On October 24, an excited group of young entrepreneurs presented their business concepts to a panel of judges and a community audience, in hopes of becoming one of two winners of the first ever Fenton Shark Tank competition.
Berston Field House has enjoyed a recent surge in attention, coinciding with the rise of WBC star, Claressa Shields. Known as the place where the boxer got her start and returns to train for upcoming fights, Berston is returning the warm embrace of attention, by offering even more to the community it has served for over 90 years. The latest project is The Berston Success Center – what Executive Director, Bryant Nolden says, “will be a resource to counteract the high rate of illiteracy.”
A new alternative school in Flint is working to change those statistics, according to Winston Stoody, Director of GearUp Academy, which is a program run by the Flint nonprofit, GearUp2Lead. The program is a no-cost, nontraditional school that provides students with an opportunity to earn their high school diplomas through online classes and become employed by a local business partner, nonprofit or government agency. In the program’s first year, there were six students (including one graduate), and 14 the following year. That number is expected to grow to 28 diverse students this year from as far away as Montrose and Fenton, the director reports.
Tom Sumner, voted Flint’s Favorite Radio Talk Show Host in MCM’s 2017 City’s Choice Awards, has been producer and host of The Tom Sumner Program for ten years. What began on the Kettering University Campus as the show “Off the Kuf,” has been broadcasting live every weekday from 9am-noon from its studio through Flint Podcasting Company for the past year. The Tom Sumner Show can be heard on 92.1 FM and streaming live on their website at tomsumnerprogram.com.
Did you know the Flint Junior Golf Association (FJGA) is the oldest such organization in the nation? Since its inception in 1939, the FJGA has not only provided an opportunity for young golfers to learn, play and enjoy the game, but it also teaches them discipline, respect, integrity and character.
On July 26, more than 300 local teens participated in what has become, in its fourth year, “the largest cleanup in the city,” according to the Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce.
In 2007, Genesys Health System revised their strategic plan, broadening the definition of health care to include community wellness and access to fresh, locally-grown food. “We started to look at how we could utilize our 500 acres to benefit the community from an economic and wellness perspective,” explains Nick Evans, Vice President of Business Development for Ascension Mid-Michigan, administrative lead on the donation of three acres of land for use as a Farm Development Center on the Genesys Health Park Campus. “We are not an island here – anyone in the community we serve can come here and find something to participate in.”
Access to healthy food for everyone in the Flint community – that’s what the Flint Fresh Mobile Market is all about, according to Erin Caudell, co-owner of The Local Grocer in Downtown Flint. The Mobile Market has been up and running since August 2016 and is a nonprofit organization, the result of a group effort to address the lack of healthy food in certain areas of Flint. It is a partnership of the YMCA, Community Foundation of Greater Flint, Flint Farmers’ Market, Neighborhood Engagement Hub and The Local Grocer. “We received many grants that helped it come together,” Erin explains. “We were very lucky to get them!”
Honorable David Newblatt, Genesee County 7th District Court Family Division, presides over the Girls Court – a specialized prevention docket designed to meet the needs of adolescent girls who are under the Family Division’s jurisdiction. Judge Newblatt wanted to find a way to help the at-risk girls whose cases were on his docket, and after about a year of planning by a team of people, Girls Court was implemented in January 2015. According to the judge, there was only a handful of Girls Courts in the country, but there wasn’t one in Michigan. Genesee County was the first to implement it and now, Kent County is starting one.
On May 1, Durant-Dort Factory One in historic Carriage Town reopened after what General Motors Executive VP, Mark Reuss, described as “a long journey” from purchasing the building in 2013. The Factory One building was a dilapidated piece of history the community could have lost; instead, it went through strenuous renovation and through collaboration between GM and Kettering University, was transformed into an interactive and innovative hub in Downtown Flint.
On Memorial Day, those who died in military service to the United States are honored with parades, ceremonies, 21-gun salutes and the playing of “Taps” on the bugle. American flags are placed on graves and tears are shed for those lost. In the city of Mt. Morris, there is a special ceremony for George W. Clute, a Medal of Honor recipient who is interred at the Mt. Morris Cemetery.
