By: Deborah Johnson Wood
As a child growing in Geneva, IL, Ann Teliczan's dream was to vacation in Michigan just like the wealthier kids from her neighborhood. In 1980, she moved here to attend college and fell in love with the state. Now she's promoting its beauty on Michigan Sweet Spot, hoping to draw tourists and strengthen the economy.
"I wanted to literally show the world how beautiful it is here, and hopefully that will spur better tourism and a better economy for the state," Teliczan says. "I know that is a real lofty goal for a web site, but I believe that if we show people instead of tell people it will make a difference."
Teliczan majored in photography in college and has filled the web site with high dynamic range photographs of Michigan; photos that are slightly altered to enrich the quality and colors. She links the photos to Google maps so tourists can find their way to where the photographs were taken.
"I'm going to do the whole state," she says.
Teliczan decided to create the web site when she visited Oval Beach in Saugatuck on the Fourth of July.
"There was almost no one there," Teliczan says. " I thought, 'This is insane. This is a busy holiday and one of the top beaches in the world is almost empty.' I took pictures of it. You can see them on the web site.
"There's so much positive here, why aren't we talking about it? Why aren't we making sure that the world knows about it?"
Source: Ann Teliczan, Michigan Sweet Spot
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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