Show Caption Hide Caption On March 17th, 2020, as the world turned its focus on the massive changes caused by a newly named global pandemic, my world focused only on my child. I thought I had prepared myself for this day, but on the day my son Trey left for deployment, my emotion flooded through like pools of water into…
Show Caption Hide Caption Show Caption Hide Caption I was nearly finished writing my column for this week’s GT Pulse when it hit me. The irony. It couldn’t go unnoticed. So, I started over. I’m a white woman living in northern Michigan and writing about a project that focuses on improving Indigenous news representation. I’m telling this story about Indigenous…
Show Caption Hide Caption At this point, most of us have experienced the conundrum that accompanies celebrating a birthday during a pandemic. Questions about location, safety, and guest participation have become standard practice throughout the last year, with many resorting to online or pivoted “from a distance” gatherings. As Michigan’s Covid-19 regulations have begun to relax, many people are gathering…
Show Caption Hide Caption Show Caption Hide Caption Show Caption Hide Caption Show Caption Hide Caption Show Caption Hide Caption When I was growing up, most of our family pets came from the bold and determined actions of my sister. Erica had a knack for finding lost or displaced souls in need of a home, and she had the decent…
Show Caption Hide Caption I remember when I was first approached about participating in Impact 100 Traverse City. It was late fall of 2016, and Tonya Wildfong from Team Elmer’s met with me to explain what the group was trying to do. I have to admit, I didn’t really get it at first. After all, when someone is asking you…
When my boys were growing up, we started a weekly tradition of making or ordering pizza once a week. We called it “Happy Pizza Friday,” a nod to a custom started by a radio station where I had worked who ordered pizza for the office every Friday. Happy Pizza Friday was one of my favorite traditions. The boys would excitedly…
Donna Stein Harris didn’t plan to buy a kiln. She didn’t plan to turn a spare bedroom into a space for art. She didn’t even plan to consider opening a business at her age. To her, it was all a blessing of happenstance. “It was serendipity,” Donna tells me over the phone as we discuss the incredible functional and decorative…
As a life-long resident of Northern Michigan, I should be an expert at winter sports. Sadly, that’s not the case—or, at least, that wasn’t the case. Of course, when I was a kid, I wholeheartedly embraced winter. Trudging up hills in my pink snowsuit, saucer sled in hand, I ruled the backyard hills. I skated my heart out most days…
There are few movies that cast a bigger shadow than the 1993 Bill Murray classic “Groundhog Day.” Every year, around Feb. 2, I cue it up to bask in the glow a movie that is as close to perfect as it gets. At first, it was all about the jokes and riffing around the gimmick of the Punxsutawney Groundhog that…
As the temperatures began to fall, and the first round of bar and restaurant pauses on indoor dining hit our area, heated igloos and mini-greenhouses began popping up all around our region. The problem for many, however, was that after months of closures and financial losses due to the pandemic, many small restaurants couldn’t swing the rising cost of outdoor…
