the area more active and attractive.

T

The trails provide fun, relaxation and a chance to commune with nature, while often moving users toward good health. But beyond these obvious appeals, the trails bring benefits ranging from economic to social to the entire region.

Research across the country has shown that trails and greenways make communities more desirable places to live. in Money magazine’s 2011 ranking of the best American small towns, eight of the top 10 communities boast walking and biking trails as a community feature. According to the National Association of home Builders, access to trails ranks among the top five amenities home buyers consider.

But the small group of local residents who worked for two decades to make southwest michigan’s trail system a reality had another benefit in mind: connecting communities.

“This is all about connectivity,” says Toni Thompson, vice president of the Parks Foundation of Kalamazoo County and one of the original champions of converting rail beds to trails and connecting neighborhoods.

To understand the depth of these connections, imagine yourself as a palm reader looking underneath michigan’s famed “mitten” and seeing a multitude of lines intersecting and diverging across the state. A half-dozen or so deep grooves traverse the lower Peninsula, resembling a 19th-century railroad map. Tracing the lines running through southwest michigan will take you from one county to the next, across communities from south haven and Gobles to Kalamazoo, Portage and Comstock.

“The analogy is pretty obvious,” says Kalamazoo County Commissioner Jack Urban. “Those deep grooves are the old michigan Central line, which connects both ends of the state, with Kalamazoo serving as a hub for the rest of the state and 6

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Photo: Parks Foundation of Kalamazoo County

he miles of trails that meander through southwest michigan, from the Kal-haven and Kalamazoo River Valley trails to Portage’s bikeways and Bicentennial Trail, are favorite haunts of bicyclists, walkers, joggers, rollerbladers and bird-watchers.

even the midwest.” The michigan Central line is the longest proposed route of the Great lake-to-lake Trails Project, a cross-state trail-building initiative championed by the michigan Department of Transportation and the michigan Trails and Greenway Alliance. The first leg of that route is the Kal-haven Trail, which was established in 1988 by converting the dormant rail line into a hard, graveled path.

The newer Kalamazoo River Valley Trail, which opened just last year, is essentially the second leg in what will be a route that stretches from lake michigan to lake huron across the southern part of michigan.

Prior to the establishment of the KRVT, the nearest access point to the Kal-haven was at 10th street in Oshtemo Township. The branch of the KRVT that now connects

The trails transecting Kalamazoo County are accessible to outdoor enthusiasts who want to run, bike or roll along the scenic greenways.

also given Northside residents a new way to enjoy their surroundings. To help facilitate this, programs that create awareness among residents of outdoor activities on the trail are being conducted by the county and paid for by a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant.

Learning Cycles, an organized youth bicycle program offered in partnership with the New Genesis Education Center, on Cobb Street, is one such program. Last May, New Genesis received 26 new bicycles and helmets for a weekly ride program on the KRVT. More than 80 percent of the children involved in the center’s programs receive free or reduced-price school lunches, and few have their own bikes.

In addition to having a chance to take weekly rides, the children also were able to attend bicycle safety clinics.

“We’re getting kids active and teaching them about bike safety and maintenance,” says Kyle Lewis, the trail program coordinator for the Parks Foundation who also helps administer Learning Cycles. “There’s nothing cooler than being on the trail and seeing them ride by as a group, smiling and having a great time outdoors.”

Photo: Sam Zomer

downtown Kalamazoo to the Kal-Haven is seen by many as the most significant breakthrough of the local trail project.

Winding through the heart of Kalamazoo’s Northside, historically one of the city’s most challenged neighborhoods, the trail is part of a revitalization of this area that includes a grocery store, other new businesses and improved perceptions of this part of the urban scene.

The trail has not only allowed users to get a firsthand glimpse of a neighborhood many would not ordinarily visit, but has

An explosion of users A mile from the trail connector on the Northside is the eastward expansion of the KRVT, a nearly 10-mile pathway traveling from Mayors’ Riverfront Park north through Parchment and ending at D Avenue, just beyond the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Photo: Sam Zomer

“… we realized that connectivity was the key: connecting to other communities, connecting to other trails.”

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“When that segment opened in 2010, trail traffic just exploded,” says Lewis. “It’s a longer stretch, with plenty to see along the Kalamazoo River, going past Markin Glen Park and through some of the most beautiful scenery in this county.”

According to the Park Foundation’s website, the KRVT now gets 100,000 uses per year. That number will undoubtedly grow as the eastern section is expanded. A groundbreaking this month will signal construction of two more miles of the trail, heading east to downtown Comstock at River Street.

That stretch is expected to be complete by summer’s end, with a further extension into Galesburg near 35th Street the following year.

“I’m delighted by all the support and interest from urban, suburban and rural residents,” says Urban, who is leading fundraising efforts for the trail expansion. “There are a number of townships that have plans to link smaller trails to the River Valley Trail.

Just like the rail system, downtown Kalamazoo is going to be the hub.”

While eastward expansion is the current priority, Urban says there are plans for the trail to link up with the Bicentennial Trail in Portage.

“That’s the golden spike,” he says.

“Symbolically, it’s huge to connect Kalamazoo and Portage in this way. It’s going to have the effect of knitting the communities together. “ The ultimate connection between the two communities is “exciting” to Bill Deming, Portage’s director of Parks, Recreation and Property Management, because of the opportunities to expand that city’s trail system.

“We’ve taken the trail to the city limits, which is as far as we can go as a city,” says Deming. “I know that it’s important to the county and to the city of Kalamazoo to connect. Portage has a real active biking group that is looking forward to being connected to the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail. It will allow people to commute or to head into 8

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Photo: Parks Foundation of Kalamazoo County

Trails

town for light shopping. Serious bikers are looking for a way to connect to the Kal-Haven Trail.

“It’s not just the bikers either. There’s a bike lane that continues after the Bicentennial Trail stops, but that’s not safe for walkers. The trail will allow people to safely bike, walk or run into Kalamazoo, especially families who walk or bike with children.”

As the trail continues to expand, users will be exposed to neighborhoods and communities along the route, including their parks, shops and restaurants. “When you ride a bike, you don’t worry about what jurisdiction you’re in,” Urban says. “You either pull off the trail when you see a place you’d like to

visit, or you pick a destination based on where it is along the trail.”

‘The ultimate collaboration’ Connecting neighborhoods and communities became the guiding vision behind the trail’s development.

“As the vision was taking hold, we looked at various scenarios, such as taking the trail toward Allegan,” says the Parks Foundation’s Thompson, who also serves as president of the Friends of the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail. “And then we realized that connectivity was the key: connecting to other communities, connecting to other trails.”

In partnership with the Kalamazoo County Parks & Recreation Department,

Building good health Critical to these efforts is what Lewis calls “effective trail programming” to get people to experience the region’s trails.

Among these programs are walking groups, bike clubs, guided nature walks and even golf-cart tours.

“Linking community health to the trail is the goal,” says Lewis. “We know trails won’t improve the quality of life if they’re not used.”

Tara Edwards can attest to that.

As the leader of the Faith Walkers, a walking club for residents from Interfaith Homes, a Northside housing

Photo: Sam Zomer

trail groups have worked with the Michigan Department of Transportation, private interests, local governments and nonprofits to make the trail a reality. The city of Kalamazoo has been involved since the mid-1990s and was instrumental in getting MDOT involved. MDOT was willing to put up $50,000, but only if that amount could be matched.

MDOT Enhancement Grants are helping to continue the development of the trail, and the Parks Foundation is leading a campaign to match that funding with donations from corporations, individuals and other foundations, raising $10.4 million so far.

“The success of this trail has been the great partnerships,” says Thompson.

“Communication “… the gratifying has been the key, part is not just so today what we the physical have is more than connectivity, but a governmental connector, more the fact that the trail touches every than a converted railroad trail. We walk of life in see it as the path to our community, the future.” connecting us all “It’s socially as well.” the ultimate — Kyle Lewis collaboration,” agrees Lewis. “And the gratifying part is not just the physical connectivity, but the fact that the trail touches every walk of life in our community, connecting us all socially as well.”

complex located a few hundred yards from the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail, she is amazed at the changes experienced by the group’s participants.

The walkers meet three times a week, twice for a walk along the trail and once for a speaker series that focuses on health and wellness.

“Three of the women who participated in Faith Walkers enrolled in college this year and said it was because of the confidence they gained from the program,” Edwards says. “They’re learning about making choices and have lost a lot of weight.”

One of these women, Jo Anne (who asked that her last name not be used), had been diagnosed as diabetic. “At

first I just went on some of the walks. I wasn’t really changing my eating habits.

But then I started to get more and more into it,” she says. “Eventually I got my daughter to join the group, and we started to see the change.”

By the end of the fall, Jo Anne had lost 15 pounds and was no longer classified as diabetic. Feeling empowered, she started to look at other aspects of her life. “I realized I needed to focus on education,” she says, “and I’m now taking classes at Kalamazoo Valley (Community College).”

For Jo Anne, the chance to be out in the fresh air kept her showing up to walk. “I had tried exercising on treadmills before, but it’s too boring. I

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Photo: Brian Lam

Julie Powell

Jack Urban and Toni Thompson have spent the better part of two decades bringing about the trails that connect Southwest Michigan communities.

like to listen to the birds and feel the breeze. When you’re on a trail, you feel like you’re going somewhere.”

‘Mile by mile’ There is no doubt people are going places on the area’s trails. And in the not-toodistant future, someone may even go the whole length of the Great Lake-to-Lake Trail. In the meantime, however, people are out on the county’s miles of pathways to head downtown, walk their dogs, go for a run or just take in the hidden places they may not see on their daily commutes.

“It’s kind of an adventure,” Urban says. “These trails offer a chance to explore parts of the community that aren’t visible by car. Sometimes I like to walk past the end of the (Kalamazoo River Valley) trail to where proposed stretches are being considered and envision where the trail will go.”

As the trail system continues to grow, each collaborating entity works to communicate the positive impact of the trails to the communities they reach.

While different proponents may champion different outcomes — from health improvements and economic development to life experiences — all seem to agree that there’s something about being out in nature that makes a trail system important to the communities it serves.

“Many of the people that champion the (Kalamazoo River Valley) trail have been involved for more than 20 years,” says Toni Thompson. “It’s our love of green space that keeps us going. It may be years before the community sees the completion of this trail, but we’re going to keep working on it, mile by mile.”

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From Blight to B says. “the Land Bank often works in the most-distressed areas of the city or with the most-distressed properties. We think that it’s important to build a healthy environment both by rehabilitating houses or building new ones and complementing these efforts by improving the natural environment with green space and garden efforts.

“Michigan is known for its natural beauty, and we think there are opportunities to bring that to the back and side yards of residents in our community and neighborhoods.”

How it started Created by Kalamazoo County commissioners in 2009, the Land Bank is a quasi-governmental body that holds and develops tax-foreclosed properties with the intent of bringing

Land Bank’s efforts are changing the face of Kalamazoo.

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Photo: Erik Holladay

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ead north on rose Street from downtown Kalamazoo and look to your left as you approach Paterson avenue and the Family health Center. there, two houses sit next to each other, sparkling jewels with stone pillars, attached garages, natural wood trim and good-sized yards. next, go west to Blakeslee Street, up the long hill to one of the best views of downtown. on this land, a longabandoned four-story building stood for decades. the building is gone, and there will soon be senior housing units under construction there.

In Kalamazoo’s edison neighborhood, near the Bank Street farmers’ market and the quaint Washington Square Library, new houses have popped up like blossoms on a spring day.

Viewed singly, each of these sights is a pleasant change from what stood before. taken as a whole, however, they are evidence of a cooperative effort that is profoundly changing the landscape of Kalamazoo.

Behind all of these projects is the Kalamazoo County Land Bank, which is working with the city of Kalamazoo and a cornucopia of organizations and agencies to make Kalamazoo a more attractive place to live.

Kelly Clarke, executive director of the Land Bank, says her organization’s mission is to create vibrant neighborhoods by eliminating blighted properties, building high-quality affordable housing, stabilizing property values and returning properties to tax rolls.

“We are trying to respond to the challenges and issues resulting from the foreclosure crisis,” Clarke

By Bill Krasean

o Beautiful Sights these often vacant, abandoned sites back to productive use.

County treasurer Mary Balkema was instrumental in the Land Bank’s development and now works tirelessly as its board chairwoman. the Land Bank’s creation was well timed. In 2010, it was awarded a $15 million grant from the Michigan State housing development authority as part of the neighborhood Stabilization Program 2, funded by federal stimulus dollars.

Michigan received $223 million from the program — the largest award in the country — and those funds were distributed across a number of communities in the state. of the $15 million awarded by MShda to the Kalamazoo area, the Land Bank received a little more than $6 million and the city of Kalamazoo just over $8 million for the revitalization of central neighborhoods. MShda received a portion of the $15 million to oversee Kalamazoo’s work on the grant.

Because vacant and blighted property can have detrimental effects on a neighborhood — from depressing property values to attracting crime — the Land Bank focuses on reversing those outcomes. It has removed a number of blighted houses across Kalamazoo and employs a full-time staff person to reintegrate the newly vacant lots into the urban fabric.

“In some areas of Kalamazoo, we see a lot of empty houses in distressed neighborhoods. oftentimes these houses are so close together that there are only small yards, and residents occasionally share driveways,” Clarke says. “a lot of the homeowners would like bigger yards. When we tear down houses, we sell lots that can’t be developed to neighbors through our side-lot program. Many of them put in gardens or landscape to improve their property.”

In 2011, the Land Bank owned 258 properties in Kalamazoo, the majority of them acquired through tax foreclosures. In many cases, Clarke says, the Land Bank doesn’t get to choose the properties it acquires but takes on those that can’t be sold at a public tax auction after foreclosure. a majority of these properties are severely blighted, and a Land Bank team determines which ones are suitable for rehabilitation or for demolition. If a property is designated to become green space, the Land Bank The faces of the Land sells it to an adjacent homeowner for Bank are, clockwise from bottom left, Kelly $20 through its side-lot program.

Clarke, Natalie Youkim, as of March, the Land Bank has Kalamazoo County Commissioner Mary sold 71 properties and has 35 with Balkema, Catie Boring, sales pending or awaiting other use.

Amanda Woodin and Kenn Harmann.

Most of these are side-lot sales. eight

Far left, the former Kalamazoo Creamery site on the corner of Lake and Portage streets is reduced to rubble. The drawing above shows a proposed development concept for the site.

home sales occurred in the edison neighborhood, with another four home sales pending there.

“We are sensitive to the housing market and have been very strategic about building new houses, as to not oversaturate the market,” Clarke says. “We work with neighbors to determine target zones for home redevelopment and zones for green-space enhancement.”

Home again Clarke, 43, is a Kalamazoo native who has returned to her hometown after years of working in europe and Chicago. a graduate of delton high School, she attended Kalamazoo Valley Community College and antioch College in ohio, where she graduated with a degree in social and management studies. She later earned a master’s degree in sociology from the London School of economics, with a focus on urban studies. While in england, she worked for the London Borough of Southwark as a community safety and grants officer, addressing crime and public safety concerns with community residents, local officials and the police.

While visiting Ireland, she met and subsequently married thomas Crothers. the couple, who have two children, moved to Chicago, where Clarke worked for more than a decade in housing and community development, including work for the city of Chicago. She later managed the Chicago area regional homeowners Preservation Initiative, a network of more than 70 organizations that work together to determine the optimum use of federal programs and resources for affordable housing and foreclosure prevention.

Clarke brought her family to Kalamazoo in 2010 to take the Land Bank position. her husband, who had been 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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Land Bank

Clarke says neighbors have been particularly enthusiastic about the beneficial changes in their neighborhoods.

commuting back and forth to Chicago, recently joined the Battle Creek Community Foundation as its director of finance and investments.

“It has been a joy to come back to my hometown,” Clarke says. “It’s obviously a smaller community, and it’s much easier to see an impact in a small community than a bigger one.

“The results are very touchable, very seeable, and we are blessed here with partners like the city of Kalamazoo and, of course, our county commission. We have a lot of strong partners, co-partners and funding partners.”

are committed to continuing the work to protect the investments the grant has allowed us to make.”

Clarke says members of the Land Bank staff — which includes four full-time employees, two AmeriCorps volunteers and a college intern — work actively with neighborhood associations.

“We visit the neighborhoods and talk to neighbors and residents through a variety of means,” she says. “Most residents want a sense of security and stability in their neighborhoods as well as a sensitivity to the character of their housing stock.”

The Marketplace development, a cluster of new homes in the Edison neighborhood, was one of the Land Bank’s first projects to get off the ground and has been particularly successful. The Land Bank, in partnership with the city of Kalamazoo and the Home Builders

Association of Greater Kalamazoo, has been able to attract a variety of high-quality builders with a “Parade of Homes” model.

Clarke says that all Marketplace builders are given a price cap on their building costs and a minimum specification. “We worked to encourage friendly competition between the builders to get the very best house for the price, and we think we have been successful,” she says.

Marketplace houses each have unique touches that demonstrate the variety of builders involved, yet complement one another to create an attractive urban community. Seven of the 15 houses completed have been purchased and occupied, with two sales pending.

The two new houses on North Rose Street, which were just completed, also

Northside resident Andy Wilkerson gives a thumbs-up to his expanded backyard garden developed on a side lot he acquired through the Kalamazoo County Land Bank.

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Photo: Bill Krasean

Photo: Kalamazoo County Land Bank

Building secure neighborhoods From the beginning, the Land Bank has set its focus on six Kalamazoo neighborhoods — Northside, Fairmont, Stuart, Edison, Eastside and Vine — where the $15 million dollar grant must be spent.

“The MSHDA grant is for a threeyear period, and we will look for more funds starting this year,” says Clarke, who reports to a board whose members are named by county commissioners.

“We know that the situation is not going to get any better in 2012; in fact, it could be a worse year for tax foreclosures. The issue is being able to continue after the grant expires, and we

The blighted former tuberculosis sanitarium in the Fairmont neighborhood has been torn down, to be replaced with senior housing units that will boast one of the best views of downtown Kalamazoo.

Each Marketplace home has unique touches representative of its builder.

Photo: Courtesy Kalamazoo Gazette

A rendering of the exterior of one of the proposed housing units to be built at Prairie Gardens.

have been generating a lot of interest, with one offer already made.

Marketplace, located not only near a library and farmers’ market but close to the city’s Kik Pool, and the North Rose Street homes, near the Family Health Center, fit the Land Bank’s goal of building homes near these kinds of community “anchors.”

Neighbors have been particularly enthusiastic about the beneficial changes in their neighborhoods, Clarke says, and these changes are “breathing new life into the house-buying market.”

Because prices have largely stabilized and interest rates are at alltime lows, many buyers are able to move out of apartments and begin to build equity they might not otherwise have.

All the Land Bank homes, whether new builds or rehabilitated structures,

are five-star energy-efficient homes and represent a great opportunity for home buyers, Clarke says, and the Land Bank works with potential buyers to help make such purchases successful. “Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services provides educational classes on how to make wise purchases, on the need to maintain the home and how to start a rainy-day fund in case they lose their jobs,” Clarke says. “We want people to be successful and we try to help them make responsible choices.”

Works in progress The Land Bank also has been instrumental in the transformation of the 12-acre spot atop the Blakeslee Street hill, which boasts one of the highest elevations in Kalamazoo. This former Kalamazoo State Hospital property, most recently owned by Western Michigan

University, housed a former tuberculosis sanitarium, which had been vacant since 1990. Despite fencing and other efforts to keep out trespassers, the derelict structure had become a magnet for vandals and squatters, much to the dismay of neighbors.

The Land Bank provided $2 million for the demolition of the facility and will begin construction this month of Prairie Gardens, a 10-unit community of duplexes for independent senior living.

City Commissioner David Anderson, who served as Fairmont Neighborhood Association president for 15 years, was quoted in the Kalamazoo Gazette last May saying that he has waited 20 years for a plan for the property. “That was one thing on our agenda year in and year out,” he says.

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Photo: Bill Krasean

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Neighbors on the Eastside took advantage of the Land Bank’s community garden program to create the Trybal Revival Eastside Eco-Garden, which boasts 28 species of mostly foodproducing trees and shrubs among its plantings.

“Some projects are worth sticking with, even if it takes 20 years.”

Another independent senior living project is being funded by the MSHDA grant and developed by the Northside Association for Community Development (NACD). This six-unit project, to be built on the corner of North and Church streets, will support the development efforts that have already taken place on the NACD office site.

Big changes also have occurred at the location of the former Kalamazoo Creamery on Portage Street across from Washington Square Library. The Land Bank acquired the creamery complex through tax foreclosure and, after deeming it unsafe, demolished the facility in November. Clarke says plans for the site, which covers more than an acre, call for an interim green space designed with the help of students from the nearby Edison Environmental Academy. Ultimately, she says, the Land Bank hopes to attract a mixed commercial and residential development there.

The plans for the creamery site fit in with another Land Bank goal: replacing blight with beauty. Catie Boring, Land Bank garden and beautification coordinator, says that while some of the properties where houses or buildings have been demolished are slated for new (continued on page 44)

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John Dillworth Dramatic career shift brings Goodwill exec home.

T

he Next time you buy a Kellogg’s Pop-tart, Nutri-Grain Bar or Rice Krispies treat from a vending machine, you can thank John Dillworth, who until 2000 was a marketing executive at Kellogg Co. the next time you donate to or buy something from a Goodwill retail shop, once again thank Dillworth, who since 2000 has been president and CeO of Goodwill industries of Southwestern michigan.

And if you’re lucky enough to catch a band called ABB (Al’s Basement Band) or the jazz duo Grace and John at a local venue, check out the piano player. Yep, John Dillworth.

Dillworth’s journey to becoming a Renaissance man started 54 years ago in Detroit, where he lived until he was 9. that year, 1967, the family moved to West Bloomfield, just one day before the His new salary Detroit riots. “Good timing on my was less than dad’s part,” Dillworth acknowledges.

After graduating from West half his former Bloomfield high in 1975, Dillworth pay, but he came to Kalamazoo, enrolling in says, “It was a Western michigan University’s honors program, where he earned a bachelor’s wonderful degree in business and married Wendy decision.” ecker, from Rochester. the day after graduation, Dillworth started his first job, selling cereal and snack foods for Kellogg. he spent the next six years with the company in Detroit, where he also earned an m.B.A. from the University of Detroit mercy. moving up the corporate ladder, Dillworth relocated to New York in the mid-1980s, then came back to michigan in 1989 for a job in Kellogg’s Battle Creek headquarters.

During his 11 years in Battle Creek, Dillworth’s charge was to develop new business. heading up U.S. government sales worldwide, he sold cereal to American troops. he also got a feel for helping the hungry, as Kellogg products were among those included in humanitarian food-distribution efforts.

“Pop-tarts,” says Dillworth, “are a great food if you’re starving.” he describes the breakfast favorite as “a highly caloric and dense food, relatively benign, that will hold up when dropped out of a C-130 from 10,000 feet.” in short, he says, Pop-tarts are “virtually indestructible.”

When Dillworth started working at Kellogg, it was rare to find any nutritious food sold in vending machines. he helped 18

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Dillworth enjoys boating with son, Matt, who has Fragile X Syndrome.

Kellogg Co. see that this problem could be addressed while helping the company introduce consumers to its new Nutri-Grain Bar. Offering the energy bars in vending machines was a huge success. Planning for the implementation of Dillworth’s idea cost about $20,000; the new product reaped about $30 million in its first few years.

Photo: Mike Lanka

By Kaye Bennett

Dillworth’s wife, Wendy, and daughter, Stephanie.

Dillworth plays keyboards for two musical acts.

Such success in the corporate world frequently garners its originator certain latitude, and that was true for Dillworth. “They left me alone to do what I wanted,” he says. Part of what he wanted was to explore opportunities to

partner with other food manufacturers.

For example, he worked with Duncan Hines to introduce Kellogg’s All-Bran Muffin Mix. His experience with such partnerships would soon serve Dillworth well because, although he didn’t

know it at the time, he was about to make a massive career shift.

Despite his success with Kellogg, two things made Dillworth consider leaving the company. First, and most important, was his son, Matt. Dillworth and his wife, Wendy, a Comstock Public Schools teacher of developmentally delayed prekindergarten students, have two children: Stephanie, 26, who works for a nonprofit organization in Minneapolis, and Matt, 22, who attends KRESA’s Young Adult Program. Matt has Fragile X Syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual disability.

“What’s important for Matt is a consistent situation at home,” Dillworth says. When Matt was young, having a father who was away half the time and facing the potential that another promotion might involve relocating to a new city was not the best situation.

The other life-altering influence for Dillworth was the 1989 debut of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. The Dillworths had moved to Richland that year, and as soon as the Gilmore was announced, Dillworth said, “We’re not moving anywhere now.” He started playing piano at age 5, taught piano while he was in high school, and had once even considered a career on the concert stage. Kalamazoo, he realized, was the perfect place to be a piano fan, and he knew he needed to be around more often to enjoy the Gilmore offerings.

Just days after informing his boss at Kellogg that he wanted a position that didn’t require travel, Dillworth responded to a classified ad seeking a new CEO for the local Goodwill operation.

In June 2000, Dillworth became that CEO, taking over for David Davey, who retired from that position after almost 30 years. Dillworth praises the Goodwill board and search committee for taking a chance on hiring a businessman; at the time, such a move was almost unprecedented in the nonprofit arena.

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His new salary was less than half his base pay at Kellogg, but Dillworth says, “It was a wonderful decision.” He was able at to be at home and provide the stability his son needed. With his dad providing the special attention his condition requires, Matt could play on the Gull Lake High School football team and became a champion power lifter in the Special Olympics.

The career change also let Dillworth indulge in his keyboard passion. Not only could he and his wife enjoy Gilmore concerts, he was able to perform more often.

Dillworth had played in the local ’60s and ’70s rock cover band, ABB, since 1995.

From 2000 through 2006, he also played monthly gigs with another band, Boys Night Out. For the past year, he has been performing jazzy music, 1930s- through 1960s-style, in a cabaret lounge act with singer Grace Kalafut. Dillworth also tickles the ivories for meetings of the Rotary Club of Kalamazoo, of which he is a member.

The move from a corporate to a nonprofit position was not without its surprises. Dillworth says he was most taken aback by the lack of collaboration among agencies. “In the for-profit world,” he says, “collaboration is how you make money, by increasing the breadth of your product.”

When he started at Goodwill, he says, there was a general belief among nonprofits that “there’s a static pot of money, and we need to see how much of it we can get.”

Dillworth knew that money pots are expandable, if you can just line up with the right partners. He also believed that human-services organizations must be run like businesses, because “if you have no money, you have no mission.”

Even nonprofits “need to expect outcomes and see results,” Dillworth says. He made sure that all of Goodwill’s employees had job descriptions, performance reviews based on those job descriptions, and pay based on performance.

Dillworth observed that Goodwill operations in other regions funded their activities almost entirely with profits from their retail stores. At the time, the six counties served by Goodwill Industries 20

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Photo: Mike Lanka

Dillworth

Goodwill established Treasure Chest, a division which identifies vintage and antique items from donations and then sells them online. Here, WMU interns Desiree Carolla, left, and Allison Marruffo, right, show Dillworth two vintage dresses being prepared for sale.

of Southwestern Michigan boasted nine retail facilities, but income from those stores merely supplemented the government money that was the organization’s primary source of funding.

“I could see this wasn’t sustainable,” says Dillworth. Today, Goodwill’s donations are quadruple their 2000 level. The retail stores are indeed paying the bills, with private donations and government funding helping.

But it’s through the collaborative efforts Dillworth has initiated that his mark has become indelible. One of the most successful is a literacy program conducted

with Kalamazoo Public Schools and the Kalamazoo Literacy Council, in which Goodwill offers free adult basic education and GED test preparation. In 2009-10, the number of students increased by 152 percent over the previous year.

Dillworth’s dream of interagency collaboration is also seen in Goodwill’s bricks and mortar. In 2005, Stryker Corp. donated its 90,000-square-foot headquarters on Alcott Street to Goodwill Industries. Dillworth set about turning the building into a human-services campus.

Following a $2.6 million remodeling, Goodwill moved its offices, its manu-

Facts about Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan • Serves clients in six counties: Kalamazoo, Allegan, Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Van Buren • Operates retail outlets in Portage, Kalamazoo (Alcott Street and West Main Street sites), Paw Paw, Plainwell/Otsego, Allegan, Three Rivers, Sturgis and Benton Harbor • Served more than 4,000 clients in 2011 • Brought in total revenue of $8.9 million in 2010, with $6.9 million of this from retail sales of contributed goods

Provides: • Essentials: clothing for interviews or work; help with transportation or car repairs and other needed items or services to acquire or maintain self-sufficiency • Vocational education: assessment and evaluation; soft skills training; GED preparation; Adult Basic Education classes and tutoring; donated cars from Workers On Wheels program; assistance with employment and financial literacy • Intensive job placement assistance: job retention support and following along for employment success

facturing and processing center, a retail shop, and training and employment services to the building. There was still room for partners — lots of partners. Goodwill offered office space in the building to other nonprofit agencies, at reasonable rent charges. Partner-renters were chosen by what they could offer clients.

The building is full now with tenants, including Housing Resources Inc., Guardian Finance and Advocacy Services, the Kalamazoo County Tax Counseling Initiative, the Kalamazoo Literacy Council, the Kalamazoo Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Council, the Kalamazoo River Cleanup

Coalition, Advocacy Services for Kids, Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services Inc. and a Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes food pantry.

The physical proximity of these service providers stimulates creative problem solving. “A lot happens in those ‘oh, by the way’ conversations in hallways,” he says.

“Proximity breeds collaborative efforts.”

With an ever-growing number of people living in poverty, Dillworth says Goodwill’s goal is “to change the culture of families to value education.”

“We try to get services in place so we can change their economic situation, moving them from poor to middle-class.”

While Dillworth has been changing the face of Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan, it has been changing him, too. “A year after I got here,” he says, “I sent an e-mail to the Kellogg CEO and apologized for being such a pain in the neck (while working at Kellogg). When you’re in charge, you look at things more globally and long-term. When you’re a cog in the organization, you don’t see that.”

Dillworth sees clearly just where Goodwill fits into the global humanservices picture: “We’re just one piece in the machinery necessary to change a person’s life. No one organization can solve poverty. There has to be collaboration.”

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Spirit of Kalamazoo

The Art of Restoring Community

For me, Kalamazoo is the place where I keep on finding what I need, often without knowing I need it. At Western Michigan University, I found an unexpected freedom to pursue an acting career along with my teaching career. In retirement, I’ve found a new calling: restoration of natural communities.

It was not, however, until about 20 years ago that I overcame my western bias (I grew up in Colorado and California) and began to feel truly at home in Michigan and Kalamazoo and that I’m native to this place, attuned to some essence of its spirit.

The change came when my notion of community began to include more than the academic, theater, ethnic and religious communities I participated in. Community became, for me, the ecology — the “natural history ”— of this place where I live.

Community is the totality of its life: the wondrous variety not only of human beings, but of native plants and other creatures that live among us on the land, in the soil, in the waters, in the air. Community is an ecology of both place and spirit.

You see, my search was for a spiritual way of life, a practice that made sense in a time of turmoil, warfare, violence and degradation of the natural world. I was seeking a life of simplicity and nonviolence. My late wife, Nancy, a fellow English professor, found the way for us when she read Sara Stein’s book Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards. We discovered a new life together, with the community of environmentalists that gathered around the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. We learned from

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Photo: Matt Clysdale

If someone were to ask you to describe the essence of the spirit of Kalamazoo, how would you respond? Here is an answer from Tom Small, actor, environmental activist and retired Western Michigan University English professor.

By Tom Small

Tom Small sees community as “an ecology of both place and spirit.”

them how to cherish and restore the whole community of life that settlement and development have almost squeezed out of the landscape. We set about doing it at home, on our own urban half-acre of land. We formed a chapter of Wild Ones, the national organization promoting “natural landscaping,” restoring the communities of native plants and creatures to the place where one lives. The community response has been wonderful; our chapter is now the second largest in the nation.

Over the years many local communities have aided my quest for the spirit of this place: community and experimental (continued on page 42)

Photo: Courtesy Joe LeFevre

By Theresa Coty O’Neil

Joe leFevre’s earliesT imPression of a tuba player was as the big, laid-back member of the band who “was always cool with things.”

That’s not how Joe saw himself in fifth grade, but that didn’t stop him from choosing the largest member of the brass family when given a choice of band instruments.

“I picked the tuba up because I was really short and thought it would be funny to see someone my size playing such a huge instrument,” says Joe, 17, a Portage Central High School junior. “I went home and told my mom, and she actually started laughing until she saw I was serious.”

Something about the tuba spoke to Joe. He took private lessons, and what started as a bit of a joke, slowly took on a life of its own. By freshman year, Joe had found a group of band buddies, people he considers to be “lifelong friends,” and increasing opportunities to play an instrument usually thought of as a just a bass line.

“I always thought I would be that guy who A younger Joe at his first concert, in sixth just loves the melody, grade.

Creative Kids

Photo: Courtesy Joe LeFevre

The Boy Who Loves Bass

Joe LeFevre

but once I started to play the bass parts, I realized that I really liked that sound,” he says. He admits he turns up his car radio to better hear the bass in the music, which inspired him to pick up the bass guitar.

A member of the Portage Central marching and symphonic concert bands, as well as the Legends Indoor Brass and Percussion Ensemble, Joe was chosen for the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony in eighth grade. This was a new challenge, since he was used to playing in bands with three or four other tubists. A symphony orchestra typically has only one tubist, and the sole responsibility was a little intimidating for him.

“After that first year of adjusting, I loved playing in an orchestra,” he says. “It’s really fun, and if I had the choice, (continued on page 43)

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Urban Wildlife

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Green Gold Grows Again Once-denuded forest thrives in western Allegan County.

By Larry Massie

L

IKE AN IRREGULAR PIECE of a great jigsaw puzzle, a 50,000-acre anomaly of blow sand and white pine plains now known as the Allegan State Game Area lies in western Allegan County, bounded roughly by Allegan, Hamilton, Fennville and Pullman. Once it was the forest primeval, a pristine evergreen wilderness through which the Kalamazoo River writhed in great meanders. En route to Lake Michigan, its crystal-clear current swelled with the waters of Swan, Sand and Bear creeks and the Larry B. Massie, recipient of the first-ever Rabbit River.

Massie’s Michigan

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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Migratory bands of Ottawa and Potawatomi paddled birch-bark canoes up and down the river. White-tailed deer bounded over fallen trunks. Black bear, bobcats, panthers, gray wolves, badgers and, fiercest of all, occasional wolverines from the north roamed in search of prey. The smaller forest mammals — raccoons, skunks, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and groundhogs — led their secretive lives. Wild turkeys strutted and gobbled, owls hooted and great pileated woodpeckers beat fistsized holes into dead wood. Mink, marten, fisher, otter and beaver abounded.

The river teemed with trout, muskellunge, pike and prehistoric-looking sturgeon 10 feet long and more. Century-old snapping turtles the size of washtubs wallowed out of the swamp in early summer to lay broods of ping-pong-ball-sized eggs in the sun-warmed sand.

In the swamps and river bottoms, hardwoods thrived — five or six variet-

Lumberjacks transported huge loads of logs to the banking grounds along the Kalamazoo River.

ies of oak, shag-bark hickory, walnut, butternut, wild cherry, maple, gigantic tulip poplars, muscular gray beech, bonewhite sycamore and spiny honey locust.

But the rest of the sour, sandy, glacial outwash terrain was dominated by white pine trees, ancient, craggy giants 150 to 200 feet tall. Three men together couldn’t stretch their arms around the trees’ deeply furrowed trunks.

“Green gold,” lumbermen called that white pine, the preferred building material of the pioneer period. In 1835 a land speculator named Oshea Wilder platted out a town at the mouth of the Kalamazoo that he called Singapore, constructed a steam-powered sawmill there and set his sights on raking in some of that green gold.

Each fall a small army of some of the roughest, toughest, meanest and, in

many cases, ugliest men in Michigan arrived at Singapore and made their way to lumber camps upstream.

Those lumberjacks spent winters felling the big pine trees with double-bitted axes, bucking them into 16foot lengths with crosscut saws, skidding them with oxen to the cross haul, piling them high on bobsleds with cant hooks and transporting the logs to the banking grounds near the river. In the spring, when the ice and snow melted and the Kalamazoo and its tributaries reached “drive pitch,” they sent those mountains

Once a rip-roaring lumber town at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, Singapore disappeared beneath sand dunes when the pine trees were gone.

of logs careening down high, sandy rollways into the river.

The toughest of the shanty boys pulled on caulked boots, swapped their axes for “peavies” — long poles to help balance themselves and move logs — and rode the log drive downstream, looking for timber stranded in backwaters and breaking up tangled logjams. When those river hogs reached the sorting booms at Singapore, their job was done and they got paid pitiful wages for their Herculean efforts. Oh, there were fortunes to be made out of green gold — many a lumber baron’s mansion proved that — but not by the men who worked in the woods.

Safely in Singapore, the logs were fed by millworkers to whining saw blades, at first the up and down “mulley” type and later the more-efficient circular blades, spitting out mountains of sawdust.

As many as 600 lumber schooners a season sailed into Singapore Harbor, filling their holds and decks with choice white-pine planks and boards to carry to lumberyards in Chicago and other port cities. That white pine from the Kalamazoo River Valley and other western Michigan streams built Chicago as well as many other towns on the treeless western prairie.

Entrepreneurs built rival sawmills at Newark, as Saugatuck was originally called, and buzzed their way through additional millions of board feet. According to the Saugatuck Commercial of June 10, 1871, in one season alone, schooners left Singapore and Saugatuck with 4,135,000 feet of lumber, 3,135,000 shingles, 993 full cords of firewood, 9,600 railroad ties and many other thousands of pickets and lath.

In October 1871, most of Chicago burned to the ground and forest fires raged across millions of acres in Michigan. To rebuild, Chicago cried out for all the lumber Michigan could produce.

Shanty boys attacked what was left of the pine in the Kalamazoo River Valley with a vengeance. Within four years, no

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Massie more logs floated down the river and the sawmill at Singapore stood idle. Those boys had gotten all the pine except for a few stray stands too far from the river to process. The Singapore mill was relocated to St. Ignace, and sand dunes relentlessly erased all signs of the town except for the sawdust. Saugatuck’s mills soon followed suit.

In 1897, the Michigan Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics compiled a census of the remaining timber in the state. Only 100 acres of pine still stood in all of Allegan County. Not one acre of pine remained in Clyde, Heath, Manlius and Pine Plains townships, where the bulk of the Allegan State Game Area is located.

Peripheral to the area and in pockets within, fertile soil had beckoned to pioneers, and productive farms thrived.

But more than 50,000 denuded acres had become a no man’s land of blowing sand, and periodic fires swept over the stunted second growth. Locals called the area “The Grubs.” A humorist who signed an article in the Allegan Gazette “Sandburr” described Pine Plains in 1898 as “noted for its pine stumps, oak grubs, small potatoes and big liars, principally the latter.”

The liars he undoubtedly referred to were unscrupulous real-estate agents who were about to change the status of The Grubs. The few families who had tried to make a go of farming the sterile sandy soil survived a few years on crops that grew on a couple of inches of forest mulch atop the sand. That soon wore out, and the disappointed agriculturalists moved to more-fertile lands. The truth of the matter was that any experienced farmer realized that an area known as Pine Plains boded badly for farming.

In 1898, however, a coterie of realestate promoters who had bought up worthless land in Pine Plains at tax sales for pennies an acre convinced township officials to rename the area Pine Plains Valley Township, a much more inviting agricultural designation.

White pine trees grow along the Kalamazoo River at what was a 19th-century rollway, an incline where logs were rolled into the river to begin their journey to the sawmill.

and Coincidentally, the late 1890s and early decades of the 20th century marked a “back to nature” movement whereby jaded city dwellers and immigrants sought their American dream of living simply and well on small farms in the country.

The timing was perfect for the shady real-estate agent, who platted out long, narrow 10- to 20-acre parcels with frontage on the Kalamazoo River, an important feature of the newspaper advertisements they ran in Chicago and other cities. Those who responded were assured of the fertility of the soil and shown shocks of corn brought from more-prosperous farms and stuck in the sand as props. Some of the more-imaginative agents buried barrels of ice water, installed a pitcher pump and let the prospective clients taste for themselves how good the water was, not bothering to mention that, in actuality, a half-hour after a rainstorm the parched soil was as dry as the desert and that the Allegan Forest is one of the only places in the state where prickly pear cactus and yucca grow wild.

By the start of the Great Depression, most who had bought into the Valley Township bamboozle had gone bankrupt and lost their land. Those who remained were literally starving.

Rural letter carriers recalled investigating when they saw no sign of activity at remote dwellings and sometimes finding the occupants dead or dying of starvation.

That’s when Guy Teed, who had just finished serving two terms as Allegan County sheriff, entered the story. Teed, an activist naturalist, had earlier reintroduced the first deer into southern Michigan,

Green gold is back in the Allegan Forest, where it always belonged.

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An ancient white pine, somehow missed by the lumberjacks, waves its craggy branches high above the second-growth forest canopy in the Allegan State Forest.

since they had been exterminated in the 19th century. He chanced upon an article in County Gentleman magazine in January 1933 describing a U.S. Department of Agriculture program geared toward alleviating the problems caused by the misuse of submarginal land. Teed wrote a letter to the USDA describing western Allegan County’s “several thousand acres of sandy, cut-over white pine timberland which had been ravaged by forest fires nearly every year since the first lumberjack disappeared over the northern horizon.”

A USDA representative arrived in Allegan, inspected the situation and launched a Resettlement Program in which it purchased submarginal land and helped the families to relocate elsewhere.

A colony of Allegan families moved to Alaska’s famed Matanuska Valley. By the end of 1934, the federal government owned more than 33,000 acres of Allegan land, and 120 desperate families had been relocated. In 1935, the USDA established the Allegan Land Utilization Project, which became a national model for the demonstration of better land use.

During a second phase of the program, the government established an evergreen nursery to raise seedlings for transplanting, an experimental game farm and a wildlife sanctuary. Denuded areas were reforested and wildlife food and ground cover planted. A principal aim of the project was to realize the recreational value of the land. Works Progress Administration workers constructed woodland trails

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winding along streams and bluffs and built outdoor fireplaces, picnic tables and toilets.

Others sunk wells where pitcher pumps delivered genuine cold water. A concrete dam across Swan Creek created an 88-acre lake, and docks were constructed. Civilian Conservation Corps-like youths planted more than 3,000,000 white and Norway pine seedlings to rebuild the forest that once covered the site.

In 1940, the Michigan Department of Conservation (now the Department of Natural Resources) acquired the Allegan property through a land exchange with the USDA. Most of the acreage became the Allegan State Forest. The remainder was designated the Swan Creek Experiment Station, where wildlife research was conducted. During World War II, a portion of the State Forest became a German prisoner-of-war camp. In 1949, the 1,700acre former A.M. Todd mint farm was purchased as a waterfowl management area. Five years later the Allegan Forest welcomed the release of wild turkeys, which also had been hunted to extinction decades before.

In 1964, a sweeping reorganization created the Department of Natural Resources, and the focus changed from conservation to exploitation once again.

The Allegan State Forest was combined with the Swan Creek Experiment Station and the Fennville State Game Area and renamed the Allegan State Game Area.

Unfortunately, that name change signified an emphasis on hunting at the expense of other recreational uses as promised in the original federally funded Allegan Project.

Today, however, hunters and fishermen are joined in the Allegan State Game Area by mushroom and berry pickers, bird-watchers, hikers, mountain bikers, campers, cross-country skiers, photographers and other nature lovers who roam a beautiful forest that was once a denuded disaster area. To sit propped against the trunk of a healthy old white pine while its craggy branches whisper and sigh above is a soul-stirring experience. Green gold is back in the Allegan Forest, where it always belonged.

APRIL 20

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Training Together “ I

Borgess Run Camp has made marriages, bonded families and inspired children.

Photos: Courtesy Borgess Run Camp

AM A RunnER!” That chant filled the gymnasium at the Borgess Health & Fitness Center in February, as more than 800 people pumped themselves up for the first day of a 13-week running program called Borgess Run Camp.

“Let me hear you say it again!” shouted Chris LampenCrowell, Run Camp director and owner of Gazelle Sports.

More than 800 people showed up for the first day of Run Camp 2012, right, and were divided into teams based on their paces and desires.

Runners say that team camaraderie, like that shown above, keeps them going through months of training.

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“I am a runner!” 800 people yelled back.

Along with co-directors Blaine Lam and Janeen Docsa, Lampen-Crowell has seen the annual running program — now in its 10th year — grow to more than eight times its original number of participants. What started as a small training program for the annual Borgess Run for the Health of It 5K, has grown into a health and fitness program that has ignited both runners and wannabe runners.

Borgess Run Camp helps people prepare to run 5-kilometer, half-marathon or marathon races, ending one week before Borgess Run for the Health of It events in May. Runners are divided into teams based on pace and distance. Formal runs take place every Saturday, with informal team runs throughout the week. Runners range from seasoned marathoners to people who have never run before, with the greatest number of camp participants falling into the latter group.

Lampen-Crowell says the camp specializes in helping people who are just starting to run or starting over.

Many of the runners begin their training regimens with a combination of running and walking. The camp features on-site physicians, physical therapists, trainers and wellness experts.

“Our focus is creating a supportive environment,” says Docsa. “We want to make sure that runners feel comfortable.” The camp directors believe in this mission so much that they have made a Run Camp tradition out of showing campers and team leaders how to introduce

themselves to others on the first day.

The Run Camp directors agree that the goal of the camp has never been about numbers but about creating a memorable experience in a safe and inviting environment.

On day one, Lampen-Crowell explains to campers that they are creating the “new normal,” saying, “This is a community that cares about health. This is a community of runners. People driving around this community are seeing packs of runners everywhere. We’re changing the perception of what a ‘normal’ community means.”

In fact, “Changes” is the theme of this spring’s run camp. In addition to the group runs and weekly health clinics, the camp has added two new categories, “Game Changers” and “Weight Changers.” The first is for serious runners looking to set personal records; the second is for participants focusing on weight loss.

But talk to any of the hundreds of returning campers, and you’ll find that most of the changes they experience at

Run Camp have very little to do with weight, speed or distance. “What makes Run Camp so different from running solo or training on a treadmill is the social aspect,” says Lampen-Crowell.

“Something happens out there on

those runs when you’re surrounded by so much support and positive energy.

People are making friends. People are forming lifelong memories. There are great stories coming out of the running community.”

Tim and Shani Walton

Teammates become soul mates In 2003, TIM WAlTOn had just finished running a 5K race with some friends when one suggested they should set their sights on a half-marathon. Looking for a training program to help achieve this goal, Walton enrolled in the inaugural Run Camp.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they were giving away free gloves so I figured I had nothing to lose,” he says.

Walton was placed on a training team with about a dozen other runners who ran at his pace. Every Saturday, the group would head out on longer and longer runs. Soon they started getting together midweek for additional training. Walton says that he loved the social aspect of it.

“Everyone in our group quickly became friends. It was a great group. You really get to know the people you go on those long runs with.”

One of the people on those runs was Shani Wertman. Before the first Run Camp, she had just completed her first marathon and wanted to keep the training going. She had trained by herself for her marathon and was looking for a more social approach to training.

Indicating a similar pace on their Run Camp forms, Tim and Shani

A Run Camp participant enjoys the encouragement of her teammates.

were put on the same team that year — and the next year and the next — ulimately becoming good friends.

“That was back when there was only one group per pace,” says Shani. “So a lot of people from my first group ended up on the same team year after year, including Tim.” Many of the runners in Tim and Shani’s group started getting together outside of Run Camp, often meeting for coffee or meals after runs or running other races together. Shani tells the story of how her Run Camp group came out to support her at a

Tim and Shani Walton started out as Run Camp teammates and are now married and have a 1-year-old daughter, Kate.

half-marathon. “I thought a few might come out to cheer me on,” she says, “but Tim actually orchestrated the group to spread out along the course, and each team member ran a leg of the race with me. It was really sweet.”

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Tim and Shani Walton

Nicole MacDougall Tim and Shani say that shortly after that race the group really noticed the chemistry between them and started hinting that the two single runners might make a good pair. “That was a good suggestion,” Tim says with a smile.

In 2008, Tim proposed to Shani while they were backpacking at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula. They were married in August 2009.

The year after they were married, Tim and Shani became the first tandem team leaders at Borgess Run Camp, a practice that is now common due to the expanding size of the camp. “We were trendsetters,” Shani jokes.

Tim took solo team leadership duties in 2011, however, because Shani was beginning the third trimester of pregnancy at the time Run Camp started. She took a year off from Run Camp — the first one she’d missed since it began — to prepare for the birth of their daughter.

Kate Walton was born May 8, 2011, the day of the Borgess Run for the Health of It and Kalamazoo’s first marathon. “Our daughter was born at Borgess,” says Tim. “Since the race goes right past the hospital, I ran down at the time that my Run Camp team was running by to give them an update on Shani and to cheer them on. They cheered back.”

At the finish line, the group found the man with the microphone, Chris Lampen-Crowell, and had him announce the upcoming birth to the applause of fans and runners.

Tim and Shani say that many of the people in that first group are still their closest friends. “We have a great group every year,” says Tim. “Some of the people on our team have been with us from the beginning, but each year I meet new friends, too.”

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Students motivate teacher to keep going THE lOnGEST DISTAnCE Nicole McDougall had ever run was about five miles. The Mattawan teacher’s running accomplishments included a few 5K races and occasional two- to three-mile runs on her own. “I didn’t think of myself as a runner,” she says.

“I didn’t believe I could do anything longer.” But after listening to Run Camp stories from a parent helper at her school, McDougall decided she was going to push herself.

“The thought of running outside in the winter was scary,” she says. “I didn’t sign up with anyone I knew, and I didn’t know what to expect.”

She was immediately taken with the supportive environment at Run Camp. “It was so encouraging. You’d see the faster groups coming back from an out-and-back run and they’d all cheer you on and tell you to keep going. There were no egos, and I had a great team.”

McDougall’s team, the Plaidiators, could be considered Run Camp’s most “colorful” group. It’s not just the plaid attire they wear each week, but the enthusiasm and zany energy the group exudes on the course, that have made the Plaidiators one of the camp’s oldest and most notable teams. “It certainly didn’t hurt that I was placed with the Plaidiators my first year of Run Camp,” admits McDougall. “It was a great introduction.”

Each week with the Plaidiators, McDougall set a new distance record for herself as she trained for a

Nicole MacDougall nears the finish line of a half-marathon. Her face says it all.

13.1-mile race. She would share her accomplishments with the second-graders in her class during their “community circle.”

“The community circle is a daily activity where we all sit in a circle and discuss a topic for the day,” the Mattawan teacher explains. “We pass around a stuffed dog, and each student gets to share wonderful moments, fun experiences and sometimes even sad moments.”

Every Monday, the focus of the community circle is the same: Share something fun or positive that happened over the weekend. “I was surprised at the interest my students showed in my running progress,” she says. “Soon some of them started asking me about my weekly run on Monday mornings before community circle.”

McDougall realized her students were inspired by her weekly accomplishments, and in return, she found herself more and more motivated.

“When I was struggling on a long run, I would think of my students. I knew they’d be excited to hear about my run, and it kept me going.” she says.

Cheri, Jeff and Jeffrey Kurtz

Training brings family together FOR THE KuRTzES, running together has become a family affair.

Cheri, Jeff and their teen son, Jeffrey, make up one of several families that participate in Run Camp, but the road that brought this trio to the program has been all uphill.

“The last few years have been very tough for us,” explains Jeff. “Within the course of a year, I lost my brother, my sister and my dad.

Almost immediately after that, I found out my mom was diagnosed with cancer.”

Cheri had participated in Run Camp two times and suggested it might be the

Photo: Courtesy Borgess Run Camp

“I’ll never forget what one of my students said to me the Friday before the big race. She said, ‘Mrs. MacDougall, you know how you’re always telling us to keep trying even when we don’t think we can do something?

Well, you did that. You didn’t think you could do it, and you did!’”

Inspired by their teacher, many of her students got involved in Borgess Run for the Health of It activities.

“Some of the students participated in the Kids Fun Run that takes place a few days before the race, while others were in the crowds on race day,” she recalls. “One of my students ran with me the whole length of a spirit station while holding my hand. It really kept me going.”

Her husband and sons were near the finish line, waving and cheering, as she completed her first half-marathon.

“It was fun that the race was on Mother’s Day,” she says. “It was the perfect end to an incredible journey. I’ll remember the experience for the rest of my life.”

This year McDougall is back at Run Camp with friends inspired by her accomplishment. “I’m training for another half-marathon. My goal is to beat my personal record,” she says, “now that I have one.”

Jeffrey, Jeff and Cheri Kurtz celebrate the end of a long, wintery run.

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Left to right - Jill Flipse, CPA, CFE Ralph Meyer, CPA - Mindy Allwardt, CPA

Cheri, Jeff and Jeffrey Kurtz

injection of positive energy that Jeff needed.

“I told him, ‘Do something that’s going to change your life. Do something that you can feel good about,’” she says.

“Seeing what running was doing for her was my inspiration,” he acknowledges.

When Cheri originally signed up for the Run Camp’s 5K program, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to do it. Like many other first-timers, she maintains that she was not a runner. “When I first started, I was the heaviest I had ever been. When I did try to run, I could only get up to about three minutes before having to stop.”

Yet every week at Run Camp, Cheri continued to set new personal distance records for herself. “At first it’s difficult, but after a couple miles something just clicks. You get caught up in conversation with the group, and before you know it you’ve gone another mile.”

The next year, Cheri tackled her first half-marathon. Inspired by this accomplishment, the woman, who only two years earlier claimed she wasn’t a runner, ran Kalamazoo’s first full marathon. When Jeff watched her finish one of the hilliest marathon courses in Michigan, something clicked for him. “I decided that I would not sit there and watch from the sidelines again.”

After recruiting Jeff to join Run Camp, Cheri talked to their son Jeffrey about making the running program a family bonding activity.

All three say that their weekly runs have been a great diversion from the emotional hardships they’ve been dealing with.

“It’s something different, something positive. You meet some great people,” says Cheri.

Cheri has lost more than 60 pounds; Jeff has lost almost 40. The whole family insists that joining

Photo: Courtesy Borgess Run Camp

Q: What are all these people waiting for?

(Answer on page 45)

Cheri Kurtz and son, Jeffrey, make victory signs at the end of a Saturday Run Camp trek.

the running community has been life-changing. While the Kurtz trio says they hope to inspire others, they admit that they are still finding their own inspiration from the runners around them.

“I was running beside a man in his seventies,” says Jeff. “And I thought, ‘That’s what I want for myself. That’s how I want to age.’ And I know I can do it. I’ve already seen that kind of change in myself.”

Jeff says he’s learned that he has options when it comes to his frame of mind. He admits that after 20 years of not exercising, it’s easy to get lethargic. Couple that lethargy with significant emotional losses, and the idea of exercise can be completely deflating.

But the enthusiasm he derives from the running community echoes the sentiments of Lampen-Crowell.

“We’re runners now,” says Jeff. “I love looking up ahead and seeing hundreds of runners in front of me, and looking back and seeing hundreds of runners behind me. I love that runner’s high at the end of a great run.”

“We’re part of the change in Kalamazoo,” adds Cheri. “We’re part of a movement of people that have realized that it’s never too late.”

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In the interest of full disclosure, the author, Brian Lam, is the son of one of the camp’s directors, Blaine Lam, and also is a Run Camp team leader. His mother, Bobbie Lam, took many of the shots provided for this article. Encore is grateful for the efforts of this very active, talented family. 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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Performing Arts Plays Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding — WMU’s University Theatre presents a wedding where the dinner and ceremony are the show. Dinner and wedding cake provided by Millennium Restaurant Group. Apr. 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 7 p.m.; Apr. 1 & 15, 5 p.m. Cityscape Events Center, 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 387-6222.

Crimes of the Heart — A play examining the plight of three young Mississippi sisters betrayed by their passions. Apr. 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28, 8:30 p.m. New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St. 381-3328.

Brighton Beach Memoirs — A play exploring a boy’s coming of age during the 1930s.

Apr. 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 8 p.m.; Apr. 12, 7:30 p.m.; Apr. 15, 2 p.m. Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Wizard of Facebook — Fancy Pants Theater presents a new play by local playwright John Theirwechter. Apr. 11, 12, 13, 14, 8 p.m.; Apr. 15, 3 p.m. Fancy Pants Theater, 246 N. Kalamazoo Mall. Tickets at the door.

God of Carnage — Farmers Alley presents this 2009 Tony Award-winning dark comedy. Apr. 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 8 p.m.; Apr. 22 & 29, 2 p.m. Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley. 343-2727.

33 Variations — Presented by the Civic in con“The man who junction with The Irving views the world S. Gilmore International at 50 the same as Keyboard Festival, this he did at 20 has play tells parallel stories of a mother coming to wasted 30 years grips with her daughter of his life.” and Beethoven coming Muhammad Ali to grips with his genius.

Apr. 20, 21, 27, 28, May 4, 5, 8 p.m.; Apr. 29, 2 p.m.; May 3, 7:30 p.m. Parish Theatre, 426 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Back of the Throat — This chilling black comedy presented by Kalamazoo College tells of two government agents who visit an Arab-American man for “questioning.”

Apr. 26, 7:30 p.m.; Apr. 27 & 28, 8 p.m.; Apr. 29, 2 p.m. Dungeon Theatre, K-College. 337-7333.

The Trip to Bountiful — The Civic Senior Class Reader’s Theatre presents this heartfelt classic about an aging widow’s quest to return to her home. Apr. 27 & 29, 2 p.m.; Apr. 28, 7 p.m. Carver Center. 426 S. Park St. 343-1313.

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Musicals & Opera Hairspray — This musical, presented by WMU Department of Theatre, is full of dancing and music that brings back the 60s. Apr. 12–14, 19–21, 8 p.m.; Apr. 15 & 21, 2 p.m. Shaw Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.

Young Frankenstein — The Mel Brooks movie becomes a musical with lots of laughs and memorable show-stopping tunes. Apr. 24 & 25, 7:30 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Dance Spring Concert Open Rehearsal — See Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers at work preparing for upcoming concerts. Apr. 6, 6–7 p.m. Wellspring Theater, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 342-4354.

Graduating Presentations in Dance — A concert by WMU senior BFA dance majors.

Apr. 12–14, 8 p.m.; Apr. 14 & 15, 2 p.m.

Dalton Center Dance Studio B, WMU. 387-5830.

Spring Concert of Dance: Glass — Wellspring’s season finale, full of favorite pieces from the repertoire and new works. Apr. 19–22, 8 p.m. Wellspring Theater, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 387-2300.

Symphony A Tribute to Motown and R&B Music — The KSO Pops series welcomes Spectrum, an a Las Vegas singing group that brings the cool sounds of Motown. Apr. 14, 8 p.m.

Miller Auditorium, WMU. 349-7759.

Tchaikovsky & Brahms — The KSO welcomes guest violinist Stefan Jackiw to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

Apr. 20, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 349-7759.

Annual Concerto Concert — The University Symphony Orchestra performs a free concert. Apr. 22, 3 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-4667.

Vocal and Radio All Ears Theatre — Enjoy live radio performances for later airing on 102.1 WMUK-FM. Critic and Wife, Apr. 14; The Tell-Tale Heart, Apr. 28. First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. 6 p.m. Free.

Choral Showcase — University Chorale, Cantus Femina and Collegiate Singers perform. Apr. 15, 5 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Early Music Michigan — EMM and Ars Voce present A Ring of Fire. Apr. 22, 3 p.m.

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, 16 E. Van Buren St. Battle Creek. 387-2300.

Kalamazoo Bach Festival Week — A series of Bach events: St. John Passion, Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra with guest soloists James Doings, Paul Rowe and James Bass. Apr. 21, 7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, 321 W. South St.; The City Sings Bach, church choirs present a Bach composition during regular services, Apr. 22; Bach-Around-the-Block Organ Crawl — Organists play during a progressive concert that begins at First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. Apr. 23, 7 p.m.; Bach Community Chorale, a community singalong, Apr. 24, rehearsal from 6:30 –8 p.m., performance at 8:15 p.m., Stetson Chapel, K-College; Bach’s Lunch Concert, bring a sack lunch to enjoy during the performance.

Apr. 25, 12 p.m. Light Fine Arts Building, K-College. 337-7407. Information at www. kzoo.edu/bach.

Chamber, Jazz, Orchestra & Bands Guest Artist Recitals — Massimo LaRosa, trombone, April 6; Walter Thompson, soundpainter, Apr. 9, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Dalton Wed@7:30 — WMU School of Music concert series: Gold Company II with Michael Wheaton, director, April 11. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Spring Conference on Wind & Percussion Music — The conference All-Star Band and the University Symphonic Band perform a free concert. Apr. 12, 7:30 p.m.

Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-4667.

University Jazz Lab Band — Tom Knific directs. Apr. 13, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Gretchen Parlato — Fontana Chamber Arts presents this jazz vocalist. Apr. 14, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Wellspring Theatre, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 382-7774.

Kalamazoo Concert Band — The KCB presents Wheel of Fortune. Apr. 14, 7:30 p.m. Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge. Free. 806-6597.

University Concert Band — A free concert led by David Montgomery. Apr. 15, 3 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-4667.

Jeffrey Kahane — Fontana Chamber Arts and The Gilmore present this world-class pianist with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. May 2, 8 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Miscellaneous Demetri Martin — The WMU Campus Activities Board presents this multi-talented humorist and musician. Apr. 10, 8 p.m.

Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival — 17 days of concerts, recitals, jazz clubs, master classes, films and much more. See many of the greatest keyboard artists in the world perform in several west Michigan locations. Apr. 26–May 12. For complete information visit www.thegilmore.org/festival. For tickets call 387-2300.

Visual Arts Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 349-7775 Object of Devotion — An exhibition of alabaster panels and figures from the homes of 15th- & 16th-century Christians. Mar. 3 –May 13.

Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Quest of Beauty — This ongoing exhibition marks the premiere of a special installation of the KIA’s collection of works by the master artist.

West Michigan Area Show — This annual juried competition showcases the exceptional work of area artists in all media from 14 Michigan counties. Through May 6.

Birds of a Feather — Works by John James Audubon and John Costin featuring the splendor of American birds in portfolios produced nearly two centuries apart.

Through June 24.

ARTbreak — Informal free presentations on art-related topics. Up Close and Personal with West Michigan Artists, each week two different artists talk about their pieces in the West Michigan Area Show and bring other examples of their work.

Apr. 10, 17, & 24. Bring a lunch to these 12 p.m. sessions.

STEPPING BACK WITH THE ARTS

How can a book save a life? Just barely, in the case of one French legionnaire who was the last survivor of a battle near Verdun in the World War I. When he regained consciousness on the battlefield hours later he found that a pocket edition of Rudyard Kipling’s Kim had stopped a bullet a mere 20 pages from his heart. When the soldier, Maurice Hamonneau, later learned of the passing of Kipling’s son, John, he sent the author the medal he won in the battle and the copy of the damaged life-saving book.

Kipling was touched and promised to return both if the soldier ever had a son.

Hamonneau did and named him after

WMU Richmond Center for Visual Arts (RCVA) 387-2455 Gems of the University Art Collection — An exhibition of pieces from the collections of WMU. Through June 29. Netzorg/ Kerr Gallery.

Gwen Frostic School of Art Student Exhibition — A juried exhibition of student art. Apr. 5–19. Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery.

Art 21/Access 2012 — Season 6 — Episode: Change, Artists: Al Weiwei, El Anatsui, Catherine Opie. Apr. 2–8; Season 6 — Episode: History, Artists: Marina Abramovic, Mary Reid Kelley, Glenn Ligon. Atrium Gallery.

Miscellaneous Saniwax Gallery — Redbones, Yellowbones and Lightbrights, an exhibition sponsored by the Black Arts and Cultural Center of inkjet prints by Vanessa S. Clifton. Opening reception, Apr. 6, 5–9 p.m. Through April 20. 345-3311.

Midtown Gallery — The Birds and the Bees exhibit features works by Sara Strong, Barbara Hranilovich, Jan Kimball, Carolyn Fink, Susan Badger, Pam Nivala, Elizabeth King and Angela Caldwell. 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 372-0134.

Art Hop — View the works of local artists at venues and galleries in downtown Kalamazoo. Apr. 6, 5–9 p.m. 342-5059.

Kipling’s son. The author returned the items along with a charming letter to the young son advising him to always carry a book of at least 350 pages in his left breast pocket. More sound advice has never been given.

Literary Events Kalamazoo Public Library 553-7809 Bird, Bees, Butterflies — Master gardener Barbara Johnston reveals which flowers attract birds, bees and butterflies. Apr. 10, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Eastwood branch.

Music at the Library — Musical duo Red Tail Ring performs Apr. 18, 7–8 p.m.

Central library; Earth Day concert features Gifts or Creatures, Red Tail Ring, Rachael and Dominic Davis, Darlene and Dede Alderman and Sam Corbin along with activities for children, Apr. 21, 3–4 p.m.

Oshtemo branch.

Classics Revisited — Lovers of classic literature discuss Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls.

Apr. 19, 7 p.m. Central library.

Tasting While Touring — Author Jaye Beeler and photographer Dianne Carroll Burdick discuss their book which sings the praises of Michigan’s homegrown food.

Apr. 25, 7 p.m. Central library.

(Continued on page 38)

Please send notification of activities to: Encore “Events of Note” 350 South Burdick St., Suite 214 Phone: 383-4433 • Fax: 383-9767 E-mail: events@encorekalamazoo.com

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(continued from page 37)

Portage District Library 329-4544 Solo Gallery — Watercolor and fiber art

by Jabeth Wheeler. Through Apr. 27.

Cats Art Exhibit — View felines through the eyes of painters, photographers, sculptors, a quilter and mixed media artists.

Through May 18.

Celebrate Earth Day — Tom and Nancy Small’s book, Using Native Plants to Restore Community in Southwest Michigan and Beyond, is the focus for discussions by the author and illustrators on restoring native plants, insects and birds to our properties.

Apr. 22, 2 p.m.

Open for Discussion: Drop-In Book Discussion — Join the discussion of Greater Journey by David McCullough, a look at 19th-century Americans who lived in Paris and returned to help shape America. Apr. 24, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Miscellaneous Gwen Frostic Reading Series — A series of readings sponsored by the WMU English Department. Barbara Cully, poet, Apr. 5, 8 p.m.; Sean Clark, playwright, Apr. 19, 8 p.m.

Bernhard Center, rooms 157–158, WMU.

Poetry Workshop and Book Release — Celebrate the release of poet Traci Brimhall’s collection, Our Lady of the Ruins, and the anthology Villanelles, co-edited

by Marie-Elizabeth Mali and Annie Finch.

Sponsored by Friends of Poetry. Apr. 26, 4:30 p.m. workshop; 7 p.m. reading. Kalamazoo Public Library, Central. 672-2622.

Museums

Planetarium Programs — Crossing the Sun, Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. at 3 p.m.; Mystery of the Missing Seasons, Weekdays, 11 a.m., Sat., 1 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m.; The Artist’s Sky, Tues. & Thur., 3 p.m., Sat., 2 p.m.

Nature Kalamazoo Nature Center 381-1574

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 373-7990 Disease Detectives — Disease-fighting detectives explore an environment to learn more about infectious disease transmission and prevention. Through May 28.

Remember Me: Civil War Portraits — Learn about how tintype photography was done through portraits of Civil War soldiers. Through June 17.

Music at the Museum — Enjoy eclectic music performed live in the acoustically fine Stryker Theater. Mark Sahlgren, folk music, Apr. 13, 7 p.m.; Belfast Gin, Celtic, folk rock, and indie music, Apr. 27, 7 p.m.

Sunday History Series — Speakers offer insights into local history at these free programs. Sharon Ferraro, Historic Preservation Coordinator will take you on a virtual tour of the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital water tower. Apr. 22, 1:30 p.m.

Leopold Education Project Workshop — Expand your appreciation for nature and ecological awareness with this innovative, interdisciplinary program based on Aldo Leopold’s book A Sand County Almanac.

April 28, 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Registration and payment required by Apr. 13.

Kellogg Biological Station 671-2510 Birds & Coffee — Join a bird walk followed by coffee and discussion. Apr. 11, 8:30–10 a.m. 12685 E. C Ave.

Audubon Society of Kalamazoo 345-9211 Birding at Lake Erie — Jamie Krupka presents a program on bird-watching on the Lake Erie shoreline. Apr. 23, refreshments at 7 p.m., program at 7:30 p.m. People’s Church, 1758 N. 10th St.

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Apr

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2012–13

THE NEW 25th ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION

Jan. 29–Feb. 3, 2013 Nov. 13 & 14, 2012

Feb. 26 & 27, 2013

Back by “popular” demand!

April 24–May 5, 2013

April 24–May 5, 2013

Feb. 26 & 27, 2013

www.millerauditorium.com (269) 387-2300 | (800) 228-9858

SeaSon SubScriptionS available in april!

The Lake Michigan Mailers Spotlight Series will also be announced at this time.

April Encore3.indd 1

3/26/12 3:03 PM

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Susan Dennis, DDS 8150 Moorsbridge Rd., Suite A, Portage MI 49024

269.216.9621 www.mydrdennis.com

King of The Gypsies Coal-burning eyes smoking and smoldering, I can feel the passion in the air.

I, who am usually unaware, forbidden, I am torn.

I wait and wait for the Gypsy day.

My longing and passion are stuck in my throat.

I am near choking.

Confined by social issues, I watch and wait unnoticed.

You circle behind me; I can feel you there, I can feel the heat of your skin, your body, your eyes.

I close my eyes, and I can feel your arms around my waist.

So gentle, for a Gypsy, so fine ...

For a moment, I am beautiful.

Imagine what it’s like to manufacture 500 clearly different, unique products every month.

Sometimes we get so busy, the shop is like a beehive teeming with activity, everyone working on hundreds of tasks for a zillion different jobs. It can be a challenge to keep everything straight, but I trust my coworkers like I trust myself.

No matter how busy it gets here, it helps to remember who I’m working for: my community.

I’m helping local business owners, teachers, politicians, organizations, churches, and children’s groups. And, just like these people and groups I’m working for, no matter how big or how small, each job is unique; each job is important.

The busyness of this job is part of why I love it. Something new is always coming in. Some new design challenge, some last-minute project that needs to be done yesterday ... anything and everything can happen when you work in a print shop—and it does!

A print shop is always abuzz with activity, everyone working on each and every task, until we deliver it to your door. It’s amazing, isn’t it?

1116 W Centre Avenue 323-9333 PortagePrinting.com

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I am leaning on the fence, arms crossed, watching, my children clinging to my skirts, as we watch the caravan unpack in the pasture on the outskirts of the village.

You can sense me.

You know I am here.

You won’t turn around.

You won’t turn for me.

I am here, my Gypsy.

By Melanie Dunbar Michigan native Melanie Dunbar’s poetry has been published in Sassafras and Sumac: Poems of Reflections of the Muse, Trace Hay Publications, 2011. Dunbar lives near Allegan with two of her three sons and her life partner, Douglas Fox.

I couldn’t dream of doing anything else!

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A clash of tambourines, my eyes startle open.

You are gone, You were never there, my Gypsy.

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Paper and String A young father and his little girl in Maple Street park, small handmade kite hanging over his shoulder

size of places, the real distances of things. Armed with their compasses, pencil stubs, the ever-present

crooked pink ribbons down his back.

They find their ground, wait for a friendly breeze to catch, his arm stretched

pocket notebooks, sharp eyes, sharp minds, they were men who always knew where they were in space and time.

up and out as far as he can reach.

He lets out a few feet of line, a newborn bird of paper and string takes flight.

My father’s hand rests on the sheets.

We put our palms together, raise them in a ceremony to unwind the wind,

His daughter turns her face to the light.

She’s up there, too, sailing on wings made by her magician-father.

let fly the string, measure the distance diminishing between us, our days behind, the days ahead.

A few minutes, then they’re done.

Her fingers curled in the cave of his hand, they turn for home. Man, child, kite.

By Gay Guard Chamberlin

They make me think of my father.

He comes from a long line of surveyors, experts on how to measure the relative

Gay Guard-Chamberlin is an interdisciplinary artist who lived in Kalamazoo for 12 years and recently relocated to her native home of Chicago.

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Spirit of Kalamazoo (continued from page 22) Courtesy: Tom Small

75th Year!

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The cover of the book written together by Tom Small and his late wife, Nancy.

139 W. Michigan Avenue Paw Paw, Michigan

(269) 657-7033 www.lacantinapawpaw.com Open Every Day at 5pm Closed Mondays

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theater groups such as the Civic Players and the former Whole Art and Civic Black theaters; a vital community of artists; a Quaker community where all the members are equally ministers; other faith communities, including the Muslim community and a Hindu ashram; communities of peace and antiwar activists; the People’s Food Co-op and farmers’ markets, which provide an alternative to the biological deserts of industrialized farming; and an activist community of scientists such as Richard Brewer, Mike Klug and Paul Olexia, who helped enlighten us about how natural systems really work and how our urban landscapes are destroying those systems.

We gradually realized how much a few visionary members of this community have transformed and deepened its spirit. Dorothy Upjohn Dalton never lost the free spirit she found with the Provincetown Players in Greenwich Village in the 1910s; back home in Kalamazoo, she inspired and helped to fund experimental theater and other art forms. Irving Gilmore, in his life, helped many young artists and actors on their way; his legacy still enriches the musical and spiritual life of this community. Howard Chenery and Julius Stulberg shared their love of theater and music with generations of young people.

I knew them all and was privileged to

work with them a little bit towards the end of their lives. Each helped me to understand that community is an art we must learn and practice.

Restoration is also an art. My wife, who died in 2009, was the one who finally made that clear to me with her commitment to restoration of the natural world — not in some remote nature preserve, but right here on the stream banks, in the parks and on the schoolgrounds of this place.

From all that, finally, has emerged the book that Nancy and I were writing during the last years of her life: Using Native Plants to Restore Community in Southwest Michigan and Beyond. I promised her I’d finish it, and, with help from wonderful local artists and illustrators, I’ve done my best to make it a work of art. Published only last October, it’s well into its second printing and is already helping others to enrich their vision and practice of community.

I’m grateful to this entire community and the spirit that informs its wondrous life: its many cultures and beautiful native plants and our fellow creatures with whom we human beings must share this place in the sun. Thank you. You all make it possible for me to continue, in a dark time, teaching and learning the arts of community and restoration, in hope and with joy.

Creative Kids Photo: John Lacko

(continued from page 23)

Joe performing with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.

I’d rather play in an orchestra than a band. I like hearing the strings, and it just adds more colors to the sound.

“Plus the music is brilliant. Most of the band repertoire is more modern compared to orchestra music. Orchestra pieces go way back.”

Joe also began playing more solo tuba repertoire, entering solo and ensemble competitions and often earning the highest score possible, including a perfect 100 at state-level competition. He began taking instruction from Deanna Swoboda, Western Michigan University professor of tuba and euphonium, who encouraged him to audition for concerto competitions.

“Tuba can be more than just the traditional oompahs,” he said. “You can really make a tuba sound beautiful.”

Last year Joe was chosen to perform with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra as a 2011 Youth Soloist, and he began to think of tuba playing as less of a hobby and more of a career. “That was a tremendous experience,” he says.

“At one point, I was in the shoes of the kids in the audience, and I couldn’t help feeling their excitement and thinking one day one of them would be up on stage performing.”

This year Joe won the KSO’s Young Composer Competition, and his piece

Fanfarria Triunfante was performed by the KSO for thousands of elementaryschool children during the KSO’s Youth Concerts. Joe recently returned from Washington, D.C., where he was invited to compete as one of six national finalists for the Colonel George S. Howard United States Air Force Band’s concerto competition. He didn’t place in the competition but says he was “honored just to be invited.”

In addition to his many performing activities, Joe also serves as a Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Society intern for the concert and symphonic orchestras, where he has learned to work with young musicians and tune small violins, among many other valuable skills. He also was elected to be a student representative on the organization’s board of directors.

Joe says, without a doubt, he will major in music performance in college.

“I feel very lucky. I know what I want to do.”

Since that fateful day in fifth grade when he first picked up the tuba, Joe has grown considerably, both in height — he’s now 6-foot-1 — and as a musician. And those who work with him say he’s evolved into a person who is much closer to his archetypal tubist — a fun-loving, easygoing, “cool with things” kind of guy.

I moved to a bank where checking isn’t one size fits all.

At Keystone, we understand that each customer is different. That’s why we’ll help you find a checking account that suits your needs and your life. We’re a community bank that believes individual people are just that. Stop by your local branch today and see what we can do for you.

It pays to bank local. Make the move.

keystonebank.com

We’re all about you. 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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Land Bank (continued from page 16)

MORE EXPECT

ARTS & MORE

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construction, many will be left as green spaces.

“We can sell the property to neighbors for a very reasonable price, or residents on the block can opt to create garden space for vegetables or trees and bushes and places to sit and enjoy the surroundings,” Boring says.

Galilee Baptist Church, on North Westnedge Avenue, hopes to create a serenity garden on property at 430 W. Paterson St., across from the church. The Land Bank Adopt-A-Lot program leases properties for use as green space and gardens. “”When we heard that the property would be available, we thought it would be a good place for a serenity garden,” says William Roland, a church elder for outreach ministry and board chairman.

“We want to make it aesthetically pleasing and a place for peaceful reflection, and members of the church will maintain the garden.”

So far, there have been 12 AdoptA-Lot leases as part of the Land Bank’s Community Garden program.

Last year Boring approached residents in the 1500 block of East Michigan Avenue, where there were three empty lots, and asked if they would be interested in having a garden space there. “They not only agreed but said they would love to take over the building and maintenance,” she says.

The result is the Trybal Revival Eastside Eco-Garden, with more than 100 plantings and 28 species of mostly food-producing trees and shrubs. Funds for the garden came from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, one of many Land Bank partners.

“The neighbors have been great partners,” Boring says.

As the Land Bank and its partners look across the Kalamazoo landscape, they see the fruits of their labors — new homes, rehabilitated homes and lush gardens where dangerous eyesores once stood — and know that they have changed the face of Kalamazoo in profound and lasting ways.

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the he gift of giving.

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Host charity: Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan

Langeland Family Funeral Homes . . . . . . . 44 Lewis Reed & Allen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Mangia Mangia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Michigan Lifestyle Properties . . . . . . . . . 34 Midtown Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Midwest Business Exchange . . . . . . . . . . 45

Photography Way back When

Answer!

(question on page 35)

Miller Auditorium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 The Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Paw Paw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Portage Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Sharp Smile Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 University Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Varnum Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 WMUK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 YMCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

We’d love to share your poetry with Kalamazoo-area readers. Please submit a short personal profile to accompany it.

Encore Magazine c/o Poetry Editor 350 S. Burdick St., Suite 316 Kalamazoo, MI 49007 editor@encorekalamazoo.com

When the Gilmore Bros. Department Store opened its doors for “Bargain Days,” on Aug. 6, 1953, the largest crowd of downtown shoppers experienced up to that time rushed in. More than 70 years before, Irish immigrant John Gilmore started the store. He was joined by his brother, James, in 1883. The next year, they moved their enterprise to the east side of Burdick Street. John and his wife, Mary, both passed away by 1895, leaving the store to James, who died in 1908. His wife, Carrie, a shrewd financier, borrowed $125,000 and added six stories to the department store. The store closed in 1999, after 118 years of business.

Trivia Column by Maureen Massie 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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FotoStop Entries Wanted!

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From the deer that meander 2 through our yards and parks to the hawks floating effortlessly above downtown, we can’t help but marvel at all the wildlife that lives among us. We wonder why these creatures choose to exist where predators are more likely to have four wheels than four legs, yet revel in the fact that do. Of the many images of urban wildlife that have been submitted for FotoStop, we found these images presented truly unique and unusual glimpses of the wild creatures within our neighborhoods.

(1) John laCKo was in downtown Kalamazoo when he thought he spied two birds flying together and then landing on the light stand behind the Green Top Tavern. A closer look and Lacko “noticed it was two birds all right, but one was flying, the other was lunch.” He caught this dramatic image of a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk proudly posing with the pigeon it had just taken in its clutches.

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.

Videographer/photographer maTT ClYsDale, offers up two images: The first (2) is of a gray fox amid a playground behind Phoenix High School on Oakland Drive near the Michigan Center for the Blind. The second image (3), entitled “The Holy Buck,” was shot at dawn at the Innovation Center in WMU’s Business Technology and Research Park on Parkview Ave. The church in the background is on the other side of US 131. “The shot was taken at about 15 yards and the buck was tending a doe in estrus — that’s why he was so approachable,” Clysdale says. The image will be part of an exhibit of Clysdale’s work featured in June and July at the Kalamazoo Nature Center’s Glen Vista Gallery.

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MRI patients who need more room, who feel uneasy in tight spaces, or who need specialty exams for orthopedic procedures often find comfort in high-field open magnets.

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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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