Each year presents its own challenges, but the storm on August 2, 2015 threw an already busy year into turmoil. Thousands of trees were blown down in the Park and surrounding community, and the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail was especially hard hit. The outpouring of community support was amazing.
Even with the added work that the storm created, we had to redirect our priorities, but we made a significant positive impact on Park operations. The Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes made direct grants to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (the Lakeshore) of $11,682.50 and in-kind grants valued at $55,764.65 through a long list of projects this year. Unfortunately because of the storm, we were not able to make much progress on new trails (Kettles, Bay to Bay, and Echo Valley), but we expect some of these projects to resume in 2016.
CLICK HERE for a detailed description of our 2015 projects.
The Friends is an all-volunteer organization, and we work hard to keep our overhead low. Donations designated for a specific project goes 100% to the project. Overhead comes out of general donations. As you read about our work, I hope you will find a project or two that you will want to support – either with your time or your donations.