Editorial: Cheers: 08/11/2008

August 11, 2008 12:00 am

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-- To the Michigan Heritage and Research Foundation and volunteers from area Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, area police agencies and the Heritage Foundation for helping bring The Moving Wall to Kalkaska over the weekend. The Wall, a half-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., features the names of 58,256 American men and women who died or were captured in the Vietnam War.

-- To the Northwestern Michigan Fair and Four-H in Michigan for celebrating their 100th year this year. The 2008 version of the fair ran through the weekend and featured an auction of about 400 animals raised by Four-H members. Four-H has helped thousands of young people learn the value of farming and farm life over the years, and the fair has long been and outlet for them to show off their abilities. The fair has become a family tradition for farm families from across the region.

-- To the volunteers of the Peter Dougherty Society who are restoring an original icehouse used on the Old Mission Peninsula. The ice house, moved to the site from another property, is typical of the kinds of structures that were used to keep ice intact through the summer. It was donated by Steve and Glenda Keenan.

-- To Traverse City for being named to Mother Earth News magazine's annual Great Places You've Never Heard Of list, one of nine communities to make the list this year. The magazine, which is dedicated to sustainable living, also included: Ames, Iowa; Bethel, Maine; Berea, Ky.; Viroqua, Wis.; Moscow, Idaho; Bisbee, Ariz. and San Luis Obispo, Calif.

-- To the State Theatre for installing an induction loop system, which transmits a movie's sound directly to cochlear implants and hearing aids equipped with a telecoil switch. The system will help those with hearing aids better distinguish dialogue and music. The effort was spearheaded by Traverse City doctors of audiology Sandra Leahy and Kathleen Sawhill.

-- To Rebecca Lessard of Wings of Wonder who took four birds -- a red-tailed hawk, an American kestrel, a bard owl and an Eastern screech owl -- to use as models for a drawing class held at the Kaleidoscope Visual Arts Studio as part of Northwestern Michigan College's week-long College for Kids.

-- To Trevor Osburn an incoming freshman at Traverse City Central High School, who has been traveling the country playing for the Grand Rapids Crew, a development league youth select team. The U-14 Crew team just finished third in the country with Osburn one of its leading scorers. Osburn, who recently turned 15, has also been selected to the state's Olympic Development Program.