News & Events

Park News - The following topics are recent News Releases from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Click on the links below to see the News Release from the Lakeshore web site. Click here to see the full list of news releases on the Park Web Site.

New Corporate Sponsor - The Art Place, a non-profit educational organization in Suttons Bay that teaches kids to create animation has agreed to an exchange of Corporate Sponsorship.

The Art Place Animation Video - Students from The Art Place (TAP), a non-profit animation studio in Suttons Bay created an animated film about Sleeping Bear Dunes. The film’s unique title, “wwwww.sbdnl.tap”, is not a website address, but was derived by the TAP students after they spent a week at the Lakeshore learning the “Who, What, When, Where, and Whys” of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s dune ecology and history.

The Art Place 2007

The Art Place Animation Project at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sixteen members of TAP spent a week outside exploring the natural and cultural surroundings of the National Lakeshore, then spent just as many hours inside editing and creating the 10 ½ minute movie, which is a collection of five animated films. After spending a week in one of the Lakeshore’s historic farms, Kate, from Suttons Bay, remarked, “I loved being a park resident for a week. It was very different than being a day visitor.” Twelve year old Andrew liked exploring the dunes at night and going to North Bar Lake. Everyone went on trails they had never hiked, swam at beaches they didn’t know were part of the National Lakeshore, interacted with National Park Rangers, and worked on answering in a very creative way the 'Who, What, When, Where and Why' questions about this national park site.

“This was the first time the Lakeshore had ever welcomed a group of artists to work together on a project,” said Superintendent Dusty Shultz. Some of the participants remarked on how much fun they had working together so intensively to complete an entire project in such a short period of time. The experience of living in the park, away from phones, television, and email, helped the students focus their creativity, and make lasting connections with each other and with this special place.

Watch the Animation Video.
Watch a video showing how the students created the animation.
Watch a video of the students and their other activities while they were at Sleeping Bear Dunes in August, 2007.

Click the link to learn more about The Art Place.

Bike Trail Project Update - The Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route Trailway Project has received a $240,000 grant from the DOT Federal Highway Administration to the Michigan Department of Transportation for design and engineering for our 25 mile, non-motorized trailway that will generally run parallel with M-22 and M-109 connecting Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore facilities from County Road 651 to the Benzie County boarder on Manning Road just south of Empire. for more information on the project, click here.

Tractor & Bush Hog - We have purchased a good used tractor and new Brush Hog to maintain the historic agricultural landscape in Port Oneida and other areas of the park. Once fields have been cleared by hand, mowing the fields will keep the woody plants from growing up in the old fields. We raised $15,000 for this project. If you are interested in mowing fields this summer, contact Kerry Kelly.

Other donations designated for this year are $1,000 for timber milling, which will be used to provide lumber for restoration of historic buildings; $500 for the barn workshop; and $2,000 seed money for the tractor and mower which will be used to mow fields in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District. An additional $8,000 has been committed for this project so far by a few donors.

During the Park's fiscal year from October 1, 2006 to September, 30, 2007 the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes donated the following to the Park:
$2100 for a Defibrillator
$545.94 for GPS Units
$3050 for Natural Resource Projects (Piping Plover and Eradication of Invasive Plants)
$12,500 for the Bike Trail Engineering from Americana
$10,000 for the Bike Trail Engineering from Cherry Republic
$377 for the Bike Trail Engineering from Friends
$3100 for the Port Oneida Fair
$500 for a Port Oneida History project from the Oleson Foundation
$32,172.94 Total

Spaghetti Dinner Fund-Raiser at Cherry Republic - We had a great time with all of our Friends at Cherry Republic on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. The food was great and so was the company. A big THANK YOU to Cherry Republic for running this event for us. We received almost $700 from the event.

Eleanor Comings Volunteer Efforts Recognized - Eleanor has just completed six years of serving on the board of directors for the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, where she has been an active, valued member of the board. As a result of term limits, she will not be on our board for the next year, but she still be an active member and volunteer in the Park. The Glen Arbor Sun, June 2007 edition had a nice write-up on her volunteer activities. Click here to read their article about Eleanor.