Marquette Greenway fundraising’s $300,000 year-end goal reached in only 40 days

Sobriety celebrated at drug court graduation

The goal to raise the remaining balance of the $5.6 million needed for the four-mile Michigan portion of the Marquette Greenway has been met just six weeks into fundraising efforts.

Launched Nov. 3 at a highly successful give-back dinner (hosted by Bentwood Tavern in New Buffalo), the evening secured a surprise $120,000 matching challenge grant by an anonymous donor. In addition to hundreds of private donations, another generous donation of $100,000 was received from a family foundation, which helped the fundraising team meet its $300,000 goal a month before its year-end target date.

Diane Pyshos, the give-back dinner event organizer and a project volunteer involved with the Marquette Greenway since 2017, is ecstatic. “For over 17 years, volunteers and planning officials in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois have worked tirelessly to overcome numerous physical, financial and sometimes community obstacles in order find a way to connect these three states and multiple communities by a single, non-motorized path along the bottom of Lake Michigan. It has not been easy, but we persevered, and the end is in sight. This is now a community vision,” she said.

“People really want this trail, and it shows,” Pyshos added.

“We are beyond excited,” said Marquette Greenway Fundraising Chair Gary Wood, president of Friends of Berrien County Trails, which is acting as fiduciary for the fundraising effort. “The challenge grant made all the difference in the world for us. More than 200 individual and family foundations donations met the match for this cause and our goal was reached within a few weeks. We are overwhelmed by the support this important walking/biking trail has received from our community.”

Phase I of the four-mile Michigan portion of the trail from New Buffalo to Grand Beach will be completed by 2024, and Phase II along Grand Beach Road is expected to be completed in 2025.

The Michigan portion of Marquette Greenway has already received over $5.3 million in federal, state, municipal and foundation grants, including nearly $800,000 from The Pokagon Fund and $300,000 from New Buffalo Township and the City of New Buffalo. The entire 60-mile, tri-state trail from Chicago is expected to be completed by 2027.

The Michigan portion of Marquette Greenway is sponsored and supported by the 501(c)(3) Friends of Berrien County Trails, a citizenbased nonprofit striving to connect Berrien County to a network of trails (pedestrian, biking and waterways) and encouraging their use. All contributions are tax deductible and can still be made atwww. berrientrails.org/support.asp.

BY STAN MADDUX

There was no shortage of positive change during a Monday. Dec. 5, ceremony for graduates of a program turning people behind bars the benefits, like a positive outlook and avoid relapse. “Today I have confidence and I have strength. Every single day, I am grateful for a whole new day. Life is so beautiful from substance abuse into law abiding productive citizens in LaPorte County.

An audience of about 100 people applauded when learning one new graduate has just become a licensed heating and cooling system specialist.

“You are living proof that some people change,” said La Porte County Superior Court 4 Judge Greta Friedman, who was the main speaker during the one hour ceremony.

Friedman also oversees the LaPorte County Problem Solving Court, which offers the five-stage substance abuse program focused more on providing a second chance at life than incarceration.

The four graduates, whose names were not disclosed to protect their privacy, completed what’s typically an 18 to 24-month program that requires more than staying clean.

Participants must take part in treatment, three self-help meetings a week and show up for regular appointments with their case managers and progress hearings.

There have been 84 people who have graduated since the problem-solving court was established in 2012.

Friedman said non-violent offenders turning to felony crimes like drug possession and theft to support their addictions are typically chosen for the program.

People must also be considered at medium to high risk of reoffending to qualify.

One of the speakers was a past graduate who said positive change results from within once applying the teachings about a “whole new way of living.”

She said the knowledge must be practiced on a regular basis even after completing the program to maintain today. A life worth living,” she said. After the ceremony, new graduate Elizabeth Ashby of LaPorte agreed to discuss her journey from years of alcohol abuse to sobriety. Ashby, 38, said she was in an abusive relationship for years and drinking was the only way she knew how to cope with her emotions. She was introduced to the program following her second arrest for operating while intoxicated. “I was a shell of a person before all of this. Now, I’m just full of gratitude and love. It saved my life,” she said. Vern Hohnke, chief courthouse security officer for the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office, told the graduates to be thankful for the program.

He said his daughter was a former honor student from a good family, who started her downslide after first experimenting with drugs.

She was 31 when she died from an overdose in 2015.

Hohnke said she was arrested prior to her death and might be alive today if the county where she was taken into custody offered something similar to its offenders.

He now makes himself readily available to people in the program to share his story and if they simply to talk.

“Like I told each and every one of you, you got kids at home? That’s what you’re leaving behind. You got parents at home? That’s what you’re leaving behind. It’s not an easy row to hoe but you’ll get through it. I’m proud of you guys for making it,” he said.