Petoskey UM and MSU Alumni Groups to Host Joint Crying Towel Before Big Game!

As I have mentioned here before, I am the President of the University of Michigan Little Traverse Bay Spirit Group and occasionally take advantage of this venue to point out significant upcoming events.

The annual MICHIGAN v michigan state football battle is rapidly approaching. As the recent WOLVERINE triumph over the leprechauns of notre dame and sparty's recent humiliation at the hands of Central Michigan demonstrate, this is likely to be a very interesting match-up.

[Switching to non-partisan mode for a moment. . .]

The local alumni of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University will gather together jointly for their annual Crying Towel pregame funfest and jousting session at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 30, at Knot Just a Bar, in Bay Harbor.

Please join us. Wear your loyalty colors. There will be door prizes, a 50/50 raffle and the opportunity to stand and make pointed observations about the other school and the quality of its football team (and alums).

The cost is just $15 per person for light snacks. Buy your own beverages. Proceeds will go to the respective clubs' scholarship funds, proving that some good may come from just about anything. You do not need to be an alumnus to attend.

Please RSVP by September 23 to: (U-M) Maureen Whitehead, 547-2728 or (MSU) Jeff Wellman, 582-2400.

[Switching back to my True Blue colors. . .]

On game day, Saturday, October 2, loyal MICHIGAN fans will gather in the Education Center at Camp Michigania, located at the corner of Camp Sherwood and Zenith Heights Roads, to watch the big game together on a big screen TV, enjoy some pizza and cheer on our conquering heroes to victory.

Game time is 12:00p.m., so we’ll gather beginning at 11:30a.m. We’ll order out pizza, but BYO Beverage. Follow the signs and balloons to the Ed. Center.

The cost is $15 per person, with children 10 & under $10.00. There is no charge for children 5 and under. There will be door prizes and a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds go to the club’s Scholarship Fund.

Please RSVP to Glen Williams, 231-582-6858, by September 29, so we can order enough pizza.

GO BLUE!

Artists Market Photographer Luanne Schonfeld Points the Way to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

Next year the Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver and Northern Michigan Artists Market artist Luanne Schonfeld is pointing the way.

Luanne just brought a boxfull of her black and white photocards to the Market. One of these cards is a black and white film photograph of an inuksuk, shown here. For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic made these piles of rock in human form as guideposts for travelers to show them the way or warn them of danger. In other words, an inuksuk is something like an Inuit version of a lighthouse. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship.

So what does all of this have to do with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver? The Vancouver Olympics mascot, Ilanaaq, is a symbolic representation of an inuksuk. Ilanaaq was designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor. It stands for friendship and the welcoming of the world. Luanne hopes her photograph will help connect people here in Northern Michigan with the Vancouver Olympics and the cultural significance and message of friendship and welcome represented by the Olympic mascot and the Inuit inuksuk on which it is based.

We agree with Luanne and we thought that for some inspiration you might like to see what an actual Inuit inuksuk looks like so here is one of Olympic mascot Ilanaaq's most well known ancestors that stands at Vancouver's English Bay. Speaking of family ties, Ilanaaq has some American cousins as well. Piles of rocks, or cairns, are frequently used as trail markers in the United States, particularly in areas where there are no trees or structures where trail markers can be placed. Locally, some good examples exist in Wilderness State Park in the extreme Northwest corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

Luanne Schonfeld is a very talented photographer. She takes black and white pictures with real film and develops and prints them in a darkroom the traditional way with chemicals and an enlarger. We are privileged to have a wide selection of her prints and photocards at the Northern Michigan Artists Market.

Artists Market Artist Steve Webster Selected to Create Official Downtown Petoskey Collectable Holiday Ornament

The Downtown Petoskey Events Committee chose Northern Michigan Artists Market artist Steve Webster to create and produce the 2009 Stafford’s Downtown Petoskey Holiday Parade collectible holiday ornament. This year's ornament will be an actual Petoskey stone carved into the shape of a tree.

For several years, the Committee issued manufactured ornaments. This year for the first time, the Committee decided to select a handmade ornament created by a local artist. Webster is a Northern Michigan artist well known for his Petoskey stone creations. The Committee is delighted and proud to be able to provide a collectible ornament made from Michigan's state stone and our town's own indigenous treasure.

The Downtown Petoskey Events Committee presents this year's ornament by Mr. Webster as the first in what it plans to be an annual series of Petoskey stone ornaments cut
into holiday shapes. The 2009 tree ornament will be a limited edition and will sell for $15 each. It will be available at the Northern Michigan Artists Market and at other participating Downtown Petoskey stores.

The ornament will be issued in connection with the 2009 Stafford’s Downtown Petoskey Holiday Parade, to be held on Saturday, November 28 at 10 am. The ten o’clock hour gives time so that the streets can be reopened and shopping and dining can begin.

IT'S BACK! Win a $1000 Downtown Petoskey Gift Certificate and PARK FREE for a Year.

Downtown Petoskey's Fall Treasure Downtown Contest is on. A similar Spring contest was held in March, April and May of this year and was a fantastic success. The fall contest, like the one last spring, promotes the new Downtown Treasure Certificates that shoppers can redeem in stores all over Downtown Petoskey, including the Northern Michigan Artists Market.

The winner of the contest, which runs from now until December 1, 2009, will receive a $1,000 Downtown Treasure Certificate and a parking pass good all over Downtown Petoskey for one year.

To enter, shoppers must accumulate sales receipts totaling $500 from stores in Downtown Petoskey dated September 1, 2009, to December 1, 2009. Entrants place the receipts in special envelopes available at the Chamber of Commerce, 401 E. Mitchell, and the new Petoskey Downtown Office at 216 Park Avenue. Then turn them in at the Chamber office or Downtown office. The winner will be announced at the Holiday Open House.

The winner will be announced at the Downtown Petoskey Holiday Open House, December 4, 2009. Entrants need not be present to win. Detailed rules and additional information are available on the Downtown Petoskey website.

The spring contest was a lot of fun and the fall version is shaping up to be even better. Kristy Fralich was the winner of the Spring contest. She is still having fun spending her Treasure Certificates. Kristy is a new mother and used the certificates to buy clothing and toys for her baby as well as other shopping and restaurant dining. She was one of 154 entrants last spring and was very surprised to be notified that she was the lucky winner. Kristy said that she saw the contest as a great incentive to support the local businesses she has grown to love and that getting to the $500 entry amount was not that difficult. Other entrants also reported that just saving their lunch receipts added up quickly or that a couple of dinners out and some occasional shopping and maybe a haircut easily tallied up to $500. Several people collected enough receipts to enter several times.

You know you are going to be shopping in Downtown Petoskey over the next few months. You will be buying holiday gifts at the Northern Michigan Artists Market and eating at the Downtown restaurants. Just hold on to the receipts and you may be parking for free for the next year and spending $1,000 in Treasure Certificates. Enjoy winter in Downtown Petoskey as seen in this painting, Petoskey Impressed #5 by local artist Doug Flewelling.