Leelanau Outdoor Center (LOC) Unlocks Potential

Tags

Character education, Leelanau County Michigan, Leelanau Outdoor Center, LOC, Maple City, Maple City Michigan, MI, Michigan, Outdoor education, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

My final post for 2013 is from Jen Murphy, MEd, Development Director of the Leelanau Outdoor Center (LOC) in Maple City, Michigan.

https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-62746-240-2

Jen says it best in her own words:  

“Three years ago, I was living in a warm climate working with at-risk youth and their families and felt that I wasn’t making much of a difference. Too much red tape. Too much to change.  And not enough support. I needed a different direction. I headed north.  

What I didn’t know when I left a home and career behind for this new adventure, was where I would end up. I started writing grants for the Leelanau Outdoor Center (LOC), a non-profit outdoor education center that serves over 2500 students each year and focuses on both character education and stewardship of the outdoors.

What’s amazing is that outdoor education is one of those things that often gets a “back seat” to everything else going on in the classroom. Schools today are expected to do a lot: improve student test scores, increase graduation rates, individualize instruction and provide character education at the same time. Due to the demands placed on teachers and administrators to meet student performance standards, character education takes a back seat. This missing component often leads to classrooms with students who resort to fighting with peers and arguing with teachers because they don’t know how to get along with others and solve interpersonal problems effectively. Just like the kids I had worked with for years.

Programs at the Leelanau Outdoor Center (LOC) are designed to fill in this missing piece. A typical program includes full accommodations and meals for 3-4 days. Students are immersed in a safe and open atmosphere that is removed from the pressures of school and home life, so they are free to focus on the lessons of leadership, communication, and self-confidence.  LOC also includes a variety of fun seasonal activities, such as hiking in the Sleeping Bear Dunes, aquatic studies, animal tracking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, canoeing, team building exercises, and navigating a high ropes course.  What student wouldn’t benefit from that! In fact, nine out of ten students attending LOC attributes their time here for growth in confidence, leadership, and their ability to communicate with others.

Let me give you an example of what I have the opportunity to see every day. A recent group of middle school students participated in an exercise that helps students to identify root causes of bullying. Once the exercise was completed, the staff leader asked the group what their school would be like if they brought skills home. After a few silent moments, a voice from the back of the room piped up, “It would be like a family!” And in that moment, I realized that I was finally working somewhere that made a real difference.”

Leelanau Outdoor Center in action:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViJcpG5sAWU

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The Legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes

Tags

Dapine, Great Spirit, Lake Michigan, Made in Michigan, Manitou Island, Memory Lake, Michigan, North Manitou Island, Second Edition, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Tate Publishing, The Legend of Sleeping Bear, Wisconsin

George Vieira’s interpretation of the old legend is well-written and faithfully crafted.  He has graciously allowed me to re-post it.  The dunes play a key role in “Memory Lake; The Forever Friendships of Summer.”  Tate Publishing is launching the Second Edition this month and the new cover is a view of Lake Michigan from the top of the dunes. You can see it on their website:   http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-62746-240-2

Please read George’s blog post below, or visit his page:   http://mishigamaa.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/the-legend-of-sleeping-bear/

The Legend of Sleeping Bear

Posted on August 10, 2013 by George Vieira

The wind breathes a song of ancient wisdom – only listen to the rattle of the ghost forest up on the dunes. It’s the story of Dapine, mother bear, proud parent of sharp claws and soft fur. Her cubs dancing on rolling Wisconsin plains, two brothers in the summer sun, animated by a boundless spirit. A bond unbreakable, unbelievable, takes us back to that terrible month when the sun hung too close to the Earth for too long.

Day after day, the leaves curled and the grass progressively turned orange. The forest was brittle and dangerous. Then one night lightning struck and set a dry patch ablaze. As luck would have it a fierce wind howled and blew the flames higher and farther, until the flames towered over the forest animals. Instinctively, Dapine ran for Lake Michigan, that immortal body, her cubs racing behind her, tripping over their young, clumsy paws. Though safe in the calm, placid waters of the lake, she saw in the thick black smoke the desolation and starvation that awaited her cubs once the fire died. Where they’d rolled and played and sweet honeycombs had bounded, charred nothingness would smolder.

So Dapine swam, desperate, one stroke at a time, towards Michigan. The journey was long and difficult, and the young cubs struggled to keep up, panting, tongues agog. On the second night of their journey, a great storm whipped the lake into a panicked frenzy. Hail pelted their thick coats; lightning made their fur stand on end. And somewhere in the wild waves she lost her cubs, their panicked faces illuminated by one last flash of light before being enveloped in permanent darkness.

Dapine swam against the tide for many hours in search of her cubs. She cried out their names, desperate, painful screams full of sorrow. But no answer. Exhausted, she turned back the following morning for the northwest shore of Michigan. Drenched and tired, she finally pawed her way onto the promised beach. At last. The sky was deep and blue, the green expanse of trees swayed in the wind. There was food, shelter, and water.

But no cubs.

All Dapine could think of was her cubs. She felt little relief or happiness in having made it alive to Michigan. Day and night, she faithfully watched the endless waves hoping to catch a glimpse of her lost cubs. In her many, fevered dreams, there they were, safe and warm in the old den, gnawing on the fish bones held between their tiny claws. She quickly grew wane and emaciated, her hair falling out in tufts on the soft sand.

Seeing Dapine, the Great Spirit was moved to tears by her story, from the veil of impartial observation to utmost mercy. As the earth shook and a hard rain fell, he raised two large landmasses above the waters of Lake Michigan in remembrance of Dapine’s cubs, North Manitou Island and South Manitou Island. He imbued the islands with their innocent energy, so that it would be a grand memorial to Dapine’s loss. She saw this, and like animals always do, knew right away what it meant.

And so with heavy sigh, Dapine closed her eyes and slept by the waves. It was then she felt a sudden lightness, her soul hovering over her own body. Carried by the force of the Great Spirit, she ascended up beyond the worries of the world, where in the limitless sky her cubs hopped from cloud to cloud in excitement, reunited with their mother at last.

Back down on earth, Dapine’s body turned to sand, more and more sand. In her place a great dune emerged, which from the Manitou Islands resembled a giant sleeping bear. The Great Spirit did this as a testament to the power of love, the story of Dapine and her cubs. Even today, the area is called the Sleeping Bear Dunes, and the story is written of on plaques and in books, never forgotten.

The Best Kind of Fireworks…

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Big Dipper, Camping, cassiopeia, Crystal River, Draco, Fireworks, Independence Day, Lake Michigan, Meteor Shower, North Star, Recreation, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Tent, United States

Yes, it is all true.

Tags

authentic, Great Lakes, Lake Michigan, memoir, Michigan, petoskeys, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Tori, Lori, Nancy, Susie, Cindy, Christie, Sarah, Me, and Mary (1976)

When I have the privilege of meeting readers of Memory Lake, they are surprised to learn how much of the novel is true.  “In real life there is another Nancy, a Christie, Lori, Tori, Susie, Cindy, Sarah, and Mary?”, they ask.  Yes, I reply, supposing they are an e-reader, because it is easy to miss the picture on page 3.

“My daughter’s name is KT, her best friends are Angela and Katie, my sister’s name is Susan, and the camp really exists though I changed its name,” I say with a genuine smile, because the honor of writing about them still lingers.  “Water spouts often form over Lake Michigan and the Sleeping Bear Dunes are huge.”  Few readers question the validity of the rest of the novel because its coming-of-age conflict and character interactions speak to the human experience.  We all need to overcome fear.  We all need to learn that putting on a smile, especially when we least feel like it, leads to real joy.

KT, Katie, Angela, and Lake Michigan (2004)

Whether you devour Memory Lake over a week-end, *”like an irresistible box of candy”, or deliberately spread it out, because like camp, *”you don’t want it to end”, please know it is 99% true.  The 1% is to keep the story flowing and to protect the sanctity of locations.

Petoskeys; Michigan’s state rock (fossils of prehistoric coral) also mentioned in “Memory Lake”.

* Quotes from reviews.