You Saw It Here First!: Historical Day

Historical Day has provided the people of Alcona with an opportunity to become aware of their county’s rich history for years. It is just one of the many events the Historical Society offers Alcona, including Depot and Log Cabin Day.

Held at the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse, August 8th from 11 am to 4pm, this year’s event will include intriguing activities that one cannot experience anytime else. The activities start with Jim Johnson speaking of the history of commercial fishing in Northeast Michigan at 12am. Next, speaker Gideon Robarge will talk about the history of CCC camps in Alcona at 1pm.

The newest and most exciting event this year happens next with a walking tour to the Marine City shipwreck where a freighter/passenger ship sunk in 1880. This is the first tour of Marine City ever given, where artifacts still wash ashore. A little boy recently found an 1880 purse, and a diver found a purse. Janet Higgins will walk people out to the site at 1:30 pm where they can still see the rudder of the ship from the beach. They are encouraged to bring their bathing suits.

For those who do not wish to see the shipwreck, there will be a kite flying demonstration on the beach at the same time. At 2:30pm, the staff from Bailey’s School will play old fashion school yard games with the children attending.

The activities will be finished at 3pm with the presentation of memorials and dedications. This year they will be presenting a flag pole in dedication to Don Sawyer, the past president of the Historical Society. Richard Parks, a past member and volunteer of the Historical Society will have a bench dedicated in his name, and Yvonne Wilson, a past president and member as well, will have a tree dedicated in her name.

Aside from the planned activities, there are plenty of opportunities to have fun. There will be historical and art displays and the chance to climb the lighthouse tower. Brats, burgers, strawberry shortcake and beverages will be sold and all the proceeds will go to the Paint Can Fund to help repaint the historical lighthouse. This is also a Passport of the Arts Event.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I know it seems that I haven't been writing any articles, but I have. I just haven't been putting them on my blog. So here's my latest and... ehhh... sort of iffy about it, but it's an article, and there's not much I can do about it.

You Saw It Here First!: Charting a Course for Harrisville

What are the greater aspects of Harrisville? What are some of Harrisville’s issues? And more importantly, what does Harrisville look like 20 years into the future?

These were the three questions that the July 13th Community Input Session revolved around. Starting at 7pm, the Harrisville Harbor’s meeting room opened its doors to any citizen of Harrisville who wanted to make their opinion known. The meeting was run by Rick Duall, senior planner and Denise Cline, community planner at NEMCOG (Northeast Michigan Council of Governments). There was an exceptional turnout which resulted in the small meeting room to be filled with the many strong voices of the people.

NEMCOG offers a variety of services that help Northeast Michigan grow and sustain itself, including; community planning, grant writing assistance, economic development, data distribution, transportation, and regional planning. At the “Charting a Course for Harrisville” meeting they offered their community planning services to the people to help them focus on future ideas for the county.

The meeting was broken up into three exercises. The first was for every attendee to say what they liked the most about Harrisville. Why did they move here? What would they like to protect? The second exercise was for every attendee to now say what they thought were some of the issues of Harrisville. What would they like to change? What were some negative aspects of their county? Each idea was written on poster paper and posted around the room. During the break, attendees were given three green stickers and three red stickers and were invited to narrow down their opinion of what was the best and what was the worst of Harrisville. After this, attendees were allowed to dream aloud about what their precious county looked like 20 years into the future.

Results showed that some of the more important issues were the condition of sidewalks, lack of youth activities, bad water lines, and overgrowth of weeds around the harbor. More popular assets were the great reputation of the harbor, the city’s small town character, opportunities for walking and biking, events, and the amount of dedicated volunteers.

These opinions will be taken to the NEMCOG office where they will make an appendix of the people’s opinions and compare this information with background studies and graph goals and objectives. In September 2009, they will go to the City Planning Commission where they will refine these ideas and set a guideline for the development and growth of Harrisville.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote this Tuesday, the day after the meeting and Cheryl loved it. I think she thinks it's my best article, but she's so impressed, especially because of my lack of knowledge going into this situation. She used the phrase "Wow." Just like that. With the period at the end. She hurried up and put it on the front page of the newspaper!

You Saw It Here First!: Lexi's On Main

Starting your own beauty salon with your sister almost sounds like a fantasy. Yet that is exactly what Lexi Tracy and Adrienne Orefice did on December of 2008. Lexi Tracy and Adrienne Orefice are two young, talented sisters who have always had a passion for beauty. They took that passion and got their beauty licenses at the Alpena Beauty Academy.

Tracy, being older, has held her license longer than Orefice. She worked at Illusions in Harrisville right after she graduated from beauty school. Orefice got her license a few years after and wanted to work with her sister. They talked about it for a little bit, and decided to buy a small vacant building on the west side of Main Street in December. With its large windows at the front that displays two hair cutting stations, it looked like the perfect place to buy a salon.

The inside is casual and hip, with two salon chairs on either side of the front of the window and a couple of dryer chairs. Customers will be offered coffee, and they can sit on the couch or lounge chairs and watch MTV while they wait for their appointments. Tracy and Orefice wanted their business to have a feel of a living room that the younger crowd would love to be in and that’s exactly what they have.

In addition to the usual hair services such as perms, dye jobs, and cuts, Lexi’s Main St. Salon also offers a private nail room, where nail technician Orefice will do manicures and pedicures in private.

Lexi’s Main St. Salon is located at 207 E Main St in Harrisville. It is open Monday, Tuesday, Friday from 9am to 5pm, Thursday from 11am to 7pm, and Saturday from 9am to 3pm. They offer their services year round.

___________________________________________________________________

I had an extremely hard time doing this article. The interview was horrible, the two girls barely even spoke. They answered my questions just barely. I was surprised that I had enough information to muster this and I must say, I am very proud of myself.

You Saw It Here First!: Tac2Outfitters

Tac2Outfitters known for their services to emergency vehicles all over the county, has recently included a detailing section of their business for citizens of Alcona that don’t intend to protect and serve.

For two years, Tac2 has provided and installed emergency equipment such as sirens, medical equipment, and scanners into police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. Tac2Outfitters orders equipment for vehicles and will install and repair any of the equipment they sell. Following in his father’s footsteps, owner Mike Jones has had experience with upfitting emergency vehicles for 18 years. After spending 10 years in law enforcement, he decided to open an upfitting business. Harrisville seemed to be the perfect location for such a business because “it is the only place not saturated with this sort of business” Jones says.

A month ago, Jones decided to add detailing to the list of services his business provides. Starting at $100 for a full detail of a vehicle, Jones and his team will wash and wax the exterior and clean upholstery inside the vehicle. Prices will go up depending on the size of the vehicle. Tac2 will detail anything ranging from small cars to RVs and boats.

Business hours for Tac2 are 9am-4pm, Monday through Friday and 1pm-4pm on Saturday. Their website http://www.tac2outfitters.com/ includes an extensive list of the equipment they sell. They are located at 348 S US-23, across from the Harrisville State Park.

You Saw It Here First!: Mackenzie Sims

Since 1998, the Oscoda-Wurtsmith has offered a $3000 Pilot’s Training Scholarship to the young men and women of Alcona and Iosco counties who are interested in flight. However, only one young citizen can win this award and this year it went to Alcona’s very own Mackenzie Sims.

Between the months of December and April, Mackenzie tackled the grueling process of filling out scholarship applications. He has had his eye on the Pilot’s Training Scholarship since noticing a poster advertising it in the hallways of his school-Alcona High. He filled out the long application and went through the entire Federal Aviation Administration handbook to find the answers to 8 questions that could make or break his dreams.

A year ago, Sims applied for this scholarship. However, he soon found out that he was 2 weeks behind on making the age limit. The requirements for the Pilot’s Training Scholarship declare that you must be 16 years old by April 1 of the year the scholarship is awarded. Mackenzie was a little too late and his application was ignored.

Sims has had a dream of flight since he was 5. He says that it was Luke Skywalker who made him fall in love with flight. “I saw him blasting tie fighters out of the sky and though ‘that’s what I’m going to grow up to do.’” It was a few years later that he realized that shooting space fighters out of the sky was not a reality, but he still wanted to be off the ground. It was also around this time that he began to see how important freedom and his country was.

Hence, Sims decided to join his fascination with flight and the call of duty to his country that he felt dwelling inside him. He says he was always built for the military, that when he was young he was bringing his parent’s home finger painted tanks. Sims plans on joining an ROTC program, choosing from a wide variety of schools that will offer him the training he seeks.

After college, he plans to enlist in the military and eventually lead the Airborne Infintry. However, through his glasses, he has a setback. Some flight services, such as fighter pilots, in the military will not allow those without 20/20 vision to fly and Mackenzie wears glasses. But Sims won’t let that stop him, he will take all the roads that are open to him and succeed.

Sims has accomplished many things on the road to his dreams. He started with building model rockets and model airplanes, started flying remote controlled airplanes on the Great Lakes Signal Aces group, and is currently a Civil Air Cadet on the U.S. Civil Air Control where he is a Cadet Master Sergeant.

Sims started his training two weeks ago and is having a great time. He has already learned torking tendencies, and has learned the controls and gauges. He is very surprised at the amount of hands on learning he’s been getting so early in his training.

Sims would like to thank family friends Richard and Gale Simmons for supporting him, County Commisioner Kevin Boyat for his final recommendation, and John Barsalau, the Airport Manager at the Wurtsmith Airport for encouraging him. He is the son of Gary and Connie Sims of Alcona.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes I amaze myself...

Again, this is the raw article, my editor hasn't edited it yet. I want to know what you think. I didn't make him sound like I thought he was amazing did I?

Alcona High Student Gets Accepted To Interlochen

17 year old Joseph Mark LaVigne of Harrisville has just been accepted to the Interlochen Arts Academy for his senior year of high school for their music section.

Interlochen Arts Academy is the first fine and most prestigious fine arts academy in Michigan. Located in Interlochen, Michigan, it offers courses in creative writing, dance, motion picture arts, music, theatre arts, and visual arts to grades 9-12. Interlochen also offers an extra year to students who choose to stay and complete a year of college there. There are about 500 students attending the school, making it one of the most prestigious high schools in Michigan.

LaVigne likes to show off the part of his acceptance letter that states he was chosen out of 1000 other applications. “When I got the letter, my heart was pounding for three weeks.” LaVigne won his acceptance on his percussion skills. The most amazing fact about this is that he has only been playing the drums for three years. He only recently got his own drum set, through those three years he has never owned his own drum set. Instead, he would practice for hours at school. “I would stay after school for two hours and just practice.”

LaVigne has been involved with music since middle school where he played the saxophone. He started music because he couldn’t find any other elective and needed a hobby. “I’m not a sports person, I’m more creative” he admits. He played the saxophone for three years until he started high school and then found an interest in drums. That was when he started getting passionate about music.

“The drums are really interesting; there are so many different kinds. There’s the xylophone, marimba, and tympani….” LaVigne plays all percussion on the Alcona High School band and on a full sized drum kit on his free time. But he doesn’t restrict himself to that. He’ll often start tapping out a beat with his toes or his pencil and experiment with different sounds. His newest technique is taking a violin bow to anything that will make noise.

While his acceptance into Interlochen is his proudest achievement, it’s not his only. He was awarded the Directors Award for the school band in 2006, the Patrick S. Gilmore Band Award in 2007, the Musician of Excellence award in 2008, and the High School Band Award in 2009. He was thinking about Interlochen for two years before now and finally decided to apply.

LaVigne isn’t sure of his plans after Interlochen. He believes that more doors will open up for him after his senior year. He plans to either become a music teacher, an elementary school teacher, or hopefully a professional musician.

Besides drums, Joe also enjoys playing the guitar, the piano, and art. He will be leaving Alcona on the 3 of September to start school September 8. He will be living in a dorm room on campus for the entire school year. His parents Kathy and Joe LaVigne are immensely proud of their son and his accomplishments. Joe is also the proud grandson of Monafay and Rick Rozanek from Alcona and Victoria Evans of Oscoda.

To help fund his tuition to Interlochen, Mr. and Mrs. Lavigne will be holding a Garage and Bake Sale at the Mikado Market on July 11 &12.

You Saw It Here First!: Maggies on Main

“Maggies on Main, Where You’ll Find a Unique Gift For Every Occasion” is the tagline for this adorable gift shop settled in the back of the Harbor Town Mall, and it definitely rings true. Maggie’s sells a wide variety of gifts, including greeting cards, figurines, trinkets, candles, dolls, baby stuff, books, and jewelry. There are gifts here for mom, dad, daughter, sister, grandfather, and friend. But perhaps the hottest commodities are jewelry and Webkinz. Maggies on Main is the only store in Harrisville that sells Webkinz and they sell fast.

Despite the name, the owners name is not Maggie, it is Diedre Gray. The original owner had named the store after her grandmother, giving it the name Maggies Gifts. It was the first shop in the Harbor Town Mall, and in its seven years of business under the owner, it became a house name across Northern Michigan. So when Deidre Gray took over the business in the fall of 2008, she kept the name “Maggie” and re-titled it to Maggies on Main.

“We’re just a small town gift store that provides great service” says Gray. Great service and great gifts is something that the people of Alcona County can truly enjoy. New gifts arrive every day, so there’s always something new.

Store hours are Monday-Wednesday and Saturday 10am-5pm, Thursday 10 am-6pm, and they are open all season long. Store location is on Main Street in Harrisville at the end of the Harbor Town Mall. Gray’s website where she posts item updates for her store and events happening around town is www.maggiesonmain.blogspot.com/.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Here is my raw, unedited version of my newest article about a gift shop in Harrisville.]