No, no catch. Here’s the skinny...
“Everyone here has been just phenomenal.” These were the words of Jerry Wallace one of the veterans who participated in the incredibly generous offer from Newaygo Family Dental Care a year ago. Last November in honor of Veterans Day (one of whom happens to be NFDC’s own Dr. Dennis Nelson, Radiographic Specialist. 1968- 1971. Fort Sam Houston Med evacuation center. and AFEES Cleveland. Fifth Army.) the clinic opened its chairs for a day to any veterans that came through their doors, providing x-rays, exams, cleanings, fillings, and extractions. Free. Yes, no mistake we said free. The day-long event was very well received so plans were made for a second annual event to be held later this week. N3 caught up with Dr. Ross Nelson (a busy guy) to pose a couple of questions. This is your second year providing this service for Veterans. What led to this initiative? It’s something that Dad and I felt strongly about, and we see veterans every day in our practice. Some get the dental treatment they need and some struggle accessing it. We knew we could do better. How was the response last year? Anything stand out from the first one? Our first year was great. It let our team get a process established so we could grow the number served. All the veterans were awesome. Solid, happy, and appreciative is how I would describe them. It really made the day a lot of fun and gratifying for all of us. What do people need to know about making arrangements to come? We open doors this Friday, Nov 8 at 8 AM. We are working straight until 3, serving as many as possible. First come, first served. Services are done one at a time, per veteran. If a veteran wants to re-enter and stay to get more done, they are more than welcome to. I spent a half morning this fall driving around the county soliciting other dentists in our community to have their own Veterans Day, and I know Dr. Leyder in Croton agreed and is opening his doors the same day this year.I was very encouraged by several of my colleagues about their willingness to join in our efforts. ,A lot of people talk about doing more for veterans. Others show us how its done. On Friday Newaygo Family Dental Care puts its compassion into action. And we think it makes them awesome. We know, we know, this Tuesday’s election likely doesn’t spark the level of interest given the national contest held next year-though it feels like given the unending inundation of media coverage about it we should have had that one by now. Here are some stats from the last time around when the balloting was limited to cities and a few townships, 2017. Fremont and White Cloud had turnouts that were just under 20% or one out of 5 registered voters. One of 5. Think it sounds pretty small? Well, it is but that year they were the cities in our county that turned out the most voters. Newaygo went a little over 15 1/2%. And Grant? Under 7% or about 1 out of 14 registered. We can do better. I know we can. Here are Tuesdays contests. In Fremont Mayor Jim Rynberg is running unopposed but there are 5 candidates vying for 2 4 year terms on the council. Sandra Siegel is the lone incumbent in the race along with Mike Dennis, Bob Johnson, Tim Powell and Michael VandenBerg. Fremont will also decide on a proposed amendment to the city charter regarding the Board of Review By contrast in Grant (yup, 7%) where Mayor Julie Hallman is also running unopposed the 3 council seats have but two in the running, one a write in candidate. Kate Block is a registered candidate while you’ll need to ink in Mark Dietz’s name to give him your vote. Seems it’s as hard to get folks to run in our county's Gateway city as it is to get them to vote. Newaygo Mayor Ed Fedell is unopposed as well but there is competition on the council where four candidates vie for the three available seats. Katie Walercyzk and Lee Black currently hold seats and are joined in the race by Mathew Boynton and Erin Burns. Only in White Cloud do they have a mayoral race as Mike Kimes is challenging current mayor Jamie Denslow for the seat and like Newaygo, 4 candidates will compete for the 3 open spots on the council, Jerry LeBlanc is a current council member while Herm Becker seeks to return to city hall having held a seat there a few years back. Candice Dault and Lori Shears round out the candidate pool. Merrill Township has 2 candidates for the Treasurer spot as Cathy Stroop and Victoria Gibbs vie for the partial term ending next November. Merrill also has a vote on the reestablishment of their annual meeting. Bond proposals are on the ballot for Grant, Baldwin Kent City, Cedar Springs and Oakridge schools in various sections of our county. So get out there and vote folks. While neither national/state offices nor statewide proposals possess spots on this year’s ballots, the most important of all your voting decisions are there to be made this Tuesday... The local ones. “Every election is determined by the people who show up.”- Larry Sabato But just for November’s Poetry Night.
Creative Writing at Newaygo High School (NHS) is a class that is both loved and feared. The teacher, Luke Francis, would not have been brave enough to take this class as a student in high school, but he loves to teach the class as an adult. For a little over a decade, he has had the honor of witnessing brave and courageous souls face their fears as they struggle to find the words that are at the heart of their stories. Stories have been rapped and sung, crafted and polished, told through tears with pride and dignity...stories worthy of voice…and told. The class focuses on telling stories better. Every Friday during the school year students step onto their stage and perform borrowed and original spoken word poetry, powerful vignettes, thoughtful and often rollicking skits, inspirational speeches, songs, and so much more. Genre, style, and subject matter are student decisions (within accepted school policy). Presentation of the ideas is the focus; how you tell the story through voice, stage presence, body language, and eyes, the rhythm and pace of delivery, and, of course, the imagery and metaphor that drive the craft. On Wednesday night, November 6th, students from the NHS Creative Writing class will be showcasing their talents at Flying Bear Books in Newaygo from 7-9 PM. Come check out what these inspiring young people are doing! Here we go. October is in the rear view mirror and November is upon us. We've endured the first tease of snow and the three big holidays lurk ahead.
As Emily Dickinson once said, "November always seemed to me the Norway of the year". Yeah I don't know what that means either but here you go for some weekend fun and don't forget to turn those clocks back Saturday night so that the sunset will start occurring around 2:30 in the afternoon. TUNES… John Gorka will be coming into town after playing at packed houses on his extensive tour including a Friday appearance at The Ark. Haven’t heard of him? Well, take a listen to him on youtube and if you’re a fan of folk you’ll be highly impressed , but come to think of it if you’re a fan of folk music and Americana sound you already know about Gorka. His show delivers great music and his witty stories are sure to provide some laughs. Saturday at 7:30pm in the club like setting of the Black Box at the Dogwood, so shake off this meteorological preview of things to come, check out the new (closer) entrance to the Dogwood, take in a great show while sipping a couple adult beverages and pretend for a while that Old Man Winter is still far off. Details: https://www.nearnorthnow.com/features-and-fun/john-gorka-at-the-dogwood-on-november-2 Upcoming events include Che Apalache on November 14th and a cool kids show coming in early December when the Velveteen Rabbit hops into town. FOR KIDS... NCCA Artspace downtown Fremont. Saturday at Drop-In Art kiddos will be making clay turkeys starting at 11am, Details: http://www.ncca-artsplace.org/event/saturday-drop-in-art-for-children-clay-turkey-2/ HERE IT COMES... Ok so we know Halloween is behind us, thinking about Thanksgiving is still off a ways, but make no mistake we are about to be plunged knee deep into the Christmas Season. Face it, Hallmark has already put the Christmas movie train in motion and it is chugging along full throttle now with new movies popping up with increasing frequency and if you were in Meijer and Walmart this week the Halloween stuff disappeared with the speed of a fb fireworks rumor and the Christmas stuff that began to make appearances has gone full throttle now. This weekend there are a few of the arts and crafts shows popping up around the area. If you want to take a little drive Morley Stanwood has a Holiday Bazaar Saturday from 10am-3pm, and the same day brings theKnights of Columbus Craft show in Sparta. This one has been going on for over 3 decades and the doors of Holy Family Church will be open from from 9am-2pm. Quite frankly these should be seen as warm-ups because next week comes the granddaddy of all local exhibitions of this type. Yes, the vaunted Jingle Mingle returns to the Fremont Middle School next Saturday and at N3 World Headquarters and Hallmark Holiday Movie Preview Center (N3WH&HHMPC) the day is circled on calendars throughout the HQ. If you’ve been there before we are truly preaching to the choir because there are people who have been coming so long that vendors can predict the times they arrive at their booth to the very minute. If you are a newbie to the fray you simply must go. Beyond the absolute plethora of vendors who boast a wide variety of items just begging to be taken home, there is an aura about the event that is hard to describe. It’s kind of a community feel. We’ll try to get a little more skinny on it before next weekend. EATS... The Fremont Moose apparently serves up breakfast the first Saturday of the month. I don’t know if this is new or not but, hey, we’re always looking to expand our circle of breakfast options and for 7 bucks it might be worth a venture into Moose Country. We have yet to enter the Lodge(is there a secret password?) and know little of fraternal organizations other than the Sig Taus of CMU in the early 70’s and that could be a bit dicey on occasion. READS You say you missed the book signing for Mango Rash the wonderful read by local literary treasure Nan Pokerwinski? They packed the Artsplace last week but tomorrow she will be at the Croton Library from 11am-12:30pm. Here’s our recent story: https://www.nearnorthnow.com/features-and-fun/local-author-relives-life-in-samoa TV The second season of The Komnisky Method was released on Netflix and it has not disappointed. Unlike the few newer sitcoms out there on the networks that have thus far been nothing but disappointing. The World Series this week had everything and if you were watching closely in game 6 we mean Everything. We heard a radio guy go with the ‘’what’s the big deal’ reaction explaining that during the 70’s streaking was a common form of artistic expression (or a drunken dare we assume) and this was much the same. Well, we at N3WH do recall the Academy Awards being ‘streaked’ on live TV back then when a man named Robert Oppel ran naked across the stage. At the time David Niven was at the podium and classically quipped "Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen... But isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?" See you soon. Got an activity or event you deem worthwhile for an N3 shout out? Send us a message and we’ll give it a glance. info@nearnorthnow.com |
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