Kudos for picnic, art

From the Donna Bothell, Wolverine Lake:

I was delighted to read in the Spinal Column Newsweekly today (“Funding causes Wolverine Lake to scale back picnic,” June 22) that the annual Wolverine Lake Village Festival/Corn Roast was being scaled back and (that the village is instead) adopting a village appreciation theme with free corn, lemonade, etc. This was exactly what I had always hoped it would be — a simple community picnic.

So many events that are advertised as “family fun” are anything but. With over-inflated prices, if you are a family of five or more, it’s just too expensive. I, for one, am so happy that Wolverine Lake’s Parks and Recreation (Commission) has put the residents first — especially now, when so many are feeling the strains of the economy.

How nice of them to extend a little “thank you” to the very residents that pay taxes, cut extra grass at the various lake accesses, build rafts, adopt rafts, build barges, take barges apart, put up and take down tents, and all the other various jobs that they are cajoled into volunteering for and do so because this is a great community to live in.

However, it’s still nice to be appreciated and this “thank you” affair is long over due. Thank you! I want to volunteer!

(And I also) love the new art display in downtown Walled Lake! John Sauve’s sculpture is just awesome next door to Eagle Graphics & Design on Pontiac Trail, but it is going to be spectacular when the sunflower field behind it blossoms into maturity. Good citizen Valerie Kemp of Wolverine Lake is doing a fabulous job selling her vision of “green” public art as a way to attract young home buyers and new business to our lakefront city.

When you have a great little city like Walled Lake on a beautiful Lake with a quaint downtown, it would truly be a shame not to polish the heck out of this gem, even if you have to do it with flowers! I can’t wait to see the city by bicycle in August as little gardens of yellow flowers spring up here and there. Kudos to Kemp and all the volunteers, including the ones from Orchard Grove Community Church that help make Kemp’s vision a reality. Hopefully (it will) grow on all levels.