Traverse City Record-Eagle

Community

September 10, 2012

Community Newsmakers: 09/10/2012

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Traverse City resident Arlen Matson recently was recently honored by The White House and the National Park Service with the "President's Call to Service" award for achieving more than 4,000 hours of volunteer service to the North Country Trail. He received the award at the North Country Trail Association's (NTCA) annual conference in Augusta, Mich.

The NCTA is the major nonprofit group of the National Park Service that builds, maintains and promotes the North Country National scenic Trail, which spans seven northern states from New York to North Dakota. Trail construction and maintenance is accomplished almost entirely by volunteers formed into dozens of local "chapters" along the trail. Matson belongs to the local Grand Traverse Hiking Club Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. To learn more about the trail, go to www.northcountrytrail.org.

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The Traverse Area Paddle Club recently won Pine River Paddlelsports Center's "Negative Trace/Positive Vibe" contest for cleaning the Pine River.

The club sponsored six days of cleanups on the Pine River throughout the 2012 season.Typically 12 to 16 club members paddled the river for four to six hours collecting trash.

The club has been running river cleanup trips for more than 10 years. In total during 2012, the club has cleaned 14 rivers, spending 284 people/days picking up litter.

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Bill Janis of Traverse City won a new Chevrolet Volt at a raffle drawing Sept. 1 at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor.

The summer-long raffle was a fundraiser for the Sleeping Bear Dunes Heritage Trail and was sponsored by TART Trails and Cherry Republic. All 1,200 tickets were sold, raising more than $100,000 for the trail.

Janis said he plans to hold a free drawing among the employees of his Traverse City-based company Century Inc. and donate the car to one employee.

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