We’ve all had a busy couple of weeks following the windstorm that blew down trees and damaged buildings in the area on August 2. The community response to the storm was to work together to get things back to normal.
The teamwork between Park Staff and Friends Volunteers allowed us to get the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail back open by Friday – less than two weeks after the storm! When we first surveyed the damage between Glen Haven and Glen Arbor, many of us thought it would be closed for the rest of the year. But our request for volunteers was met by 138 volunteers who provided 1,053 volunteer hours in 6 days of work! AMAZING!
Besides the storm clean-up, many of you have been busy this summer keeping our beaches, trails, and rivers clean and safe. Most often you do that with family or friends on your own schedule, and seldom do you get a chance to meet all of the other people doing the same thing. Our Annual Meeting is an opportunity to meet people of like mind and make some new friends. We have 124 Adopt-A-Beach volunteers, 115 Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail Ambassadors, 35 Adopt-A-Trail (Rustic Hiking Trails), 10 Adopt-A-Highway, and 10 Adopt-A-River volunteers. There are many others working on a variety of other projects too.
You are a member of the Friends if you volunteer or make financial donations! So please come on out to our Annual Social Gathering and Business Meeting. This year, the meeting will be held on Sunday, August 30 at the Glen Lake Yacht Club at 6617 Sunset Drive, Glen Arbor. This is a beautiful spot right on Glen Lake!
Pre-meeting Informational Walk – Leonard Marszalek will lead an informal walk along the new section of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail starting at the Crystal View Trailhead at Noon. This is your chance to learn more about the new trail and the section that will be built starting this fall.
Pre-Meeting Walk – Noon at the Crystal View Trailhead of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail
Annual Meeting – 1:00 PM at the Yacht Club
Social Event starts about 1:30 PM at the Yacht Club
I hope all of you volunteers and donors will join us and take this opportunity to meet some of the other friendly, committed supporters of our National Park. I promise we will keep the official meeting short and there will be plenty of time for informal discussions with our board members and other volunteers during the social time.
Click here for meeting agenda and a map to the Yacht Club.