BY STEPHANIE BEACH
Just like "The Little Engine That Could," the Festival of Trains chugs merrily along gathering more devotees each year and, now in its fifth season, has become a holiday tradition for train buffs both young and "young at heart."
"This was a record-setting year for the Festival of Trains," said Patti DeAgostino, executive director of the Grand Traverse Heritage Center*, home of the festival. "We welcomed more than 8,000 people to the event, 2,000 more than last year. Our revenues also increased significantly."
She went on to acknowledge festival sponsors Lionel, the Record-Eagle, Easy Favorites 92.9 The Breeze and ABC TV 29&8 for their support.
Popular additions to the 2007 festival included a circus train and a train-themed raffle. Raffle winners were David Stockfisch, Linda Bebb, Katie Kieren and Rich Rader, all of Traverse City.
Dates already have been set for the 2008 Festival of Trains, which will open Dec. 13 and run through Jan. 1. For details, call 995-0313 or e-mail gthc@charterinternet.com.
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Trinity Lutheran Church in Traverse City was the site for a recent ingathering of goods that were donated by Church Women United of Traverse City and 21 Lutheran church congregations within a 50-mile radius of Traverse City.
Donors filled 353 boxes with quilts, blankets, layettes, soap, and kits containing health, school and sewing supplies that were loaded onto a semi-trailer truck, transported to a railyard in Grand Rapids and combined with donations from other Michigan churches. The boxes then were shipped and sorted by Lutheran World Relief for distribution to areas of need throughout the world including refugee camps, orphanages, hospitals and sites of natural disasters among others.
The Board of Christian Care at Trinity Lutheran Church sends a big thank you to all the participating congregations and generous donors and a special thank you to Cory and John at Star Truck Rental for donating the fuel and use of the semi-trailer. Thanks also go to Chip Dickinson of Trinity who drove the truck to Grand Rapids and everyone who helped load the boxes onto the truck including Boy Scout Troop #30 leader Chris Stein and scouts Jeff, Austin, James, Justin, Matt, Devon, George and Elijah; and other helpers Sue Willard, Eileen Wehr, Mary Robinson, Sandy Lakanen and Arlene Tremain.
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Judy LaCross had special reason to give thanks this past Thanksgiving.
Her daughter, Maria, who was home from Michigan State University for the holiday, was traveling up the hill on Cedar Run Road on Thanksgiving Day and her vehicle just couldn't make it up the slippery slope. It started to backslide down the hill with cars approaching her so she turned the wheel to get off the road a bit, where she sat in a panic.
"Luckily (the cars) were able to avoid hitting her vehicle ...," Judy wrote. "Along came an 'angel' of a hunter gentleman and a young boy in a pick-up, (who) hooked on (to her vehicle) and speedily pulled her up the hill. She told me of her relief and thanksgiving to the stranger. Yet another instance of the 'neighborliness' of northern Michigan! God bless him for his act of kindness."
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Another successful holiday event was the first Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood Sweater Drive. Businesses throughout northern Michigan partnered with CMU Public Broadcasting to serve as drop-off locations for new or gently-used sweaters or other articles of warm clothing to help keep a 'neighbor' warm this winter.
More than 5,000 sweaters were collected, as reported in the Dec. 20 Northern Notes column. Since then, the sweaters have been distributed in participating communities through Project H.O.P.E. (Help Our People Eat), the Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries, the Manna Food Project and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The totals distributed by community are: St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, Alpena, 500 items; Seventh-day Adventist Church, Clare, 183 items; The Clothing Store, Gaylord, 173 items; Project H.O.P.E., Houghton Lake, 350 items; The Salvation Army, Mount Pleasant, 2,559 items; Manna Food Project, Harbor Springs and Petoskey, 800 items; and Goodwill Industries, Traverse City, 452 items.
Organizers also send a special thank-you to the following businesses and organizations that served as drop-off locations for donations: Alpena -- Alpena Regional Medical Center, National City Bank (two locations), Jesse Besser Museum, Alpena County Library and First Federal (two locations); Clare -- Jay's Sporting Goods; Gaylord -- Glen's Market and Jay's Sporting Goods; Harbor Springs -- Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors; Houghton Lake -- Houghton Lake Resorter; Mount Pleasant -- WCMU, Commission on Aging, Sacred Heart Academy, CMU Book Store and Towers Lobby; Petoskey -- Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey Public Library and Manna Food Project; and Traverse City -- Great Lakes Children's Museum, Trains and Things, Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty and Bay Area Urology Associates.
Items for this column may be sent to Northern Notes, Record-Eagle, P.O. Box 632, Traverse City, MI 49685-0632; e-mail sbeach@record-eagle.com.
To clarify an item about the Festival of Trains, the festival debuted in 1991 at the City Opera House. It moved to the Grand Traverse Heritage Center in 2003, where it recently completed its fifth season.
