3rd Annual Benefit for Brother Dan’s Food Pantry

Valentine’s Benefit Event to Support Brother Dan’s. Enjoy local entertainment at its best in a festive setting. Hors d’oeuvres, drinks, a silent auction, 50-50 raffle. Great for the whole family throughout the day … and evening!

DATE: Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012
TIME: Noon-11 p.m.
PLACE: Emmet County Fairgrounds, Community Building (Eppler Road entrance)
COST: $10 each/$25 immediate family

Price includes entertainment & hors d’oeuvres. Cash bar available for pop, water, beer & wine.

Want to do more? Please consider bringing nonperishable canned goods and boxed foods, which will be collected at the door for donations locally.

The Entertainers

• Holly Keller & Friends
• JUSDUIT
• Michelle Chenard & Pete Kehoe
• Northern Nites
• The Jelly Roll Blues Band
• The Craig Cottrill Band
• Sundogs
• James Greenway Band
• Atwood Green Band
• Born Suspect

Special Message from: Mary Moellering, Director of Brother Dan’s Food Pantry in Petoskey, Michigan

We are a ministry of St. Francis Xavier Parish, and our funding comes strictly from donations and fund raising. The last two year’s benefits reached far beyond our expectations in attendance! Everyone just had a wonderful time!

With your financial support, silent auction items or food items, you will be helping us to make the “2012 Have A Heart Benefit” event another huge success!

One hundred percent of the volunteers that work at our pantry do so without any pay, including myself as Pantry Director. Monies raised simply filter back to the community. Brother Dan’s Food Pantry serves food weekly, to anyone in need in the Petoskey area. Your support is greatly appreciated, and goes a long way in helping us keep food on the table  for those who are so much in need.

Please Help Us Promote this Event: Share it on Facebook & Twitter…

Print this flyer and post it around town

John

Christmas Parade Downtown Petoskey

The sky wasn’t blue in Petoskey yesterday, but it wasn’t raining either. There wasn’t snow on the ground and it was warm… a great day for a parade. Standing on the street by the Clothes Post, I shot some clips of this year’s Christmas/Holiday Parade.

John

Manna Project 19th Annual Empty Bowls

I met my sister and friends at the Perry Hotel today for a lunch of soup and bread. It was the Manna Project’s 19th annual Empty Bowl fundraiser – $20 for an empty bowl of your choice produced by local potters. The Perry Hotel then gave you a choice of  tomato basil or chicken noodle soup along with bread and butter.

There must have been several hundred people enjoying soup, each others’ company and raising money to help the Mana Project feed the 3400 families in the area that find themselves in need of food donations.

The staff of the Perry Hotel was assisted by volunteers from the Crooked Tree Arts Center and what appeared to be a couple of dozen street urchins straight out of a Dicken’s novel – perfect for the holiday season.

John

Clean-up for a Cause: Bear River Valley Recreation Area with a little help from Robert Service

Petoskey, MI
By Tom Renkes

There are strange things done
In the rain and wind with no sun
By the folks who moil for the trash;
The Petoskey trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see,
Was that morning on the Bear River
Everyone Picked up trash for thee.

Ptom

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Annual Art Walk in Petoskey

It was another spectacular Friday in Petoskey, MI on June 17, 2011 – the date of the annual downtown art walk.

Once again the weather cleared for a perfect evening to stroll through downtown Petoskey and visit the various art galleries and shops.

According to my sister and her friends, attendance seemed to be down this year from last – same feedback I received on the Spring Open House event on June 3rd. It’s a shame that more locals can’t make it to these events to support the downtown merchants. Imagine what Petoskey would be like without our historic downtown. These events also provide the opportunity to bump into friends and to expand our list of local acquaintances.

After viewing the local art offerings – along with nibblets and wine – we all wound up on the terrace at the Perry Hotel for live music compliments of Chris Koury and a refreshing beverage as the sun set over Lake Michigan and we awaited the prize drawing.

John

Spring & Summer Open House in Petoskey MI

Friday evening, June 3, 2011, was the night for annual Spring & Summer Open House in Petoskey, MI.

It was a perfect evening for the event as an afternoon thunderstorm cooled the air and left us with clean air and a perfect temperature.

My sister, a friend and I wandered the streets for an hour or so sampling food, wine and beer while we bumped into friends and neighbors.

Cupcakes and sweets seemed to be the popular treats this year. Granpa Shorter’s was celebrating a anniversary as well, so they were serving cake and ice cream – this after sampling Dutch apple pie at Grand Traverse Pie Company.

Toad Hall was a very popular place as they were handing out full bottles of iced Coronas.

There was music in City Park at the gazebo and street musicians on other corners.

All-in-all one of those great – Life is Good! – evenings in Petoskey.

John

FREE Used Coffee Grounds for Gardeners at Roast & Toast

Over the last several months, I have brought over 700 pounds of used coffee grounds home from Roast & Toast on Lake Street in Petoskey for my huge compost pile (6 yard). You know it’s Spring when the bats return to Roast & Toast!

At this point, I’ve added all the coffee grounds I want to the compost pile. Mary Keedy wanted me to help spread the word that free used coffee grounds area available at Roast & Toast for anyone who would like them. They would much rather they go to local gardeners than the landfill – this means all you Petockey Victory Gardeners as well.

The used coffee grounds at Roast & Toast are out back in dedicated garbage cans. You can do as I did – take the cans home dump the coffee grounds and then return the cans or you can use their shovel to load up a bucket or two for your compost pile or garden.Used coffee grounds make an excellent mulch. Coffee Grounds are acidic with a pH of between 3.0 and 5.0. They make a great mulch for acid loving plants like  rhododendrons, azalea and other acid loving plants.

Worms love used coffee grounds. When you compost used coffee grounds, the microbes that do the composting will turn the coffee from acidic to a neutral pH. Coffee grounds are approximately 1.45% nitrogen. They also contain magnesium, calcium, potassium, and other trace minerals.

So, what are you waiting for – get free coffee grounds at Roast & Toast – and while you’re there, have a morning cup of coffee to start the day – and say hello to the bats

John

Cava Fundraiser – Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan

Last night, on St. Patty’s day, dad and I went to CAVA in Bay Harbor to lend our support to the fundraising efforts for the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan.

We hung out for about an hour and visited with other supporters and Women’s Resource Center staff.

Cava cleared the floor of their main dining room for the event and provided complimentary hors d’oeuvres for the event as well as $2 draft beer in honor of St. Patrick’s day.

I sampled the hors d’oeuvres, but dad needed something more substantial for dinner. As an 85-year old vegan in Northern Michigan, it’s often a challenge to find him a meal! Cava had a vegetarian pita sandwich that filled him up and he was excited to hear about the vegetarian restaurant going in upstairs at Cava.

I put a bid in on a onyx and turquoise necklace that was donated by Ward & Eis Gallery in Petoskey, MI. The Women’s Resource Center called today to notify me I had won the bid, so I scooted over to their offices and picked up the beauty.

There are many fundraising events in our community that help support a wide range of worthy causes. These are wonderful events to attend. We not only get to lend our support, but they are great venues to keep in touch with your neighbors and community.

Big thanks to Lynne & Chandler Symons of CAVA for their generosity and all of the community projects they support.

John

Theatre Party to Benefit Northern Community Mediation

My little sister got me to buy a ticket for Northern Community Mediation’s fundraising  Theatre Party held last night at Petoskey Cinema. My sister, Christine, is involved with local mediation. She was selling raffle tickets while I visited the food tables and said hello to friends.

If you double-click on the image at right you can see the 2010 stats for Northern Community Mediation.

We saw the Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon & Emily Blunt, a fun film. I got to talking to two women behind us before the movie and was surprised to hear one of them say she was excited about going to see Battle: Los Angeles. I had to readjust my thinking about women’s choice in movies!

Here are some photos I took of the event – starting with little sis hawking raffle tickets for a good cause, then the crowd of supporters in the cinema lobby, followed by: Jason from City Park Grill, Tom & Julie from Julienne Tomatoes, the folks from Traverse Bay Pie and the Bob-in-Again.

The Twisted Olive, B.C. Pizza and Kilwins were also serving food.

City Park Grill was the first table in line and all of their goodies got gobbled up first. The pie with a scoop of custard was worth the entry fee! I had to have three as my sister kept making me share.

All-in-all, a great time and fundraising effort for Northern Community Mediation.

John

Home & Garden 2011 @North Central Michigan College

Saturday was the perfect day to head over to North Central Michigan College for the annual Home & Garden Show in Petoskey, MI. Gray skies and spring snow made the indoor show an appealing attraction.

Three of the projects I’m thinking of tackling this summer have to do with water: water conditioning for the home, reverse osmosis for the kitchen, flash hot water & a sprinkler system for the yard. I know it looks like four water projects, but I consider the first two as one as they are indoor water projects.

The first booth I encountered was a local company I had visited about two weeks ago where I left them with measurements for materials I needed for a project I am working on. I haven’t heard back from them, so I mentioned it to the lady at the booth. She was very apologetic and took my name and contact info. It’s now three days later and I still haven’t heard from them. Maybe it’s me, but I tend to run my business differently.

I stopped by three booths representing local companies that could handle my indoor water projects. I’m leaning toward one of them and leaning away from a well-known local plumbing company – not Ballards, they did a fine job on the new furnace we put in last year.

Overall, I enjoyed the show, but I had two experiences at the home show that left me wondering why a company or business person would pay for booth space and man it with people who are not friendly, well versed in the product or outgoing. A lot of vendors were sitting in chairs waiting for people to come to them instead of being proactive and engaging the attendees as they walked by – a simple “howdy” would have been a great step in the right direction.

I was surprised to find ContractorsYouCanTrust.com at the home show. I hadn’t heard of them before. They help contractors with social media and Internet marketing. Since that is my area of expertise, I stopped and chatted with them (see video below). I mentioned the conversation I had with Emil Buchbinder, Select Electric, about Internet marketing and social media. You may recall, that Emil was the electrical contractor that worked on the remodel I did last summer. It just so happens that one of the men knew Emil and he agreed with my assessment of Emil being a great electrician and a nice guy to do business with.

Marty VanBerlo, a building official for Emmet County, was tucked away between two larger booths, but giving it his best to help answer questions for the public and contractors. I mentioned that many people seem to want to avoid building inspectors and building permits for home projects. Marty said that mindset is something they work very hard to overcome as they are there to serve and assist. I told Marty that anyone who has watched Holmes on Homes or Holmes Inspection would never let anyone work on their home without permits being pulled.

I picked up a bag from the recycling booth and some carpenter pencils from Northwestern Bank. I also took a good look at the 2010 Weber grills that Meyer Ace Hardware was doing a closeout special on.

I stopped by the Lowes and Home Depot booths to see how they were getting along with the thousands of dollars I have spent there in the last six months. You’ll be glad to know that they are doing well and will be ready for me this spring when I start on this year’s projects.

John