Book Drive for Mason County

 
We are all set up for tomorrow's event, the Book Drive for Mason County. Here are the centerpieces we made today. I have another commitment tomorrow, so you are hearing about this today. But that will give you a chance to participate if you are local.



Ludington Writers believes that we need to support readers or the writers will be out of business! So we are collecting new and gently used books for children. They will be given (by prior arrangement) to Head Start and COVE. The goal is somewhere around 200 books. Half that number have already come in. Donations also accepted to purchase books.

More decorating!



Come to the Ludington Area Arts Center between 1 pm and 3:30 tomorrow for a chili lunch. Suggested donation for lunch is $2.50, and bring one or more books to donate.

Volunteers today were cleaning the gently used books that have been donated.



Then the books were arranged for display.



We hope this will be a great way to help others put books in the hands of young readers with a little chili treat for those who donate. Books for children and young people up to about age 16 are acceptable. COVE often shelters families with children of all ages, although the books going to Head Start will be for preschoolers.

In other news: I wrote a half chapter, helped with this project, did more errands, did another volunteer task, and a little contract job. Now I'm trying to finish reading a book!

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Friday Night Live

 
I did something tonight that I would never do of my own free will (because it's all about crowds and noise), except that I had a purpose. Needed to scope out the Friday Night Live event in Ludington as a possible future venue of the book event that we had last weekend.

The entire downtown of Ludington is closed to traffic and there is family-friendly stuff all over. Here's some of what I captured. The Flipstar Gymnastics Club was doing a demonstration. I caught one girl in mid-flip.



I'm adding one more picture because I want to show you that all the girls, big to small, lined up and each did what they could in a run whether it was the standard two flip-flops and a roundoff or back flip, or just a roundoff or maybe one flop-flop. Most of the girls who ended with the roundoff were then spotted by the coach to add on a back flip.



The West Michigan Old Engine Club had a whole line up of antique tractors.



And an antique fire engine which kids could climb on.



I got there just after 6 pm, when it had barely opened, and it runs till dark. There was already a sign that said all the pony ride tickets for the entire evening were already sold out!



There are portable stages with live music at the deadends of each closed off street. This band was at the end of the main drag. They were playing zydeco. Of course, when I heard the accordion I was just pulled down to see the player. His keyboarding was very good, but that's what he is, a keyboarder, not an accordionist. He never played any of the left hand buttons, and that thumb on the frame of the keyboard is a no-no. Nevertheless, very enjoyable because he was good and also a good singer.



In other news: I worked half the day out at Shagway. Made a little progress on my computer restoration. Realized another batch of files I've lost. Found out some more things to try to get my phone reading its card again. Sometimes technology is the pits.

	See Lakeshore Arts Festival
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Get Outdoors Day

 
Did you know that today is National Get Outdoors Day? The trail club did its thing last weekend for National Trails Day, so I didn't have anything to do with organizing this event. However, I was asked to be one of the presenters at the event put on by Lake County (one county east of me). They were also celebrating the opening of this brand new township park.

Speaking as one who understands how much work it takes to stage these kinds of events let me say they they really outdid themselves. I'm not sure I can even name all the "stuff" they had (but I'll try!). There was a big fire truck, and fire safety display. Great Lakes Energy brought a really great safety program. The kids loved it when the men set sticks on fire from the wires; and they also got the lesson!



There was a Sheriff's Dept. safety program about using ORVs and water safety. The Dog Mushers Assoc had dogs and sleds there, but it was too hot for the dogs to run, so they just got a lot of petting. Of course there was a pavilion with hot dogs and other munchies. There was an archery range where even kids could try the sport with supervision.



The Forest Service brought Smokey the Bear for picture ops. It was for the kids, right? OK, but who could resist?



The Forest Service also brought fire safety info (with Smokey, of course). Oh, yes, and I gave two programs. That's why I was so busy last night. I hadn't made the program digital that I used to use (before I finished hiking the North Country Trail). So that needed to happen, and of course it took forever. That's what kept me so busy last night. I went to bed late, and couldn't sleep, and then got up early. So I'm off to bed soon!

So between and after my programs I visited all the displays. The only one I hadn't been to yet was the horse-drawn wagon ride. I was hot and tired, and I almost didn't go. Sure glad I did! Turned out I knew the horse's owner!



He was letting kids ride in the driver's seat and help drive, but only when a parent was there. The load of kids I went with didn't have any with a parent present, so I got to sit up front and he let me drive! The horse's name is Mabel, and she's half American Standard and half Belgian. She's a solid horse, but more sleek than a full draft horse, with a nice smooth trot (yes, he had me trot her a bit!). You can see I'm not holding the reins while taking the picture, but that's a good thing.



I think I got to drive a horse once as a kid, but never for so long. He let me drive her almost the whole loop. Great experience!

Finally, I have a photo that needs a caption. Put yours in the comments! I'll post them another day.



Great event! And they are talking about having me back next year.

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