20 FASCINATING PEOPLE

Kay Charter The Bird Lady

“I’m dedicated to birds.”

So says Kay Charter, who says her self-described “obsession” began when she and her late husband Jim left San Diego and traveled the U.S. and Canada for three years, often heading to places just to observe the birds there. But her epiphany came after moving into the home they built on Grand Traverse Bay, when she began to watch a family of rarely-seen winter wrens.

The Charters decided to sell the home and bought 47 acres outside Omena where she could more readily watch and help her feathered friends. That led to teaching others about birds and eventually to the nonprofit Saving Birds Thru Habitat. Charter serves as its executive director.

“I’m 84 and still doing exactly what I’ve done,” she says, including leading discussions and presentations locally and throughout the U.S. She has been a featured speaker at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, the Cox Arboretum in Dayton, Morton Arboretum near Chicago, and the 2006 Rivers and Wildlife Festival in Kearney, Nebraska. Her awards and accolades include the first birder being named “Exceptional Outdoorswoman of 2006” by Michigan United Conservation Clubs.

Today, the Omena sanctuary is protected by conservation easements and serves as a haven for thousands of birds, both resident and migratory. The organization offers birding hikes in May with qualified leaders.

Geoff Burns The Ultra-Marathoner

A 2008 grad of TC West, Geoff Burns is a man on the run—literally. He’s a nationally ranked ultra-marathoner, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and a physiologist for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee at its Colorado training center.

“In parasport, every athlete is a hyper-unique case study, so I’m constantly learning new subject matter— from thermoregulation in athletes with spinal cord injuries to circadian patterns of individuals with visual impairments to the biomechanics of prosthetics and their influence on performance—which is all like a drug to me,” he says. “I get to then creatively synthesize it all with those traditional sport science tools for the athletes and coaches. It’s a total dream.”

The veteran runner says his toughest race was the 2018 100km World Championship in Croatia.

“I ran most of the race really well and rolled the dice to put myself in a medal position,” he recalls. “I started to really crash with the heat in the last 30 kilometers, but was desperately trying to hold on to a top-five placing. Despite seeing a big pack of guys closing in on me, I went really deep to hold them off. It was a torturous last two hours trying to fight them off step by step, meter by meter. I ended up having to sprint at the finish against the current world record holder in the event and the former world champion. I held both of them off for fifth place.”

Tioloman Traore

The Aspiring Nurse

Tioloman Traore’s entire life was uprooted in 2019 when she came to Traverse City as a refugee student. “The biggest thing that I learned was the way people here interact with each other. Everything was different, the language, the food, the culture, the little things,” says Traore.

She was initially excited to come to the United States but ultimately felt mixed emotions. “I was happy because I was coming to this country for a new life, new opportunities, to go to school, and have family in my life. But I had to leave my friends and the people I knew and spent time with behind. There was a lot of emotion.” Not to mention the cold. Citing “too much snow” as the reason she was unsure about Michigan at first, she now says she’s embraced it by learning to ski, ice skate, and sled.

Despite the initial hurdles, Traore excelled in her new home, and in 2022 she received Michigan’s Outstanding Student Award from the office of Governor Whitmer. Traore believes a combination of personal achievements and extracurriculars helped garner this award, but she speaks most excitedly of the Traverse City Track Club and her love of running.

As for the future, she’s applying to the nursing program at Western Michigan University and is open to the opportunities that career path provides for her. She would love to be near her foster family and replies with, “why not Michigan?” when asked if she would want to stay. Why not, indeed.

Willard Kitchen

The Restless Advocate

Advocate for what, you might ask. Well, there’s learning, as Kitchen—Will to friends—was a lobbyist for education in Washington D.C. Or technology, as he served as head of learning and development for IBM Asia. Shakespeare too—he and his late wife Maggy founded a

Shakespeare festival in Minnesota.

Don’t forget cinema, since he started the Frozen River Film Festival. Music? Yep, he ran a concert series too. And obviously traveling as well, as he’s lived in Minnesota, Washington, Belgium, New York, and India, among other places, before moving to Traverse City.

“I started as a K-12 teacher, was a librarian. I had my own telecom company and owned radio stations. I have an entrepreneurial spirit. And I’m still a work in prog- ress,” Kitchen says, even though he’ll hit 70 this year.

Next, he’s probably embarking on another project as co-director of the Office of Possibilities at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). He calls it an idea incubator and active connector of entrepreneurs that works with NMC staff, students, and faculty members along with community partners.

“We want to develop ideas into something tangible,” Kitchen says.

Sharon Jones

The Bee Whisperer

On a trip out West almost a half-century ago, Sharon Jones had a close encounter with a swarm of honeybees while waiting for her car to be repaired.

“A swarm landed in the parking lot. I didn’t know what they were doing. For over an hour I was fascinated, from a foot and a half away,” she says.

That fascination persisted, and three years later, she and her husband, Kirk, got their first hives. By the third year, they had 100 hives and began to diversify their product line, sometimes by accident. A batch of lemon honey cream was mixed with too much water, so Jones suggested making it into mead. “It was wonderful,” she says.

Today, their St. Ambrose Cellars is home to numerous meads, wine, beer, and food, while their other venture, Sleeping Bear Farms, produces a boatload of different honeys and honey-infused products. But wait, there’s more: Jones’ side hustle, BeeDazzled, features a line of beeswax products, including candles, lotions, and lip balms.

Jones continues to pursue her passion through studies and travels around the world (Delphi, Crete, Rome, and England) seeking out the stories and sites regarding the order of Melissa, the Greek goddess of bees. And she passes on her knowledge through her work with Grow Benzie’s Bee Guild.

“This love affair with bees … started 43 years ago,” she says. “Who would have thought?”