Encore October 2014

Dealing with dementia

October 2014

Texas Township Farmers’ Market reaps rewards

The beauty of artisan cheese

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Playing with

Imagination

Fantasy games have grown up

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Dealing with dementia

Texas Township Farmers’ Market reaps rewards

October 2014

The beauty of artisan cheese

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Playing with

Imagination

Fantasy games have grown up

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Encore Magazine is published 12 times yearly. Copyright 2014, Encore Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising correspondence should be sent to:

www.encorekalamazoo.com 117 W. Cedar St. Suite A Kalamazoo, MI 49007 Telephone: (269) 383-4433 Fax: (269) 383-9767 Email: Publisher@encorekalamazoo.com

The staff at Encore welcomes written comment from readers, and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to print or return them. To learn more about us or to comment, you may visit www.encorekalamazoo. com. Encore subscription rates: one year $36, two years $70. Current single issue and newsstand $4, $10 by mail.

Back issues $6, $12 by mail. Advertising rates on request.

Closing date for space is 28 days prior to publication date.

Final date for print-ready copy is 21 days prior to publication date.

Correction In the Healthy Future? feature in September, we incorrectly named Bill Johnson as one of the $100 million donors to the WMU Homer Stryker M.D. Medical School. That donor was Bill Johnston.

CONTENTS

October

2014

FEATURES Strange New Worlds

24

Texas Township Gets Fresh

20

From Magic to Heroes of Newerth, fantasy gaming is capturing people’s imaginations.

How a farmers’ market has boosted the economy and spirits of this SW Michigan community.

Dealing with Dementia

Personal experiences drive group helping families manage care of loved ones with dementia.

31

DEPARTMENTS 6 Contributors

8 Up Front

Guitar-Making Gals — Mini-fest celebrates the women who made Gibson guitars during WW II.

10 14

Good Works

Help with Home Upkeep — Community Homeworks provides low-income homeowners with post-purchase support.

Small Town Support — Group provides kinship, encouragement for Allegan County’s LGBT community.

16 Savor

Artisan Cheese — Skilled cheesemakers’ wares are handcrafted to be complex and flavorful.

18 Enterprise

Device Doctors — Rapid Repair finds niche putting gadgets back together again.

46 The Last Word

Not Just Another Oak Tree — We easily overlook these quiet giants, but burr oaks have a unique place in SW Michigan.

ARTS

35 Murder by Design

Interactive theater troupe makes guests all part of

the mystery.

37 Tony Gianunzio

At 92, this new author says you’re never too old be a

Romantic.

39 Events of Note On the cover: Gamers, from left, Sarah Butler, Andrew Domino, Tim Webster and Christine Webster engage in a Dungeons & Dragons battle. Photo illustration by Alexis Stubelt and Erik Holladay.

42 Poetry

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 5

CONTRIBUTORS ENCORE

Olga Bonfiglio

Theresa Coty-O’Neil

Olga, who explores the economic development spurred by Texas Township’s farmers’ market, notes that she joined the local food movement only six years ago as a gardener and goat herder, which includes milking by hand. She has written for the Huffington Post, U.S. Catholic, Planning (the trade journal for urban planners) and the Kalamazoo Gazette. She hosted Public Voice, a Community Access Center show, interviewing local urban-redevelopment leaders. She taught this subject at Kalamazoo College for several years, using Kalamazoo as a living laboratory for her students.

Theresa, who has a deep and inspired knowledge of the local arts community, writes for Encore when she has a few spare moments between being a full-time English faculty member at an online university, president of the Board of Directors of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Society and a mom with three active and busy kids. A poet and writer herself, Theresa introduces us to new author Tony Gianunzio, who, at 92, has published his first book.

Tiffany Fitzgerald

Erik Holladay

Tiffany’s connection to her profile of Dementia Services Group in this month’s issue is personal. “My grandfather’s dementia was hard on my mom and her siblings,” she says. “They often felt lost, heartbroken and unsure, and I think they would have benefited from a service like Jamie Wilson Headley’s.

Dementia care has changed radically in recent years and she is on the very forefront of that movement.”

Tiffany is a staff writer for Encore, the editor of its sister magazine, FYI, an instructor at WMU and a copywriter in the domain industry.

6 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

It didn’t surprise any of us when Erik told us he was always Dungeon Master when he played D&D. His experience and knowledge of fantasy games, in addition to his photographic talents, led to great images for this issue. A photojournalist who has worked for the Grand Rapids Press, Flint Journal, Jackson Citizen Patriot and Kalamazoo Gazette, Erik is now a freelancer, putting his talents to work for commercial, media and wedding clients.

Andrew Domino When Andrew approached us about a story on fantasy gaming, he knew what he was talking about. An avid gamer, he used his expertise for the story, which looks at all the realms of fantasy gaming, from board games like D&D to multiplayer computer games.

Andrew, a freelance writer from Kalamazoo, says his favorite D&D class is ranger, because he likes spending time in the woods. You can find more of his work at dominowriting.com.

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up front encore

Kalamazoo Gals

Mini-fest celebrates women guitar makers I

n January 1942, the Glenn Miller Orchestra’s recording of “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” was holding strong as the No. 1 tune in America. At the same time, gals in Kalamazoo were making their own music

working in the Gibson guitar factory as their male counterparts left to fight World War II. That’s when the reign of the “Banner Gibson” guitars began.

To celebrate that era and the women who saved Gibson guitar production during the war, Downtown Kalamazoo Association Charities (DKAC) will hold Kalamazoo Gals Day Oct. 10.

The mini-festival will run from 5 to 8:30 p.m., mostly on the downtown Kalamazoo Mall but with related events at other locations. The festival will feature guitar music, a “show off your guitar” expo, a multimedia presentation and a tour of the former Gibson guitar factory (now housing Heritage Guitar Inc.) An after-festival open-mic event will be offered at Old Dog Tavern.

John Thomas, author of Kalamazoo Gals: A Story of Extraordinary Women & Gibson “Banner” Guitars of WWII, coined the name “Banner Gibsons” to refer to Gibson guitars produced between January 1942 and the end of 1945 — guitars that had a small golden banner printed on their headboards saying, “Only A Gibson Is Good Enough.” The Banner Gibsons correspond precisely with the time when women worked at the factory.

“To me, there’s some kind of cultural message here,” says Thomas, a professor of law at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.

“Gibson was the champion of exaggeration — every Gibson guitar was more beautiful than a Southern belle, sounded more resonate than a rippling brook, except during the war.

All of a sudden, it’s just good enough.”

Thomas will be on hand for the Kalamazoo Gals Day festivities, along with a few Banner Gibsons, including one that was shipped overseas during World War II and made its way back home. A Kalamazoo Gal herself, Irene Stearns, will be at the mini-fest as well.

Kalamazoo Gals Day is a new event, supported by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation.

“Initially, Gibson denied making guitars during the war and denied me access to shipping ledgers,” Thomas says. “But once I talked my way into Gibson, I found shipping ledgers that showed 24,000 instruments were shipped during the war. At that point, I had a picture of the women in front of the factory in 1944, the ledger that proved production happened during the war, a marker that tells me when a guitar was made during that time, and I can now tie these women to the instruments.”

As a part of his research, Thomas partnered with the diagnostic imaging department of Quinnipiac University’s School of Medicine to analyze the measurements and production quality of Banner Gibsons compared to guitars manufactured before and after the war.

“A woman’s touch can really make a difference,” he says. “Beyond a doubt, there is a measurable difference between the guitars built by these women and those built before and after.”

The story of the guitars, their craftsmanship and the transition of the Gibson factory to wartime production is fascinating, but meeting the women themselves and

The “Kalamazoo Gals” outside the Gibson Guitar Co.’s factory building in 1944.

hearing their stories have been the most transformative parts of Thomas’ journey.

“I still trade phone calls, cards and the occasional letter,” he says. “It’s way beyond just finding a piece of history. I forged relationships with these women.”

Thomas says the Kalamazoo Gals Day event is a great way to honor those women’s unheralded work. “This festival is for anybody interested in music, Kalamazoo history, American history or women’s history,” Thomas says. “It bridges all those gaps. We’ll have music, we’ll have a talk, and we’ll have fun. You’ll connect with the heart and soul of America and learn that the birthplace of that heart and soul is Kalamazoo.”

Kalamazoo Gals Day What: A mini-festival featuring guitar music and a “show off your guitar” expo on the downtown Kalamazoo Mall, a multimedia presentation at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, and a tour of the former Gibson guitar factory (now housing Heritage Guitar Inc.), at 225 Parsons St. When: 5—8:30 p.m. Oct. 10 Extra treat: An after-festival open-mic event will be held at Old Dog Tavern, 402 E. Kalamazoo Ave., from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

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good works ENCORE

Helping with Home Upkeep

Kristina Nguyen

Community Homeworks aids low-income homeowners

E

dison neighborhood resident Barbara Horton started making payments on her house 21 years ago. Less than 10 years later, chronic and debilitating health issues forced Horton into early retirement from Kalamazoo Public Schools, where she worked for 21 years as a custodian.

When her furnace broke down in 2012, two years after she had lost her income, the work and finances required to keep up her now 100-year-old house became too much to manage on her own.

Horton found herself in the position many Kalamazoo-area residents have found themselves in — not being able to fix an aging home. One call to Community Homeworks, though, and Horton’s furnace was fixed for $10. The nonprofit organization, based in Kalamazoo, is committed to empowering low-income residents.

“A furnace fixed for $10? You can’t beat that,” Horton says. “I was so thankful, because I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

About 32 percent of homes in the city of Kalamazoo — more than 10,000 — are 75 years old or older, and more than 50 percent of homes are 50 years or older, according to U.S. Census data. These older homes are concentrated in parts of the city with the highest 10 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

Community Homeworks client Barbara Horton stands outside the organization’s offices, at 810 Bryant St.

percentages of people living on low incomes or in poverty, according to Community Homeworks. Because of the age of their appliances and building materials, these older homes are more costly to maintain, repair and upgrade, and there is a real need for post-purchase support for the homeowners.

Older homes also are less energy-efficient, resulting in higher utility bills for owners. Often the costs become overwhelming to individuals and families struggling to make ends meet.

Low-cost critical home repairs like Horton’s furnace repair, educational workshops, and weatherization and energy efficiency have been the three core areas of emphasis for Community Homeworks since it was founded in 2008. The goal of each of its programs is to empower homeowners to be able to maintain their own homes and make improvements that sustain the homes well into the future as energy-efficient buildings.

“We’ve seen remarkable savings for low-income families through the weatherization program — sometimes almost $1,000 a year,”

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says Shaun Wright, executive director of Community Homeworks.

A year after Community Homeworks fixed her furnace, Horton reconnected with the organization through Habitat for Humanity, and since then Community Homeworks has helped Horton insulate her walls, ceiling and attic and provided a new hot water heater, furnace, two windows and a door for her house. Horton estimates that Community Homeworks provided her with $15,000 to $17,000 worth of work and materials for about $1,700. Horton not only saved money in the costs of these repairs and upgrades, but continues to save on energy costs, freeing up that money for food, education and medical costs.

“I am so grateful,” Horton says. “I’m feeling good about this house now. They gave me a good start in bringing my home up to code and making it livable. I’m going to pick up where they left off.”

To help families redirect the savings they realize from weatherization efforts, Community Homeworks is adopting a model that teaches financial literacy and budgeting as well as saving money through energy efficiency and repair skills. The result, Wright hopes, will be low-income families moving out of poverty.

“Energy savings through weatherization is an investment that you do once and the savings continue,” says Kristina Nguyen, program director. “It’s a great thing, to be

able to help someone out of an emergency, when fixing something critical might break the budget. But if you can make a permanent adjustment in the cost of your house, then you have a chance to focus your attention and energy on something else.”

Focusing her attention on something else

Furnace Fest 2014 What: A fundraiser for Community Homeworks Where: Boatyard Brewing Co., 432 E. Paterson St. When: 5 — 9 p.m. Oct. 10. The keg for the new Scotch ale Gimme Shelter will be tapped at 5:30 p.m.

How much: Cash donations for Community Homeworks will be accepted at the door. A portion of the proceeds from food and drink sales also will go to Community Homeworks. is exactly what Horton has been able to do since her home was weatherized. She started frequenting home-improvement workshops offered by the organization and learned something about herself.

“I love to learn,” she says. “Getting into that classroom environment at the workshops helped me figure that out, so I went back to school for the first time in 36 years and enrolled in KVCC (Kalamazoo Valley Community College). In my first semester, I had perfect attendance and a 4.0 grade point average.”

The impact of Community Homeworks reaches beyond homeowners like Horton and into the communities where they live.

“We all benefit when families are thriving,” Nguyen says. “Our kids are safer.

We’re safer. That’s why we want people to be engaged with what we’re doing.”

Community Homeworks is offering a chance for people to engage with the organization at its Furnace Fest Oct. 10.

This third annual Community Homeworks fundraiser, to be held again at Boatyard Brewing Co., raises money for new furnaces to be donated to community members.

The event will feature wood-fired pizza from Camzies Pizza; music from the band Joe Wang and the Test Pilots; and the release of Gimme Shelter, a new Scotch ale from Boatyard that’s brewed especially for Community Homeworks. Gimme Shelter also will be available at restaurants and pubs in the greater Kalamazoo area, and a percentage of its sales, as well as proceeds from Furnace Fest, will go to Community Homeworks.

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good works ENCORE

Small Town Allies

Group provides LGBT support in Allegan County A

aron Redford knows it’s hard to come out in a small town — he came out as gay during elementary school in Martin.

“In bigger places like California or New York it’s easier to be comfortable in society than, say, being in a small town like Martin,” Redford says. “Smaller towns have smaller mindsets than bigger towns, where people have explored different paths and been exposed to more.”

Redford, 19, who moved to California this fall to start college, joined Small Town Allies two years ago. This group of 175 members from Allegan, Plainwell, Otsego and other nearby communities, provides a support network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in these small towns, hosting events and gettogethers at local coffee shops.

For Redford, Small Town Allies is a “place to heal wounded minds and a place to make peace.” It offers a support system that, until the group was formed, had been absent in these communities but badly needed, he says.

14 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

“Kids who don’t have places to go or talk when they’re coming out often struggle with suicide and sometimes run away or experience abuse,” he says. “So you need something like Small Town Allies. I know what I went through, and I want to make sure that other people can walk down the hallway at their school and not feel like they can’t talk or be themselves because they feel scared or awkward. This group helps open you up and show that it’s OK to be yourself.”

Christopher Tanner, a member and organizer of Small Town Allies, says that since joining the group last April, he’s seen a lot of growth and interest in the support meetings and community events that Small Town Allies holds. He thinks it’s because a lot of smalltown residents, whether gay or straight, have been waiting for a group like this.

“You don’t realize until you live in a smaller town how far away you really are from bigger towns and cities,” Tanner says. “So while we have a lot of people who would want to be in the Kalamazoo LGBTQ (the ‘Q’ usually

stands for ‘queer’ or ‘questioning’) or PFLAG (Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays) groups, there’s a distance and time constraint. That’s why we try to make our group as similar to Kalamazoo’s (groups) as we can, so people can travel five minutes to go to a similar meeting or event instead of half an hour.”

Small Town Allies started as a Facebook group in 2009, after founder Arlene Barber of Allegan attempted to connect with people interested in equality issues through a classified ad in her local newspaper and postings on bulletin boards around town.

The ad and postings didn’t work, but the Facebook page attracted some followers. For a time, Small Town Allies was an exclusively online group.

Then, in May 2013, Barber canvassed in Oshtemo Township with the Kalamazoo Gay Lesbian Resource Center regarding Small Town Allies members Arlene Barber, in the black T-shirt in the center, and Aaron Redford, holding the sign Gay Is Okay, joined other LGBT supporters for the Allegan County Fair parade in September.

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the nondiscrimination ordinance that later passed. While surveying Oshtemo Township residents, she noticed the tide of public opinion concerning equality issues was changing, so she decided to try engaging with people in the “actual world” again. She set up a card table with a sign-up clipboard at a local concert and started collecting names of people interested in joining Small Town Allies.

“After that, I went to another music event in July, I carried a banner in a small parade in Douglas, and I got about 20 people to march with me in the Allegan County Fair Parade,” she says. “That’s when we finally started to get a lot of people and we started to make things happen.”

Tanner, Barber and other members of Small Town Allies hosted their first community art event — called Express! — in April of this year in Allegan. The event featured local writers, musicians and artists gathering to share their art with the Small Town Allies group and the community at large. The event was a success, Barber says, because it paved the way for more such events in the future.

Small Town Allies is “about as grass-roots as it gets,” Tanner says, and although the group is still struggling to gain nonprofit status and build a steering committee, it continues to expand its reach steadily, offering community gatherings and support meetings and participating in community events as a united presence. Tanner and Barber look forward to strengthening the organization and supporting others invested in gay rights and those coming out in small Michigan communities.

“Ultimately, we would like to be a support network, whether that’s finding businesses that support the same thing we believe in or helping find doctors and psychologists that will support LGBTQ community members,” Tanner says. “There is a lot of bias against LGBTQ people within small communities, so we want to help people connect with people who are going to support them.”

To contact Small Town Allies, visit SmallTownAllies.com or find the group on Facebook.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 15

savor ENCORE

Artisan Cheese

Region abounds with handcrafted, flavorful fromage One cheese wheel stands out among the others at the Food

Dance Market. Jan Carpenter, the market manager, points it out first — a Capriole Farmstead O’Banon goat cheese, wrapped in dark-green chestnut leaves and twine. The leaves are arranged in a picturesque petal design, making the cheese a striking addition to the display. I spotted it right away but wouldn’t have bought it in a million years.

Carpenter says I’m not alone. Most people who come into the shop for the first time gravitate toward mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar — the varieties that are most familiar. But there’s not a cheese in the Food Dance Market that would normally be found in a grocery store, Carpenter says, because they are all handmade, domestic, artisan cheeses. The artisan cheeses all have stories behind them, and the experts at the market love to tell them.

“You cut this twine and open up the leaves, which have been soaked in bourbon, and the whole thing becomes a flower,” Carpenter says. “The bourbon-soaked leaves give the fresh goat cheese spicy vanilla flavor notes, and the bright-white mound of cheese has little veins imprinted from the leaves and slight color from the bourbon.

It’s just beautiful, and it’s a great story. That’s what ends up selling the cheese.”

Jan Carpenter, Food Dance Market manager, shows the beautiful flower presentation made by the Capriole Farmstead O’Banon goat cheese.

Artisan cheese defined The increasing popularity of artisan cheeses is a ripple effect from the local food movement. According to national market analysts, the national artisan cheese market is a $16 billion industry that’s forecast to grow another 4 percent in the next four years as consumers continue to look for more indulgent tastes, new food experiences and local food choices.

The term “artisan cheese” is usually reserved for cheeses made by hand in small batches by skilled cheesemakers. They’re often more complex than other cheeses in their variety and taste. But be careful: The term “artisan” can be misused.

“I’ve seen cheeses that say ‘artisan’ and are produced by Kraft,” says Mattawan Artisan Creamery owner and operator Anne Cavanagh.

“It’s almost like ‘natural’ — it doesn’t really have a good operating definition.”

Mattawan Artisan Creamery produces feta and chèvre cheese and handmade yogurt. Cavanagh operates the creamery with her son Steve Cavanagh, selling their cheeses and yogurts to local retailers and restaurants.

Domestic artisan cheeses made by small producers like Mattawan Creamery are an anchor at the Food Dance Market, with a selection of Michigan cheeses sold at the shop, including some from Evergreen Lane Creamery, in Fennville, and Zingerman’s Creamery, in Ann Arbor.

Food Dance looks for local cheeses to support sustainable local agriculture and for artisan cheeses for their flavor.

16 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

“The flavor stands out from commodity cheese — a cheese that is mass-produced,” Carpenter says. “The producers of artisan cheeses work at the flavor of a cheese until it’s just right.

Start your artisan cheese journey Because of its rich farmland and agricultural strength, the Midwest is a perfect place to explore artisan cheeses. Southwest Michigan has

Artisan Cheese in Kalamazoo Area Retail

Restaurants featuring cheeseboards

The Cheese Lady 7035 West Q Ave., Oshtemo Twp. TheCheeseLady.com

Epic Bistro 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall MillenniumRestaurants.com/Epic

Food Dance Market 401 E. Michigan Ave. FoodDance.net/Market

Food Dance 401 E. Michigan Ave. FoodDance.net/Market

Irving’s Deli 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall IrvingsMarket.com

Latitude 42 Brewing Co. 7842 Portage Road Latitude42BrewingCo.com

Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market 1204 Bank St. FarmersMarketKalamazoo.com

Rustica 236 S. Kalamazoo Mall RusticaKZoo.com

Sawall Health Foods 2965 Oakland Drive SawallHF.com

Zazios 100 W. Michigan Ave. www.Zazios.com

The People’s Food Co-op 507 Harrison St. PeoplesFoodCo-op.org

Creameries

Texas Township Farmers’ Market 7110 West Q Ave. TexasTownship.org/Farmers-Market

many “jumping off” points for an artisan cheese journey, including restaurants like Food Dance, Rustica, Zazios, London Grill and Old Dog Tavern, which are just a few of those that use cheese from local creameries. Many restaurants that use artisan cheeses feature a cheeseboard appetizer on their menus, allowing diners to select a variety of cheeses to sample with complementary meats, nuts, dried fruits, aioli and jams.

Artisan cheeses also can be found at local farmers’ markets and in specialty foods shops like The Cheese Lady, in Texas Township, and the People’s Food Co-op and Food Dance Market in Kalamazoo. Many shops provide samples of the artisan cheeses they offer, allowing customers to explore choices.

For a hands-on artisan cheese experience, Evergreen Lane Creamery offers a tasting room during certain times of the year, welcoming visitors to try the cheeses made on-site.

Make it yourself It might seem that making cheese at home would be a far-fetched endeavor, but many people are learning how to make fresh cow’s milk cheese in their own kitchens.

Holiday Parties Also rehearsal dinners, office parties, meetings and presentations.

Mattawan Artisan Creamery 22884 44th Ave., Mattawan KalCarbon.com Evergreen Lane Creamery 1824 66th St., Fennville EvergreenLaneFarm.com

“There’s been an increasing interest in cheesemaking in the last five or 10 years,” says Lori Evesque, education coordinator at Tillers International, a nonprofit organization based in Scotts that offers a variety of artisanal and farm-craft workshops in blacksmithing, woodworking, timber framing and cheesemaking.

“People who take our workshops leave feeling self-sufficient, independent and satisfied,” Evesque says. “Many homesteading crafts like cheesemaking are viewed as difficult or inconvenient. Here people find out it’s really not as hard as they thought.”

With a gallon of milk and a little direction, anyone can learn how to make fresh, creamy cheese and benefit from the taste of smallbatch cheese, Evesque says.

“Handmade cheese is fresher, for one thing,” she says. “And you can fine-tune the flavors by adding herbs and flavorings to your taste. Not to mention, cheesemaking is a fulfilling creative outlet.”

To sign up for one of two November cheesemaking workshops, visit Tillers International online at TillersInternational.org.

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Enterprise ENCORE

Device Doctors

Broken gadgets drive Rapid Repair’s thriving business M

any people discover Rapid Repair exactly the way owner and operator Ben Levy started the company — by dropping a new iPod. The reason Levy now owns a successful, 10-year-old iPod, iPad, iPhone and Zunes repair, resale and refurbishment shop is because he decided to pursue the option of fixing his own iPod to a degree most people wouldn’t consider.

“I was pretty upset about it,” he recalls.

“So I decided to go online and see if anyone else had these problems. Turns out, a ton of people have the same problem, so I thought, ‘Hey, maybe I should look into finding out where I can buy these parts or I should just buy broken units and maybe I can piece mine back together.’”

18 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

After Levy began to buy parts and broken iPods, he collected more than enough parts to fix his own iPod, so he repaired the other broken iPods he’d accrued and resold them.

Along the way, he and partner Aaron Vronko created a business called iPod Mods and launched a website to solicit parts and broken devices and sell the refurbished products.

“Then we were contacted by a few companies that deal with retail returns from big companies like Best Buy and Walmart,” he says. “Basically they jump-started our business. There weren’t a lot of companies back then that were handling repairs like there are today so they’d send us huge batches of these iPods and we’d fix them up.”

Not only did iPod Mods get a substantial amount of startup business from retail return

companies, it also got the added bonus of being able to keep the extra parts left over from the repairs. Over time, Levy’s company kept collecting its own stores of parts and devices and growing out of its space. The company moved from Levy’s apartment to a small storefront, and then to its current location, at 2328 Winters Drive in Portage, about five years ago. Levy says business has been going great and growing steadily. iPod Mods changed its name to Rapid Repair in 2007, and Rapid Repair branched out from repairing iPods to fixing iPhones, iPads and Zunes players. Rapid Repair also will take special orders on Samsung phones Rapid Repair owner Ben Levy rapidly repairs a personal-use device at the shop.

and other expensive personal-use devices. As technology advances, Levy and his team — eight full-time and two part-time employees — stay updated on how to fix and refurbish various devices. As technology advances, Levy and his team — eight full-time and two part-time employees — stay updated on how to fix and refurbish various devices.

Because Rapid Repair started as one of the few companies in the U.S. that sold parts and offered mail-in repair for iOS devices, it had a steady corner on the market and conducted most of its business online. That situation is starting to change, though.

“Seventy-five to 80 percent of the business still rolls in online from mail-order repairs,” Levy says, “but now business is more local, in terms of iPhones and iPads, because people can’t live without them for 24 hours. Everything is on them. They are their life.”

That dependency on electronic devices is also spurring growth in another facet of Rapid Repair’s business — sales of do-it-yourself repair kits.

“You can call us the NAPA of iOS device parts,” Levy says. “We have everything. If you need any particular part, we have it available on our website. And there’s a plethora of information available that you can use to just open these devices up yourself and fix them. Our demographic is anywhere from 18- to 35-year-old people who grew up with this technology and feel comfortable doing this.”

Levy says one reason for Rapid Repair’s continuing success is its customer service. Almost all online reviews of the business are glowing.

Rapid Repair’s senior technician Ben Vronko says the reviews are good because everyone who works at Rapid Repair is focused on customer service.

“We’ve kind of stuck to the things we’ve done well,” Ben Vronko says, “and we’ve made sure we’re consistently stocking needed parts

“You can call us the NAPA of iOS device parts.”

— Ben Levy, co-owner, Rapid Repair and supplies, and we stand up to all of our repairs. We’ve built a reputation around town and on the Internet, so people trust us.”

Customer service is stitched into Rapid Repair, says Vronko, because the staff of eight full-time and two part-time employees operate in a “family and friend atmosphere” of people who share a common passion for seeing how gadgets work and then figuring out how to fix them when they don’t. It’s why Vronko works at Rapid Repair in the first place.

“I like working here because of the fact that we’re able to help customers out with cost-efficient repairs,” he says. “I love working with customers and helping them figure out how to fix their devices.”

As Rapid Repair continues to grow and Levy looks to the future, he anticipates a changing market and is already beginning to shift his business strategy to accommodate it. Rapid Repair has started to sell wholesale parts to other small repair businesses around the country, and the business recently partnered with a company fixing broken iPads used in classrooms.

Levy wants to continue to be a part of the Kalamazoo and Portage community as well. As a Kalamazoo native, he feels a strong connection to the area.

“I like the fact that I’m the owner and operator of a business here, and I like to be a part of the community, whether it’s sponsoring Little League teams or funding other events or programs for high schools,” he says. “It makes me feel good to be a part of the community out here, and I’m trying to better the area.”

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w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 19

Getting Fresh Texas Township Farmers’ Market reaps rewards for community by

Olga Bonfiglio

photography by

20 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2014

ERIK HOLLADAY

G

ood planning, good timing and a little serendipity go a long way toward promoting a community’s economic development, and the Fresh on Q Farmers’ Market, in Texas Township, has shown just how such development can happen.

Planning for the highly successful market goes back to 2007, when then-Supervisor Ron Commissaris, Clerk Linda Kerr and Planning Commissioner Larry Loeks attended a Citizen Planner course offered by Michigan State University. They wanted to develop a sense of community in the residential/agricultural township, which had grown to 15,000 people — a 20 percent increase over the previous 10 years.

Residents liked the rural character of the township’s lakes, vineyards and farms, but there was no place where people could gather as a community. Schools typically perform this function, but the township doesn’t have just one school district; it is part of four.

Meanwhile, then-township resident and local food advocate Donna McClurkan approached township officials about the potential for a farmers’ market in the township. Although the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market, located on Bank Street near downtown Kalamazoo, had been around for more than 60 years and was well established, it was a bit of a drive for Texas Township residents.

“There was a gaping hole in meeting what seemed to be an untapped need from a geographical standpoint,” McClurkan says.

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She was asked to lead a team of volunteers to plan a one-day trial run to determine the community’s interest in and the feasibility of a market.

The trial run was Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. With only six weeks to prepare, McClurkan gathered 16 vendors to sell their products for an anticipated 200 to 300 people. More than 1,200 people showed up, and vendors sold out of goods in three hours. Township officials needed no further “proof of concept.” On May 22, 2010, the new Fresh on Q Farmers’ Market opened at its current location — vacant land next to the township’s offices.

The market has offered a twofold benefit for local residents. It provides a desired source of fresh produce and goods, and, because it’s situated at Texas Corners (the intersection of Eighth Street and Q Avenue), it serves as a “town square.”

“The Texas Township farmers’ market drew people together for one common activity that they love,” says Township Clerk Kerr. “They see their neighbors, have breakfast and shop at local vendors’ stalls.”

Economic boost In 2013, nearly 3,000 shoppers came to the market each week to buy from 60 vendors, with 20 more vendors on a waiting list. In addition to benefiting shoppers, the market has made a difference in the township’s economy, especially for local farmers like Bill Schultz, 32, of Schultz Fruitridge Farms in Mattawan. “Farming is what we do,” Schultz says. “It’s our source of income.” Today, the 250-acre Schultz farm grows apples, cherries, peaches, grapes, plums, sweet corn, squash and asparagus and raises bison.

The farmers’ market provides farmers with a venue other than a storefront to sell their products. It has given farmers good public relations, greater relationships with customers and some increases in overall sales.

Local farmers have further benefited from the market by forming partnerships with local restaurants and grocery stores. For example, Food Dance restaurant buys produce from Blue Dog Greens and Eaters Guild of Bangor, Scobeys Farm of Wayland, and Young Earth Farm of Decatur; Zazios buys meat from Buckham Farms of Schoolcraft and Young Earth Farm; and Full City Cafe buys vegetables from Wiley Farms of Schoolcraft.

Business offshoots from the market, like The Cheese Lady, also have developed.

Natalie Fuller, 32, owner of the Cheese Lady franchise in Texas Corners, knew she wanted to own a small business, but after graduating from WMU in 2003 she didn’t know what type of business that might be. Her first job, at the Kellogg Co., was in food-service sales in Detroit, where she called on hospitals, hotels and universities.

As she interacted with the chefs at these institutions, she saw “niche food” as a business opportunity.

Her father, Terry St. Louis, an insurance agent at the time, had started an online dining guide for southwestern Michigan as a hobby and discovered Kathleen Fagan Riegler, who owned The Cheese Lady in Muskegon. He suggested that Fuller check her out, which she did.

“I immediately fell in love with her concept,” Fuller says, “and asked her to be my mentor for a similar shop in Texas Township.”

The local Cheese Lady is a franchise of the Muskegon shop. Fuller learned how to acquire and package imported and domestic cheeses and then experimented with these processes through the Can-Do 22 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

Kitchen at the People’s Food Co-Op in Kalamazoo. (State law requires that any cutting, wrapping, labeling and packing of food products take place in a licensed facility.)

Fuller also piloted her products at various area farmers’ markets, with the most interest coming from Texas Township. When space for a storefront became available across the street from the market, Fuller’s customers encouraged her to sell her cheeses there throughout the year.

Fuller opened The Cheese Lady at 7035 West Q Ave. on March 17, 2011, and it has been going strong ever since. Her father quit his insurance job and now works full time at the store with his other daughter, Kelly St. Louis, and on market days with his wife, Virginia Taylor.

“I’m very, very happy to be here in this community,” Fuller says. “It is an extremely supportive community, and people have embraced us as their store. They even bring their out-of-town family and friends here to show us off.”

Already-established businesses in the township also have benefited from the farmers’ market, through greater visibility. Chris Khoury, owner of Asiago’s Bakery and Deli, at 6997 West Q Ave., says that his business overall has doubled since the market’s opening and that business during the summer has increased by 33 percent.

Every Saturday, Khoury operates an “omelet cooking station” at the market, offering omelets, waffles and pastries. His catering business had used the station before and booked two or three events a year.

Now he is booking six to eight events a year, and he expects to book more.

“Economic development occurs when a local area has a vision that is promoted by one or several individuals,” Khoury says. “People come together in a synergy. It takes some bright minds and the ability to market properly. Texas Township has done a good job with that.”

New pavilion It took only a year for township officials to see these upside effects of the market, spurring them to build a $210,000 permanent structure to house the market. Weather made it difficult to use the festive white tents that originally covered the vendors’ stalls. Wind blew down the tents, and rain made the parking lot and tented areas a muddy mess. Bids were solicited for design and construction of an open-air pavilion, and Steve Bosch, a local designer from Bosch Architects, and DeLoof Construction, a local builder, won the contract.

The market’s new pavilion has won several awards, including the National Frame Building Association’s Building of the Year Award in the Judges Award/Commercial Unique Award category.

The pavilion has a life beyond the market as well. It has been used for other events like graduation parties, craft shows, Christmas tree sales and holiday celebrations.

In addition to Saturdays, the market is open on Tuesday evenings, but it is a more subdued environment than the crowded hustle and bustle of Market Saturdays, when there are more stalls with prepared (continued on page 43) Scenes from the Texas Township Farmers’ Market, clockwise from top: Bill Schultz of Schultz Fruitridge Farms helps customer Joyce Burkett; Asiago Bakery employee Jessica Potter makes an omelet while co-worker Stephen Everett looks on; vendor Beth Wagaman creates a floral arrangement; and Natalie Fuller of The Cheese Lady in front of her booth.

24 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

From Magic to Heroes of Newerth, fantasy gaming is capturing people’s imaginations by

Andrew Domino

photography by

ERIK HOLLADAY

Y

ou don’t have to leave Kalamazoo to visit the world of The Lord of the Rings or fly the starship Enterprise with the Star Trek crew. All you need to do is roll a die.

Welcome to fantasy gaming — where players assume the roles of characters and act out fantastical adventures. These video and board-based games tap players’ creativity and love of fictional worlds to develop their own adventures. Best of all, local game players say, all it takes to become a fantasy gamer is a computer or a handful of dice and cards – and a little imagination.

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Tim Earl, above, founded the Kalamazoo Area Board Games group in 2006 and owns more than 100 board games. Paul Dziadzio, right, a programmer at S2 Games, says fantasy gaming lets people learn more about themselves.

Many people’s first introduction to fantasy games was Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974.

D&D (as it is commonly referred to now) and the fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering (usually just called Magic), introduced in 1993, are arguably the most popular fantasy games, still going strong decades after their introductions. Both take place in fantasy worlds of wizards, knights and dragons and are produced by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of toy manufacturer Hasbro Inc. Just how popular are fantasy games? Well, D&D and Magic alone generated sales of more than $220 million for Hasbro in the first quarter of 2014. A version of Dungeons & Dragons called Pathfinder is No. 1 in U.S. sales of fantasy games, according to Internal Correspondence Hobby Games magazine, although exact figures have not been released by the game’s publisher. Magic’s revenue has grown at least 25 percent each year from 2008 to 2012.

D&D, Magic and Pathfinder are usually played on a tabletop, often with cards and dice, just like the more familiar games of Monopoly or Clue. Other fantasy games are played online, like World of Warcraft, which reported 100 million players in December 2013, and League of Legends, with 67 million players participating each month, according to its creator, Riot Games. Whether playing on a tabletop or computer screen, fantasy gamers take on the role of an imaginary adventurer, like a sorcerer or elf (or an elf sorcerer) and create a story with the other players.

“It’s kind of like being in a movie, but you get to pick which hero you want to be,” says Ryan McDaniel, director of content for S2 Games, a Kalamazoo-based computer-game company. S2’s Heroes of Newerth

26 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

has more than 60 million players worldwide, and McDaniel is on the team that creates the game’s storyline and character information.

PLAYING A ROLE To understand how fantasy games operate, take a look at the first one, Dungeons & Dragons, now 40 years old (its latest version, the fifth edition, was published in August). Players have their own set of dice and a character sheet describing their characters’ skills and talents. Players decide everything about their fantasy heroes, from names to favorite magic spells. Hundreds of books, magazines and websites offer character options, listing abilities, weapons and other items that players can use, and describing how those choices affect the story.

One player won’t have a character, however; he or she is the Dungeon Master, who narrates the game and takes on the role of monsters the other players face. Players describe how their characters react to the Dungeon Master’s story and roll dice to see if they successfully hide from an enemy or fight.

It’s all done through conversation, often between bites of pizza.

No one has to dress up in a strange costume or litter their speech with “thee” and “thou” unless they want to (in that case there are live action role play — LARP — versions of the games in which players wear armor and bop each other with foam swords.)

While D&D is about creating an original fantasy world, other RPG games allow players to take on more defined, familiar roles such as comic-book superheroes or police detectives or fly a spaceship alongside Luke Skywalker and the heroes of Star Wars.

“Ninety percent of it is getting together with friends and seeing what happens,” says player Mike Berkey, 39, of Kalamazoo, who plays in two RPGs weekly, one set in the universe of Spider-Man and Iron Man, the other in the Dresden Files fantasy novels. “If you’re watching a movie, you’re not creating

prefers to sit down face-to-face with another player.

“It’s more satisfying to see your opponent in person and get that interaction,” Earl says.

It’s no less of a social event for those playing fantasy video games. While a video gamer may be alone in a room when playing, he or she is far from alone in the fantasy world. Online games, like Heroes of Newerth, allow players to form groups of heroes, traveling together and battling monsters online. Players may team up with friends or play with people they’ve never met in the real world.

Fantasy games teach you a little bit more about yourself, says Paul Dziadzio, 26, of Kalamazoo. A programmer at S2 Games, Dziadzio says one appeal of playing fantasy games is the immersion in a different world where a player may discover how he would react if faced with the same situation as his character.

“What is the coolest character you can think of?”

Dziadzio asks. “You can be that.”

Gamer Aaron Smith, 43, of Kalamazoo, says his favorite type of game is the co-op game, where players form a team to accomplish a goal.

In the science-fiction board game Battlestar Galactica, for example, players are a spaceship crew trying to reach Earth, but one or more players

may be a villainous Cylon robot trying to destroy them.

“The social interactions of such games can be an absolute riot, as everyone accuses everyone else of being the traitor,” Smith says.

GETTING OVER ‘GEEK’ In D&D’s early days, the game was favored by teenagers and caused a lot of consternation among parents and adults.

There were accusations that the game was tied to Satanism and generally bad for teens, as highlighted in the made-for-TV movie Mazes and Monsters, where a young Tom Hanks plays the role of Robbie, a D&D player who has a psychotic break from reality because of the game. These fears have dissipated — perhaps because the first generation of D&D players are now parents themselves — and the game is seen as less fearsome and countercultural.

Josh Hall, games manager at Fanfare Sports & Entertainment, 4415 S. Westnedge Ave., which sells sci-fi and fantasy games, says in 23 years he’s only had one parent ask about the rumors of dangerous activity related to gaming.

“She said, ‘What do I need to do?’” Hall recalls. “I said, ‘You asking is what you need to do — being aware of what your child is doing.’”

A bigger hurdle for fantasy gaming has been its “geeky” reputation — that popularly held perception that fantasy gamers are teenage males who never have dates or passing grades in gym class. That attitude is a thing of the past too, Hall says. Fantasy (continued on page 43)

GETTING STARTED anything. When you’re playing an RPG, you’re telling a story. It’s an activity that’s more social.”

Tim Earl, 40, of Portage, founded the Kalamazoo Area Board Gamers group in 2006 and still plays weekly. He uses online tools like game-review websites and YouTube “playthroughs” to get a feel for a new game. When it’s time to check out the game for himself, he

Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering both have versions designed to introduce new players to the game, but they’re not the only game options. Fanfare’s Josh Hall recommends five popular games for soon-to-be serious gamers.

• Settlers of Catan: Players trade goods like wood and iron ore to build roads and cities, competing for space on the board. (3 to 4 players; suggested age, 10 and up) • Carcassonne: Players work together — and against one another — to create a country of roads and fields to collect points. (2 to 5 players; suggested age, 8 and up)

• Small World: This game charts the rise and fall of fantasy civilizations like swamp dwarves and flying trolls. (2 to 5 players; suggested age, 8 and up) • Ticket To Ride: Players use train cars to declare control of cross-country railroad routes. (2 to 5 players; suggested age 8, and up) • Munchkin: This card game parodies D&D, giving players the chance to battle horrible beasts like harpies and insurance salesmen.

(3 to 6 players; suggested age, and42) up) (continued on10 page

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 27

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FRIDAY NIGHT HIGHLIGHTS OCTOBER 3 ART HOP Dragon Wagon OCTOBER 10 Crawlspace Eviction OCTOBER 17 MI Hiryu Daiko OCTOBER 24 Let’s Talk about Zombies OCTOBER 31 The Great Boodini NOVEMBER 7 ART HOP Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys NOVEMBER 14 33rd Street Band

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Dementia Services Group Vice President Beth Schoenfeld, left, and President Jamie Wilson Headley, right, manage operations in Indiana and Michigan .

30 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

‘A Powerful Thing’ Business helps families manage the care of loved ones with dementia

by

TIFFANY FITZGERALD

T

Erik Holladay

aking care of a loved one with dementia can be an all-consuming trial by fire.

Jamie Wilson Headley, president and CEO of Dementia Services Group, knows — she went through her own struggles during her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Here was my mother, this really accomplished woman — two master’s degrees, world-traveled, raised three kids on her own, beat alcoholism — just this really amazing, strong woman who I had never seen shed a tear, and she was struggling with everything,” Headley says. “I felt like I had to do something, but I didn’t know how to help.”

Headley began researching everything she could about Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, the brain and geriatric neurology and signed up for a nine-month Alzheimer’s Association course.

“I got the reaction, ‘Well, you’re not a professional caregiver,’” she says.

“I answered, ‘Yeah, I know, but I want all the professional stuff.’”

Her mother repeated the same things over and over, sometimes “acted petulantly, like a teenager,” and called Headley several times a day.

Headley knew her mother wasn’t acting like herself, but it wasn’t until she took the course that she learned why — her mother’s brain was damaged.

“No one wants to think a loved one has a brain disorder or Alzheimer’s,” she says. “You keep thinking it’s going to be something else and somehow this is going to get better, somehow you’re going to fix this. Once I realized that it was brain damage, it was like a light switch for me. I became infinitely patient. It was out of her control, and I had to step up, in a compassionate and empathetic way, to take care of her.”

Through the duration of her mother’s illness, Headley read and watched everything she could find about Alzheimer’s and pursued any certification offered. She found that there weren’t many resources, and she was often on her own in figuring out how to help her mother.

“Sure, the neurologist knew everything there was to know about the brain, but the reality was there was nothing he could do for us,” she says.

“There’s no treatment, no cure, no surgery, and it’s not a doctor’s job to say, ‘Hey, this is how you handle this for the next five years.’”

At the time, Headley was working as an operations executive for a large company. It wasn’t until her mother fell, resulting in two broken wrists, a sprained ankle and a four-day hospital stay, that Headley reached a turning point.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 31

“During the four days, I couldn’t leave her side because the hospital staff could not manage her,” she says. “She’s 5-foot-2. She’s got two arms in a cast, a wrapped-up leg, on drugs, and she was not combative. It wasn’t like she was mean or aggressive. She was just confused.”

After four days with little sleep, Headley was exhausted and frustrated, but she had an idea. “I went home from the hospital and told my husband, ‘I think I need to help people.’ I thought he was going to give me a glass of wine, pat me on the head and say, ‘Let’s talk in the morning,’ but instead he said, ‘Why don’t you outline a business plan?’ When I did, he said, ‘It’s awesome. Quit your job and go do it.’”

‘I wish I had a do-over’ Headley came up with a plan for a business dedicated to improving the lives of people living with dementia and those who take care of them. She started that business, Dementia Services Group, in 2009, and it now has five employees and locations in Kalamazoo and Indianapolis, where Headley started it.

She moved to Kalamazoo almost two years ago when her husband accepted a new position and heads the company’s operations here with registered nurse Susan Lytwyn, business consultant George Wilson (her brother) and registered nurse and consultant Stefanie Ryan.

Registered nurse, vice president and partner Beth Schoenfeld and consultant Tiffany Bosket oversee the Indiana location.

The group is small but boasts years of combined experience and a deep pool of knowledge. Schoenfeld, who has a master’s degree with a clinical focus on gerontology, is the program coordinator for the Indiana Home and Hospice Care Foundation and has co-authored curricula used in dementia training and certification in medical and professional settings.

Schoenfeld began her journey as a dementia-care provider when she became the primary caretaker for her grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s. The more Schoenfeld learned about the illness, the more she realized she hadn’t done everything right in caring for her grandmother.

“This was back in the late ’80s, and we didn’t know what you should and should not do,” she says. “My grandmother was having delusions that her sister was coming to visit, and we didn’t know back then not to say, ‘No, grandma. She’s not coming. Your sister died.’

Because that’s the way we were taught in nursing school back then.

I wish I had a do-over.”

Three years ago she was given that do-over when her father-inlaw was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She’s been one of the biggest sources of support for him and helped design activity plans to 32 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

engage parts of his brain that are still functioning.

“When a lot of health care providers test the brain, they’re looking for what doesn’t work,” she says. “But we don’t really care about what doesn’t work. We want to focus on what does work. We want people with dementia to be successful and empowered.”

What works with a person with dementia depends on the person, the severity of the disease and the person’s environment, Headley and Schoenfeld say. By focusing on their four pillars of care — safety, dignity, quality of life and perception of independence — Dementia Services makes it possible to take a seemingly hopeless diagnosis and inject a sense of progress.

“As a health care professional, I always want to fix things,” Schoenfeld says, “but you have to realize that while you can’t fix dementia, you can make things so people with dementia have the best moments in their life, a moment at a time.”

With her father-in-law, Schoenfeld fought the apathy he was experiencing — a common symptom — by figuring out that his spatial skills were still very strong and engaging that strength.

Seek-and-find pictures and the construction toy Qubits are two tools the family uses to help inspire his confidence and build his skills. He also can

Dementia Services Group helps caregivers manage medications, environment, sleep and nutrition for their loved ones, and that help, Schoenfeld says, can make the difference between caregivers feeling stable or overwhelmed.

Both Schoenfeld and Headley emphasize that results like those for Schoenfeld’s fatherin-law aren’t typical, but, with direction, any caregiver can benefit from support, whether in trying to talk to a loved one about moving into assisted living, convincing the person to stop driving or just learning how to get the most out of a doctor’s appointment.

“You can’t put a price on that,” Schoenfeld says. “When you can really help somebody in a very meaningful way, that’s a powerful thing.”

Clockwise, from far left, Jamie Wilson Headley being read to by her mother, Charlotte Wilson, in 1968; Charlotte Wilson in her late teens, smiling on a stoop; Charlotte Wilson in the late ‘50s; Jamie Wilson Headley, Charlotte Wilson and George Wilson,from left; Jamie Wilson Headley and Charlotte Wilson in 2010, after Charlotte’s diagnosis.

Getting families on same page

play group games like Categories or Family Feud, allowing his family to engage with him.

“He’s now golfing and doing things that he couldn’t have done a couple of years ago, but it’s not just that,” Schoenfeld says. “It’s the whole plan. Making sure he gets adequate nutrition, for example. So often people with dementia don’t get good food, they don’t sleep well, they don’t drink enough water, and all of that together is just bad for your brain.”

Becky, a Kalamazoo personnel consultant (who asked that her last name not be used), can attest to the powerful impact Dementia Services Group can have. Her mother battles dementia, and without the company’s services Becky’s family might not have been able to keep her mother safe.

The staff has helped Becky learn diversion techniques to help her mother stop fixating on and looping through the same information. They also have helped Becky recognize that trying to correct her mother doesn’t work.

One of nine children, Becky says getting the whole family on the same page has been

one of the most difficult tasks throughout her mother’s illness.

“It’s like a scientific experiment with my family, because there are so many people,” she says. “You clearly see that when you’re facing an illness like this, everybody is at a different acceptance level. Sometimes people just want to be mad. And Jamie (Headley) takes on the role of moderator and communicator. She was very professional, very direct, considerate and sensitive, but she was also straightforward and firm about the information that we needed to know.”

One obstacle Becky’s family faced was getting her mother to stop driving.

“One day my mom came home and told one of my sisters that something was wrong with her car because it was going 55 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone,” she says. “There was nothing wrong with her car. We got in and tested it. It was just little comments like this that scared us. She never made any mistakes in driving, but we were very fearful that it might be just around the corner.”

First, Headley helped the family disable her mom’s car so she couldn’t drive it, and then she walked the family through every step of the process to find the perfect assisted-living facility for her mother.

“Jamie helped us grasp that mom had to go to assisted living,” Becky says. “We also learned what to look for when selecting the perfect place. Sometimes it’s not about the appearance of the facility. It has everything to do with the caretakers and their depth of understanding of the illness and how people with dementia communicate.”

Becky and her siblings were all there the day they moved their mother into assisted living, but the only person who could get their mom to walk through the door willingly was Headley.

“You feel terrible as a child trying to get your parents to go live someplace other than the home they’ve lived in for the last 35 years,” Becky says. “It was a terrible, terrible experience. And I don’t know how we would have gotten through it without Jamie.”

Headley enjoys being able to help people like Becky get through the emotional trials of caring for a loved one with dementia.

“It feels like a calling or a destiny,” she says.

“This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 33

ADVERTISEMENT

Kicking Off Another Stellar Season!

MILLER AUDITORIUM

Sister Act, Saturday, Nov. 1 @ 3 & 8 p.m.

Photo by © Roy Beusker

Miller Auditorium, the premier performing arts center in Kalamazoo, kicks off another stellar season of Broadway, family shows, dance and more! The 2014-15 Season brings a mix of brand new shows and returns of favorites.

The PNC Broadway in West Michigan Season features two new shows making their debut, Sister Act and ELF The Musical. Both musical comedies are new to Miller’s stage and based on the popular film titles you love to watch over and over again.

Sister Act is Broadway’s feel-amazing musical comedy smash! The New York Post calls it “RIDICULOUSLY FUN,” and audiences are jumping to their feet in total agreement! Featuring original music by eight-time Oscar® winner ALAN MENKEN (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors), Sister Act tells the story of Deloris Van Cartier, a wannabe diva whose life takes a surprising turn when she witnesses a crime

34 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

Elf The Musical, Tuesday & Wednesday, Nov. 25 & 26 @ 7:30 p.m.

Photo by Joan Marcus

and the cops hide her in the last place anyone would think to look—a convent! Under the suspicious watch of Mother Superior, Deloris helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own. A sparkling tribute to the universal power of friendship, Sister Act is reason to REJOICE! One of the most beloved Hollywood holiday hits of the past decade is born again—live on stage! ELF is the hilarious tale of Buddy, a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts and is transported back to the North Pole. Unaware that he is actually human, Buddy’s enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth. With Santa’s permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father, discover his true identity, and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. This modern day Christmas classic is sure to make everyone embrace their inner

ELF. The New York Times says that ELF is “SPLASHY, PEPPY, SUGAR-SPRINKLED HOLIDAY ENTERTAINMENT!” USA Today calls ELF, “ENDEARINGLY GOOFY!” Variety proclaims, “ELF is happy enough for families, savvy enough for city kids and plenty smart for adults!” Based on the beloved 2003 New Line Cinema hit, ELF features songs by Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan (Annie, The Producers, Hairspray) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone).

Other highlights from the 2014-15 Season include family shows Pinkalicious and STOMP, comedy with David Sedaris and Last Comic Standing Live, live music including The Lettermen, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, Magic of Motown, Air Supply, plus so much more!

A full listing of shows coming to Miller Auditorium can be found online at millerauditorium.com.

encore ARTS

Part of the Act

Murder by Design draws dinner guests into its shows by

Kit almy

T

he last time Nate Oddy’s mother had him killed he learned an important lesson.

“That’s when we found out not to use fake blood capsules in our mouths,” says Oddy, an actor in the Murder by Design interactive theater troupe.

“Oh, yeah,” agrees Lisa Grace, Oddy’s mom and casting director for Murder by Design.

Grace and Murder by Design founder Ken Davis write the troupe’s murder mysteries and decide who will die during their events.

She’s killed off her own son three times. The last time, which involved a stabbing, required

Oddy to chomp down on a fake blood capsule right as the knife made contact. “They taste awful,” Grace says. “It looks good, though.”

“You’re using the wrong stuff if it tastes bad,” argues actor and fellow troupe member Paul Kriner. “You have to make your own with corn syrup and red food coloring.”

“No, that won’t work,” replies Grace. “It’s the red dye that gets you.”

At this point, a full-table discussion bursts out among seven members of the Murder by Design improvisational acting troupe, which offers monthly murder-mystery dinners at

The Murder by Design troupe, clockwise from lower left: Fred Western, Ken Davies, Lisa Grace, Chris Karpinski, Kelsey Shaw-Oddy, Sharon Anderson-Western, Paul Kriner and Nate Oddy.

Henderson Castle, in Kalamazoo, and special events throughout Southwest Michigan for private parties and companies.

Grace turns to a visitor as the red-dye debate continues. “You’re sitting in a room full of theater geeks,” she says.

She’s right. Over the course of the interview, the actors demonstrate how to make a stabbing look real, how to die on command w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 35

and other tricks of the trade. Experience with such theater techniques is helpful for troupe members, but strong improvisational skills are a must, says Davis, who founded the group five years ago. He looks for actors who can settle into murder dinner theater and adapt to changes in the “script.”

“This type of acting is easier for me than real theater,” Grace says. “You don’t have to memorize lines, and there’s not a lot of rehearsing.”

The events are mapped out to a degree.

Each person attending the dinner — whether actor or guest — receives character and background information and clues they need to share with the others. The guests, who act out their own characters while trying to solve the murder, aren’t allowed to make up new facts, but no one is scripted. And each person, actor or not, is an intricate and improvisational part of the whodunit.

That’s the beauty of the dinners, Davis says, and why the Murder by Design troupe prefers to involve guests in the drama rather than act out the drama by themselves — a quality that sets Murder by Design apart from other troupes.

Many of the actors met through the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre. Kriner, for instance, plays Alfie Doolittle in the theater’s current production of My Fair Lady, and Kriner and Grace starred in Imaginary Invalid. Grace

36 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

also teaches classes in improvisation. The troupe is made up of serious actors, and it’s clear that they all are invested in the murdermystery shows. But, the troupe says, so are the guests.

Murder-Mystery Dinner What: Houdini’s Great Escape — Solve the mysterious death of illusionist and escape artist Henry Houdini.

When: Oct. 25.

Where: Henderson Castle, 100 Monroe St. How to register: Call (269) 344-1827

by Oct. 21.

“We have about 18 stories, and we do the same stories over and over, but it’s never the same show. We always have different guests, but we don’t always have the same actors,” Grace says. “Each person’s take on a character is different, and you pick up on the guests and go from there.”

As she explains the different takes on one character she often plays — Betty Bendova, a madame — Grace shifts her accent from a Southern belle to a New Jersey self-made woman. Her stance and gestures change as she explains the differences in character. The martini she’s been drinking is actually water, but to illustrate what an effective lush she can play, Grace drops right into character,

bumping a chair and slurring her words. It doesn’t take long to feel as if an alternate reality has set in.

“Some of the guests just go hog wild,” Kriner says. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Guests are invited to dress in period clothing and many of them do — in fact, The Timid Rabbit costume shop offers a discount for rentals used at Murder by Design events.

Some guests bring their own fake weapons and props.

“Bawdy, but not raunchy” is how Grace describes the humor, storylines and characters. The troupe adjusts the bawdiness level based on the age of the attendees.

Henderson Castle, on West Main Hill, was the first place Davis put on a Murder by Design event. The decor of the Queen Annestyle home, which was completed in 1895, lends itself to the monthly events, Grace says.

And the staff at Henderson Castle has gotten used to the melee sometimes produced — the maître d’ even knows to check who’s collapsed before calling 911.

“Once a guest saw me drop dead and told him (the maître d’) to call the ambulance,” Grace says. “He came in, saw me dead on the floor and told the guest, ‘Oh, it’s just Lisa — she’s fine.’”

View or register for Murder by Design events (or book your own) at MurderbyDesign.com.

encore ARTS

Tony Gianunzio

92-year-old author proud to be a Romantic by

Theresa Coty O’Neil

T

ony Gianunzio had a sense that he was different. As the seventh son of 11 children, Gianunzio grew up in the Upper Peninsula in a bustling Italian immigrant family where individuality was encouraged.

A keen observer, he soaked up everything he saw and still wanted more.

“I had a crazy notion in my young life that I wanted to know everything and everybody. I even had a short period of a few weeks when I was sad I couldn’t know everybody in the world,” says Gianunzio, 91, a retired Portage English teacher, former newspaper writer and now book author, whose first book, The Last Romantic War: A Blind Date with History, was self-published last year through the services of Black Lake Studio & Press, in Holland, Mich.

“I always had a love for finding out how something works. I liked to get down to the essence of a thing,” he says.

It wasn’t until he was 47 and enrolled in a graduate literature course at Western Michigan University in 1969 that Gianunzio realized there was a name for what he was: a Romantic. “I wish I had known earlier because I spent a lot of time thinking about how I got this way,” he says. “I knew it wasn’t typical.”

Romanticism, an intellectual movement that began in the late 18th century, “emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, Tony Gianunzio wrote The Last Romantic War: A Blind Date With History about his time in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 37

the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Not only did Gianunzio identify his own worldview through that term, but he learned that Romanticism generated historic and cultural changes and formed the very foundation of America. His proclivity toward understanding Romanticism, in the world and in himself, has been growing since he took that course at WMU, informing his teaching, his relationships and his writing.

As a young Romantic, Gianunzio was fortunate to grow up in Iron Mountain, Mich., in love with a Romantic sport — baseball — and in a very Romantic period for the United States, just before World War II began. In fact, as a talented young pitcher, 19-year-old Gianunzio was drafted for a Chicago Cubs tryout. He unfortunately didn’t go because another important letter arrived in his mailbox: this one from Uncle Sam. “Roosevelt lowered the draft age to 19,” he recalls.

“Armed with a cloth-covered prayer, a romantic heart, and a philospher’s soul, I left youth and home behind to go to war,” writes Gianunzio in The Last Romantic War. Gianunzio’s book chronicles his three-plus years in the U.S. Coast Guard, 14 months of which were spent in the Pacific theater. It was a period in America’s history when its self-image was strong. “World War II was a righteous war,” writes Gianunzio, “but to me, even more than this, its shadowy charm lingered, unforgettably, setting the stage for surprising appearances.”

After boot camp, an opportunity created by a superior’s oversight allowed Gianunzio to become a gunner’s mate on the frigate U.S.S.

Machias, on duty in the Pacific. There he set aside his birth name, Idolo, and became Buzz, a fun-loving, friendly and adventurous member of the Coast Guard.

“I had no business being a gunner’s mate because I didn’t like grease, crescent wrenches or screwdrivers, but I thought if I was going to be on the ship, I wanted to be where the action was,” he says. “That’s one of my faults.” Gianunzio even fit in a few moments for baseball, which included one opportunity to unknowingly pitch against Major Leaguer Glenn McQuillen of the Saint Louis Browns.

Now Gianunzio, who is still spry and has sparkling eyes and ample hair, can be found most Saturday mornings at Water Street Coffee Joint on Oakland Drive with his cohorts, a small group of his former crossword puzzle gang, including his wife, Carolyn, that has been gathering for 13 years to share coffee and conversation. He has a flair for stories, relishing the details. “I never write an empty sentence,” he says. He never speaks one either.

And he’s seldom idle and never bored. These days he’s at work on a new book, a little more theoretical than his first and based on an examination of various worldviews. “My first book is a blind date with history,” Gianunzio says. “This next one is more like an odyssey. The American Dream is about the opportunity to achieve one’s destiny: to grow up, to find out what life is about, to become. I really feel I’ve done that. I’m still becoming. I’ll stop when I die, probably.”

The Last Romantic War: A Blind Date with History is available at Michigan News Agency, 308 W Michigan Ave., and online through Amazon and Kindle.

Legal Experience In Your Corner.

®

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Contact John Allen at jwallen@varnumlaw.com

38 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

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Kalamazoo

30 years litigation experience Business and personal legal services

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Lansing

Hippoween – Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Andy Frasco & The U.N. and The Crane Wives, 8 p.m.

Oct. 31, State Theatre. 345-6500.

Dance PERFORMING ARTS Plays Check Your Privilege – Original piece of documentary theater from the eyes and experiences of WMU students, faculty and staff, 7:30 Oct. 2, 10, 11; 2 p.m. Oct. 5, 12; York Arena, WMU. 387-5801.

Saving Grace – A zany tale of a warmhearted girl who mistakes a telephone repairman for a burglar, 8 p.m. Oct. 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31; New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St. 532-4770.

1984 – A new stage adaption of the literary classic, Oct. 10-25, What a Do Theatre, 4071 W. Dickman Road. Call 269-282-1953 for show times.

One Man, Two Guvnors – Richard Bean’s award-winning play, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10, 16; 2 p.m. Oct. 19, Shaw Theatre, WMU. 387-5801.

Cymbeline – Shakespeare’s tale of a wicked queen and thwarted love, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24, 30, 30; 2 p.m. Oct 26; Williams Theatre, WMU. 387-5801.

Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and State Fair, 8 p.m. Oct. 25, Chenery Auditorium. 337-0440.

Parsons Dance – An internationally renowned contemporary dance company from New York, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14, Miller Auditorium. 387-2300.

Chamber, Jazz & Concert

Comedy

Triumphant Quartet – The reigning Southern Gospel Music Association’s “Favorite Traditional Quartet,” 7 p.m. Oct. 3, Chenery Auditorium.

337-0440.

Battle of the Sexes Comedy Smash – Detroit and Chicago’s finest jokers, 9 p.m. Oct. 18, State Theatre. 345-6500.

Stulberg International String Competition Silver Medalist Performs with WMU Symphony Orchestra – Emma Carina Meinrenken, age 14, performs, 3-5 p.m. Oct. 5, Miller Auditorium.

343-2776.

Gilmore Rising Stars: Louis Schwizgebel – Swiss-Chinese pianist performs, 4-5:45 p.m.

Oct 12, Wellspring Theatre, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 342-1166.

University Concert Band – 3 p.m. Oct. 21, Miller Auditorium. 387-2300.

Musicals

Pacifica Quartet with Anthony McGill – A collaboration including the quintets of Brahms and Mozart, 8 p.m. Oct. 24, Dalton Center Recital Hall. 382-7774.

My Fair Lady – Lerner and Loewe’s classic about a cockney flower girl turned into a lady, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2-4, 10, 11; 2 p.m. Oct. 5, 12; Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Western Winds, University Symphony Orchestra and Grand Chorus – Featuring the music of Richard Danielpour, 8 p.m., Oct. 25, Miller Auditorium. 387-2300.

The Secret Garden – Musical adaptation of the beloved book, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2, 9; 8 p.m. Oct. 3, 4, 10, 11; Farmer’s Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley. 343-2727.

Western Winds – Music of Piazzolla, Turnage, Mozart and Ewazen, conducted by Scott Boerma, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, Dalton Center Recital Hall. 382-7774.

Jekyll and Hyde – All-new production of the hit musical, 8 p.m. Oct. 3; 2 p.m. Oct. 4; Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Anton Baranov – Guitar recital, 8 p.m. Oct. 30, Stetson Chapel, Kalamazoo College. 337-7070.

Symphony The World of Vaughn Williams – KSO concert featuring Australian violinist and new KSO concertmaster Susie Park, 3 p.m. Oct. 4, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 382-7774.

University Symphonic Band – A concert celebrating WMU School of Music’s 100th anniversary, 3 p.m. Oct. 13, Miller Auditorium.

387-5801.

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet – The KSO is joined by this award-winning ensemble, 8 p.m. Oct. 18, Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 337-0440.

Rodgers and Hammerstein at the Movies – Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra pops concert that includes music and video from

Bands & Solo Artists Dragon Wagon – Michigan roots music, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 3, Kalamazoo Valley Museum, 230 N. Rose St. 373-7990.

Huey Lewis and The News – 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12, State Theatre, 404 S. Burdick St. 345-6500.

Ani DiFranco – Folk, funk, jazz, electronic music and spoken word, 8 p.m. Oct. 14, State Theatre.

345-6500.

Shelagh Brown Band – Kalamazoo singersongwriter, 9 p.m. Oct.18, Union Cabaret & Grille, 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 375-1193.

The Polish Ambassador featuring Liminus – Audio/visual synergy in electronic music, 9 p.m.

Oct. 25, State Theatre. 345-6500.

David Sedaris – One of America’s preeminent humor writers, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27, Miller Auditorium. 387-2300.

Miscellaneous Theresa Caputo Live! The Experience – Psychic medium and star of the hit TLC show Long Island Medium, 7: 30 p.m. Oct. 27, Wings Stadium, 3600 Vanrick Drive. 345-1125.

VISUAL ARTS Richmond Center for Visual Arts, WMU Kate Teale: The Housed – An exhibition exploring the lighting and shape in household silhouettes, through Oct. 10, Monroe-Brown Gallery. 387-2436.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts The Arts of Japan and China: Selections from the Collection – Historical and contemporary works from Japan and China, through Nov. 9.

349-7775.

ARTbreak – Free presentations on art-related topics: Double Take: Artists Respond to the Collection, Oct 7, 14; Gretchen Diebenkorn on The Life and Art of Her Father, Oct. 21 and 28; all sessions at noon, KIA Auditorium.

Public Tour – A Collector’s Eye, works from the collection of James and Sheila Bridenstine, Oct. 5; Double Take: Artists Respond to the Collection, Oct. 12; The Arts of China and Japan, Oct. 26. All tours start at 2 p.m. in lobby.

349-7775.

Book Discussion: Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative – Led

by Don Marek, painter and instructor at the KIA’s Kirk Newman School of Art, 2 p.m. Oct. 15 349-7775.

Art League Lecture: Suzanne Smeaton – “The Art of the Edge” explores frame design, construction and relationship to the work of art, 7 p.m. Oct. 8. 349-7775.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 39

S2 Games Informational Open House – Learn about game design and what goes on at S2 Games, 2-3 p.m. Oct. 24, 950 Trade Center Way, No. 200, Portage. Sign up online at info.

S2Games.com.

West Michigan Glass Art Center 3-Day Workshop by Visiting Artist Petra Kaiser – Ideas and techniques for kiln forming glass, Oct. 3-5, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 100. 552-9802.

LIBRARY & LITERARY EVENTS

Stunning and Sculptural, Fun and Functional – Renowned glass artist Petra Kaiser gives a slideshow presentation on her work and casting techniques, 5-9 p.m. Oct. 3., Suite 100.

522-9802.

Kalamazoo Public Library

Miscellaneous Art Hop – Local artists and musicians at various venues in downtown Kalamazoo, 5-9 p.m. Oct. 3. 342-5059.

Portage District Library NaNoWriMo Warmup – Warm up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November with these write-in workshops, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 1, 8, 15, 22. 300 Library Lane, 329-4544.

First Saturday – Take your family to the library for fun, free activities and more, 2-3 p.m. Oct. 4, Central Branch, 315 S. Rose St. 553-7800.

Top Shelf Reads – Offbeat reads are discussed over drinks at a local microbrew, 7-8:30 p.m.

Oct. 13, Latitude 42 Brewing Company, 7842 Portage Road. Info at 329-4542, ext. 711.

Journey of the Letters – Presentation by Teresa Irish, author of A Thousand Letters Home, 6 p.m. Oct. 6, Oshtemo Branch, 7265 W. Main St. 553-7980.

David Dodd Lee –This author of eight fulllength books of poems and a chapbook will read from his new book, Animalities, 7 p.m.

Oct. 30. 329-4544.

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Voices for Social Justice – Audiovisual exhibit features community residents, Oct. 4-Jan. 19. A panel discussion with some of these residents will be held at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 5. 230 N. Rose St. 373-7990.

Crawlspace Eviction – Improv performers with a sharp focus on creating interesting characters and relationships on stage, 7 p.m.

Oct. 10.

Mi Hiryu Daiko – A performance of Taiko, a 2,000-year-old Japanese drumming art form, 7 p.m. Oct. 17.

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More Murders Most Foul – A look at some of the intriguing murders in Kalamazoo’s history, 1:30-2:30 p.m. Oct. 19.

Let’s Talk about Zombies – A panel discussion with Kare Ferraro, 7 p.m. Oct. 24.

The Great Boodini – Purveyor of spooky magic, 7 p.m. Oct. 31.

Air Zoo Tiger’s Experience: Tracking a Legend – An exhibit taking guests on an immersive journey into the lives of endangered Bengal tigers, 6151 Portage Road. 382-6555.

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Discover the Raptor Ridge Trail – Join a Nature Center naturalist to explore seasonal changes in habitats, 2-3 p.m. Oct. 19, 7000 N. Westnedge Ave. 381-1574.

W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Dessert with Discussion – “From the Dust Bowl to Drones: The Next Big Agricultural Revolution,” presented by Dr. Bruno Basso, 7:30-9:30 a.m. Oct. 6, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive.

671-2400.

Birds of Prey Live! – Join the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary’s avian caretaker for an exciting meet-and-greet with a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl, 1-2:30 p.m. Oct. 19, 12685 East C Ave., Augusta. 671-2510.

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Birds and Coffee Walk – Join an experienced guide for a short birding walk and discuss the morning’s sightings over coffee, 9-10:30 a.m.

Oct. 8, Kellogg Bird Sanctuary.

Audubon Society of Kalamazoo Kalamazoo River Valley Trail Color Walk – Volunteers lead a fall color walk on 2 miles of easy, paved surface, 2 p.m. Oct. 5,11, Trailhead Parking Lot, 10th Street. 373-5073.

FESTIVALS Kalamazoo Oktoberfest – Second annual celebration of local craft brews, featuring local musicians and cuisine, 4-10 p.m. Oct. 3-4, Arcadia Creek Festival Place. 349-8463.

Bangor Apple Festival – Activities include car show, lawnmower race, vendors and live entertainment, Oct. 4, 257 Monroe St., Bangor.

350-3759.

Old Tyme Harvest Festival – Hayrides, pumpkins, antique tractors, blacksmithing, flea markets and crafts, food and entertainment, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 4; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 5; Scotts Mill County Park, 8451 S. 35th St. 745-4628.

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Kalamazoo Gals Day – Celebrate the uncovered history of Kalamazoo Gals, the women who made Gibson guitars during WWII, 5-8:30 p.m. Oct. 10, Kalamazoo Mall.

344-0795. (related story on page 8).

Fennville Goose Festival – Wild Goose Chase 5k, Gosling Run for kids, Goose Festival Parade, classic car show, student art shows, historical exhibits, goose-calling competition, petting zoo, Oct. 11-12, downtown Fennville.

561-2981.

MISCELLANEOUS Gazelle Sports Historic Walks –Lynn Houghton leads historic walking tours around Kalamazoo, 8 a.m. Oct. 17, Vine and Locust streets intersection. 342-5996.

Murder Mystery Dinner at Kellogg Manor – A night filled with suspense, entertainment and a fabulous meal, 6:30-9 p.m. Oct. 24, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, 671-2400.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 41

POETRY encore

Small-town Sacraments

Michigan October

There are no strangers in a small town Everyone knows your name, and in turn your secrets Judgments passed in conspiratorial whispers over back fences

The sun has left my skin, soaked into oak leaves and now I’m a soft sigh of chai steam, dressed in a pencil skirt and blouse, walking to work.

Eternal damnation determined over afternoon tea Crossing the city limits, like entering a church Choir of local gossips Bar patrons and housewives the congregation “Our Father” replaced by “Did you hear?”

My black ballet flats flit through gatherings of red leaves like flakes of dried ink left over from a love poem.

Innocent virgin’s necks no longer adorned with thin gold crosses Replaced with tramp stamps And ankles inked with rosary beads Cookouts reminiscent of the Last Supper Wine, food, and backstabbing are plentiful In anger we confess each other’s sins Self-righteousness our Hail Mary

Raffle tickets passed along bleachers like offering baskets over pews Those that have the least give the most praying that God will notice their sacrifice When our quarterback goes down both teams take to their knees In worship or prayer they’ll never tell

Come Friday nights, all is forgiven We now share a common enemy Cheering our prayer, the fight song our hymn Resurrected, he gets to his feet we gather as one to root on the Crusaders limps off the field to the adoration of his people The cheerleaders lead the crowd in rejoicing And as a town we are believers

The sun wrings out what light it can spare, gently like my lips murmuring lyrics I only half know.

Squirrels tightrope walk electric lines, trees scatter the wind and I forget I’m attached to my name.

— Danielle Favorite Favorite graduated from Western Michigan University with a major in creative writing and interned with the WMU graduate literary magazine, Third Coast. Her book of poems, Meraki, was released in 2013 by Olivia Eden Publishing, and she has been chosen as the featured writer for the first printed issue of Rib Cage Chicago Literary Magazine. She works as an editorial account associate at MLive Media Group/Kalamazoo Gazette and as a writer for Kzoo Music Scene.

— Tiffany Thatcher Thatcher is a graduate of Kellogg Community College, in Battle Creek, and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English/creative writing at Western Michigan University. She was the editor of the KCC newspaper, The Bruin, and the school’s literary magazine, Mosaic.

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Farmers’ Market (continued from page 22) foods, and people eat meals at picnic tables or bring them home. Market manager Emily Beutel reports that 750 people regularly show up on Saturdays, and families use the “town square as a Saturday family outing where they spend two to three hours.”

Admittedly, parking at the market can be a problem on Saturdays, but many businesses surrounding the market allow shoppers access to their parking lots because they see the positive impacts the market is making on everyone, Beutel says.

In 2010, the township received a grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to build a pocket park adjacent to the pavilion, with playground equipment, a restroom, a half-mile sidewalk trail and a drainage system. Plans are in the works to connect the biking and walking trail with trails in Portage and Kalamazoo.

New use for old church The latest and most exciting business development for Texas Corners is the conversion of the old, vacant church into a cidreie and brewery called The Texas Corners Brewing Co., a project of the Schultz family farm. A cidreie (pronounced cider-RE) offers hard cider made from fermented fruit juices.

Schultz saw a few cidreies in operation during his travels to Europe a couple years ago and realized his fruit farm could add another income source to the family farm and another business to the community.

“The cidreie/brewery is a local craft that may be considered an extension of local food,” Schultz says.

The cidreie, which is tentatively set to open next month, will feature a “community table” where patrons sit on long tables located in the center of the room and interact with other families and groups. The new establishment also will sport a beer garden and a full kitchen menu. The taphouse will feature nine beers, two wines, three types of cider and a bevy of soft drinks.

“Who would have thought that someone would buy the church and what would happen to it?” asks Kerr. “It is another draw to the Corners.”

Because state law requires that cottage industries grow some ingredients on the farm, Schultz plans to grow barley, hops or rye on his farm. As breweries gain popularity

in Kalamazoo (and in Michigan in general), other area farmers are already talking about planting barley, hops or rye for making beer, Schultz says.

Meanwhile, other business development at the Corners includes a new dentist’s office and an expanding animal hospital.

Because of the informal nature of farmers’ markets, it is difficult to nail down economicimpact numbers, but a voluntary survey of vendors taken by the market, in which only 35 percent participated, revealed that the 2013 market reaped $500,000 in sales, with each shopper spending $30 per visit, Beutel says.

“And, that’s a conservative estimate,” she says.

Fantasy Gaming (continued from page 29) gaming is often featured on the popular TV show The Big Bang Theory, and fantasy games are now found in mainstream stores such as Barnes & Noble, which sells D&D, and Meijer, which carries Magic cards.

The rise of role-playing video games among people of all ages has reduced the games’ “geek” stereotype, Smith says. Many players are in their teens, 20s or 30s. Parents who played the games in their youth often return to them when their children are old enough to play. Smith’s own daughters, ages 7 and 10, have become gamers, he says, mostly just by looking over his shoulder.

“They would see me playing ‘big people’ games with friends, and they were naturally curious,” he says. “I’m constantly surprised at how quickly they’ll pick up on the mechanics and strategy of a game.”

While tabletop fantasy gamers tend to play at players’ homes or in classrooms, some will meet up with other gamers at stores such as Fanfare or Odyssey Games. Odyssey Games, 1504 W. Michigan Ave., is just steps from Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College and has weekly Magic tournaments.

Fanfare hosts game nights for Magic, D&D, and HeroClix (a superhero game).

These meet-ups are also helpful to players who want to stay up-to-date on the games.

For instance, Magic cards are sold in sets of 150, and a new set is published every three months. Odyssey’s owner, Johnny Blaze, 23,

says every new set of Magic cards sells better than the previous one.

“Some people come in what seems like every other day,” looking for the perfect card to give them the winning edge, Blaze says.

“There are regulars, like it’s your favorite hometown bar.”

But new cards aren’t required to play.

Geoffrey Laird, 23, of Kalamazoo, says players who put together Magic decks 20 years ago will resurrect those decks when their children show interest in learning the game.

For serious gamers, there are even tournaments with cash prizes. Magic competitions have been shown on ESPN, and Elliot Parkhurst, 24, manager at Odyssey Games, says players tune in to Twitch TV, a YouTube-like website where entire games are shown, complete with color commentary.

S2’s McDaniel was recently in Thailand at a Heroes of Newerth tournament where he saw players as young as 6 taking part.

Creating Their OWN GAMES Berkey, who’s been a gamer since high school, has even written his own game material. He’s best known for his 2009 tabletop RPG Where No Man Has Gone Before. The game casts players in the roles of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek TV series, with such qualities as “Argumentative” or “Ripped Shirt.”

“I made the game to amuse myself,” Berkey says. “I did the first draft in a weekend and just put it on the Internet.”

He still gets feedback from gamers who stumble across his website, including a Canadian artist who created playing pieces based on the game, and a group of gamers in Germany who emailed Berkey to say they’d played Where No Man at a bar. Berkey is now working on a new science-fiction game.

“There’s so much fun stuff out there, I don’t get to play my own game that often,” he says.

Earl hasn’t created his own games but did get one of the 1,000 exclusive copies of Risk: Black Ops in 2008 when Hasbro tested an update to the classic world-conquest game.

He played it, but it didn’t find a permanent home on his shelf of more than 100 board games.

“It’s a collector’s item, but I sold it to get more games,” Earl says. w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 43

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

WMUK

American Village Builders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

102.1

Ayres-Rice Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Bell’s Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Bravo! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Borgess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Bronson Health Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Confections with Convictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Dave’s Glass Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 DeHaan Remodeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Dement and Marquardt, PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Derby Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Farmer’s Alley Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

WMUK NEWS

WMUK NEWS airs

Farm N Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

stories about life in

Framemaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Kalamazoo and SW

FYI Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Michigan. Stories, headlines

Gilmore Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

and weather are part of daily

Great Lakes Shipping Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

WMUK/NPR news broadcasts.

Horizon Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Hospice Care of SW Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Kalamazoo Community Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Who Made Print and the Web Rivals?

Kalamazoo Valley Musuem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

People love Allrecipes.com. The website has a reach of close to 30 million people. Yet at the end of 2013, Allrecipes launched distribution of a printed magazine.

KNI/Southwest Michigan Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Landscape Arborists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

With all of this online success, what’s the point of going into print? What does Allrecipes know?

Lawton Ridge Winery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The company did the research and found readers love both the digital side and printed side of the business. Quite simply, print still holds a profitable opportunity for the business.

Lewis, Reed & Allen P.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Food product advertising is one of the strongest advertising categories in print these days. Despite the shift to online advertising and the attention given to social media, print advertising brings attention to products and services.

Internet and print marketing aren’t rivals. They are opportunities.

Online marketing reaches for people who are already looking for your products and services. Print marketing comes to you.

Allrecipes expanded and grew by going into print. Have you asked lately what print can do to expand your business?

LVM Capital Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Masonry Heater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Mercantile Bank of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Miller Auditorium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Miller Canfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Nature Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Nutrimost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Portage Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Stewart & Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 V&A Bootery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 VanderSalm’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Varnum Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 WMUK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Woodwork Specialties, Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

☎

1116 W Centre Avenue 323-9333 PortagePrinting.com 44 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

The Last Word (continued from page 46) who used fire to manage the land, regularly burned the oak openings and prairies. Mature burr oaks and prairie plants are specially adapted to survive fires, even encouraging them by providing kindling of fallen branches and dried grasses as fuel. Burr oaks’ thick bark insulates the trees from fires, and prairie plants’ exceptionally deep root systems hide the majority of plant underground, out of harm’s way.

Oak openings were grocery stores for Native Americans who collected the trees’ edible acorns and hunted deer attracted to the tender grasses that grew after fires. Settlers were amazed at the sight of oak openings.

As one pioneer described them, “The annual fires burnt up the underwood, decayed trees, vegetation and debris in the oak openings, leaving them clear of obstructions. You could see through the trees in any direction, save where the irregularities of the surface intervened, for miles around you, and you could walk, ride on horseback, or drive in a wagon wherever you pleased in these woods, as freely as you could in a near and beautiful park.” The settlers fattened their hogs on burr oak acorns while also removing the scattered trees to allow for plowing efficiently straight lines in the rich land.

It’s known where oak openings existed in Kalamazoo County, thanks to a survey of the county’s approximately 576 square miles conducted from 1826 to 1830. As

they crisscrossed the county, the survey crew noted the type and diameter of nearby “bearing trees” used as references for their measurements. The surveyors noted 309 burr oaks — the third most commonly cited tree species, behind maple and white oak.

Historically, savannas and prairies made up 7 percent of the land, comprising an estimated 900,000 acres in Michigan. Today, 99.99 percent of savannas and prairies have been converted to agricultural land, towns and dense woods that squeezed out burr oaks. Amazingly, a few burr oak trees survive in scattered locales. According to a 1943 report presented to the Kalamazoo City Commission, only a few of the old giants were still alive then, perhaps “eight or ten in Bronson Park.” However, the 1979 tornado left only one of those standing. The report also referenced the demise of another remnant oak opening, located north of the city, for the sake of a “lumbering venture, and the land excavated by a local gravel company.”

Today burr oak trees survive, not because of fire of the natural kind, but the fire of aware and caring residents. Sharan Levine and her husband, Randall, have a burr oak tree growing over her historic, red brick law office on Burdick Street. “Each year we hire an arborist to evaluate the tree’s health. This tree was probably planted when the building was completed in 1867. Instead of thinking that we own this building and wonderful

tree, we consider ourselves as the stewards of this property in the continuum of past and future occupants,” says Levine, with the wisdom of a Potawatomi elder.

Fran Galow also appreciates the small grove of young burr oaks growing outside a chain-link fence surrounding a road commission pond near her Kalamazoo Township home. She and a group of neighbors occasionally hold a work session to clear non-native plants from under the burr oaks. Galow also monitors the growth of a young burr oak with a 1-inch-thick trunk growing a few feet from her front door, thanks to a squirrel or blue jay who buried and then forgot an acorn there a few years ago. “Hopefully, these special trees will prosper for future generations of people and animals to enjoy,” she says.

Steve Leuty came to Kalamazoo in 1980 for a college education and stayed to develop the county’s recycling programs. He now enjoys working for Bronson Healthcare and supporting Kalamazoo Township as an elected trustee.

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w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 45

THE last word encore

Secrets of the Burr Oaks Steve Leuty

Steve Leuty

by

A burr oak arches over Levine & Levine Attorneys on South Burdick Street in downtown Kalamazoo.

I felt as if someone were watching me as I

walked by the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, in downtown Kalamazoo. Looking around, then up, I was surprised to see massive branches gracefully stretched overhead. Deeply furrowed, brown bark and large, rounded leaves formed a 70-foot-wide umbrella. Why had I not noticed this huge tree before? As I walked a bit further to Bronson Park, I saw a similar tree with gravity-defying, horizontal branches as wide in diameter as two people’s chests. A few blocks away, I spied another tree. Then another.

These trees, burr oaks, are living monuments. Although huge today, they were mere acorns during the Civil War. They are the children of the burr oaks — some of which lived for 350 years — that Native Americans and white settlers saw growing in

46 | Encore OCTOBER 2014

open, spacious forests called “oak openings” (also known as oak savannas or barrens). In the presence of these trees, one can feel the legacy of the Native Americans and settlers who lived here 200 years ago. Perhaps this is why I felt as if someone were watching me.

Surrounded by the dense forests of maple, cherry, hickory and beech that dominated Lower Michigan, oak openings were uncommon pockets of open, park-like woods.

Growing adjacent to and marbled within the oak openings were areas of prairie — treeless communities of grasses and flowers.

Oak openings and smaller areas of prairie plants stretched across a geographic band from Van Buren County to Oakland County, existing locally in places like Richland, Climax, Galesburg, downtown Kalamazoo and areas west of Kalamazoo. Michigan’s

largest oak opening, known as “Big Island” and surrounded by prairie, occupied 600 acres west of Schoolcraft in what became known as Prairie Ronde Township. A 24-acre remnant of “Big Island” known as Cooper’s Island — located about a quarter-mile west of U.S. 131 on the north side of West Eliza Street — somehow survived the plow and was preserved by the Michigan Nature Association in the mid-1970s. The area was the setting for James Fenimore Cooper’s 1848 frontier novel The Oak Openings, or, The Bee-Hunter.

Oak openings and prairies were able to resist being overrun by the dense forests surrounding them due to the destructive power of fire. Ground fires, often started by lightning strikes or Native Americans (continued on page 45)

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