Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Monday

November 23, 2009

Editorial: Cheers: 11/23/2009

-- To Dan and Debbie Edson for their $1 million gift to help Munson Medical Center move its non-invasive cardiology unit to its heart center. "They gave me a new valve and a second chance at life," Dan Edson, 58, said. The hospital hopes to raise $500,000 more and spend capital dollars to expand the unit for a total cost of $2.3 million. Edson is founder of American Proficiency Institute, a Traverse City firm that checks the accuracy of lab tests. He did a medical technology internship at Munson in the 1970s and later worked in its microbiology lab.

-- To John McLeod, of Boyne City, who saved the sixth grade's traditional three-day trip to Camp Daggett Adventure Center near Petoskey by setting up an online auction of car parts and raising almost $5,000. McLeod is owner of Boyne City Classic Instruments.

-- To disabled Army veteran staff Sgt. Robert Myzel, who joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars Cherryland Post 2780 and is now serving as second vice commander, kitchen manager and hospital report manager. "There's so much that this post gives here for the soldiers; they're 100 percent for soldiers," the 31-year-old said. He served 111/2 years in the Army, including two tours in Iraq, and suffered a closed-head injury after a makeshift explosive blew up.

-- To the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians for a $13,000 grant for a "thermistor" buoy that measures Grand Traverse Bay water temperatures up to 64 feet deep about three miles north of Old Mission Peninsula. The information is transmitted to the University of Michigan's Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories through cell phone technology and is put on the lab's Web site for public use. Data also can be used to help maintain water quality and will help biologists determine how the bay and Lake Michigan exchange water. U-M now has three buoys in the bay. The others record waves and currents on the surface.

-- To Tim Keenan, who set out to hike the whole Appalachian Trail and decided within the first few days to turn it into a fundraiser for the Women's Resource Center and Veterans for Peace. He contacted friends and family via the next available Internet connection he could find along the 14-state trail and raised $5,000 for a Veterans for Peace scholarship fund and $3,000 for the Women's Resource Center.

-- To organizers of the Second Annual Traverse City Downtown Turkey Trot, who hope the 5K run/walk/roll will raise twice as much this year for area nonprofits. It starts at 9 a.m. and begins and ends its winding downtown route at the Holiday Inn. The trot attracted 423 participants last year and raised $6,000 for the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA's New Y Capital Campaign. In addition, organizers Brian and Enid Hagerty donated $400 to TART Trails and the same amount to the Trojan Ski Boosters.

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