When My City Magazine visited the flower shop, preparations were underway for a bustling Valentine’s Day – the warehouse was full of flowers being processed. Eighty-five percent of the flowers Vogt’s uses are grown in Columbia and Ecuador, but they also use sources in Florida, Hawaii and Canada. The most popular flower is the rose, without question. On Valentine’s Day, Vogt’s will sell between 15,000 and 20,000 roses. Over 100 staff members will man the shops and at least 37 delivery drivers will drive all over town. Inside the warehouse, 18 floral designers prepare arrangements and place them in an area that is turned into a cooler for pre-delivery storage. While the number of Valentine’s Day pre-orders is impressive, robust walk-in sales make the day even crazier. “It’s quite the day,” laughs Kreg, “but we do a really nice job for our cash-and-carry customers, too. They don’t get the short end of the stick.”
The brainchild of Norman Bryant, the Greater Flint Afro-American Hall of Fame has been recognizing and preserving the achievement of African American athletes in the Flint area since 1983. “Flint is a sports town,” says the founder, “and it always has been. We have such a rich history of athletes here, dating all the way back to 1917.” Norm says that the point of the Hall of Fame is to remember the accomplishments of black athletes so that kids today can learn how these “pioneers” paved the way for today’s Flintstones. “We had Flintstones back in the 20s and 30s,” Norm said, “and kids won’t ever know that unless we tell them.”
“We have a great group of guys who are great to play hockey with and hang out with,” said Mark Look, who was tied for the team scoring lead 24 games into the season with 19 goals and 11 assists. “We’ve become a close group on the ice and know each other’s strengths.” Look’s sentiments are echoed by Cody Damon, who was part of several successful junior teams in three states. “What I love about this team is playing with a group that has so much heart and works hard together,” said Damon, who contributed 13 goals and 13 assists in his first 20 games of the season.
Anthony wasn’t always so appreciative of fine art. While working at the Ruth Mott Foundation, he was introduced to the Mott-Warsch Collection of African American art. One day, while looking at the work of Jacob Lawrence, a prominent African-American artist, he made a flippant comment to the exhibition’s curator, Camille Ann Brewer: “My son can draw better than that.” Camille told Anthony to do a little research on the artist and the painting in question and to come back to talk more about it afterward. “I came back eating a lot of humble pie,” Anthony laughs. After digging into the artist’s background, Anthony learned that Lawrence’s Toussaint L’Ouverture series tells the visual story of a Haitian revolution leader’s life. Lawrence uses history and his own personal experience to explain human nature. “When I learned about the painting and the artist, I realized I was learning about black history for the first time,” Anthony remembered. Now, Lawrence is one of Anthony’s favorite artists of all time.
“The warming center began pretty haphazardly,” Vicky remembered. “In the winter of 2010, I looked out my window at our sandwich giveaway station across the street and noticed a crowd on the tiny porch despite the bitter temperature. They were not leaving with their sandwiches, but instead were choosing to eat them right there!” Concerned for the safety of these vulnerable people, Vicky remembered the old cafeteria in the basement of the Center for Hope. “I called our facilities manager and asked him to move the sandwich program down there so that people could eat inside. I had no intention of creating a 24-hour warming center.” But that’s just what she’d done. Vicky says that the staff was soon calling her to say that people didn’t want to leave. “We extended our hours until, about two weeks after I’d made this change, the basement was open all day and night with an hour hiatus for cleaning.”
Peering into the kettle with a practiced eye, Cory Fernelius appraises the mixture of water and grains boiling inside. With hands that once worked his family’s farm, the 29-year-old Fenton resident expertly adds more hops to the concoction. Now near the end of the process, he seeks to transfer the liquid containing sugars and grain mash – known as wort – into a fermentation vessel to cool as quickly as possible. Pitching yeast into the mix is the last step; from here, it’s all about remaining patient during the final phase of brewing his beer…
