West Michigan invites you outside: 5 #puremichigan ways to celebrate spring
Finally...spring. Throw off the shackles of winter and check to these 5 ways to enjoy West Michigan.
The Lakeshore
Building Healthy Communities program aims to surround Michigan school children with healthy living
During the last nine years, more than 260 elementary schools across Michigan have participated in the Building Healthy Communities to prevent and reduce childhood obesity, prevent chronic health conditions, and improve academic achievement. Positive results are pouring in.
Klask!: “Silly wooden game” proving addictive in West Michigan breweries
Invented in 2013, Klask was featured on Danish national TV in 2014 and named "Danish Game of the Year." Soon after, the World Klask Foundation and national Klask associations formed. In September 2018, the Klask World Championship will take place in England—a West Michigan player will compete.
Mary Free Bed expansion makes rooms at “The Inn”
As the final phase of its $66.4 million expansion and renovation project, Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital recently opened 10 additional new rooms at the Inn at Mary Free Bed, a lodging alternative that provides a practical solution to two challenges facing Mary Free Bed’s longer-term rehabilitation patients. One, the Inn provides a home away from home for their family members. Two, patients who no longer need nursing care but aren’t ready to go home can stay with their families at the Inn as they continue rehabilitation. In 2017, more than 3,700 people stayed at the Inn. Mary Free Bed plans on adding another six rooms to the Inn, for a total of 22 rooms.
Doula group changing the paradigm in West Michigan
Gold Coast Doulas, a group of 16 diverse doulas living throughout the greater Grand Rapids area, provide a wide range of services to women giving birth primarily in the hospital, but also at home.Their doula team includes African-American and Spanish-speaking doulas, doulas from different income levels, and doulas from all types of West Michigan communities.They can support clients no matter what their race, religion, ethnicity, class demographic, or sexual orientation.
Livable transportation engineer to share place-making strategies with West Michigan communities
As part of their “Series on Sustainable Transportation and Innovative Community Design,” the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council (MACC), Ottawa County Department of Public Health, and Ottawa County Planning and Performance Improvement Department have invited West Michigan’s city planners, developers, and citizenry to join those conversations, led by nationally-acclaimed speaker and livable transportation engineer, Ian Lockwood, P.E.
Meet Joanie Davis: empowering girls to code for good
Joanie Davis, a back-end developer, and intern at Collective Idea, believes diversity in tech can begin by simply providing every girl the possibility of seeing themselves represented in the industry.
Growing Young Artists: Outreach program facilitates art, self-expression for migrant students
Although they are an integral part of Michigan’s agricultural industry, migrant farm families often go unseen, moving from state to state, laboring for long hours in the fields, and living in rural communities. Through a unique partnership between Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Fennville Public Schools and South Haven Public Schools, students in summer migrant programs receive exposure to the arts, hands-on instruction and encouragement to express themselves in creative ways.
