by Justin Gibson | Dec 5, 2017 | Community, Schoolcraft, Vicksburg
Marilyn Jones. Photo by Linda Lane.
By Linda Lane
She’s soft-spoken, smart and witty, the kind of woman you’d be proud to call your grandmother. She’s Marilyn Jones, southwest Michigan’s Poet Laureate, because Schoolcraft, Vicksburg and Portage all vie to call her their own.
With two poetry books already published, Jones is just releasing her third book called “Are You Ready?” The girl who in fact is lucky enough to call her Grandma, Angel Martin, helped her compile and publish the book.
“This book is a little bit different. It’s not just poems, but includes short stories from my life as well,” Jones explained. “Every time I go to speak at one of the local libraries or clubs, people kept asking me when I was going to publish another book. So, I finally called my biggest cheerleader, my granddaughter Angel, and ask her to help me. She didn’t hesitate a minute and said, “Grandma, let’s do it! You know I’d do anything in the world for you!” And so they did.
Jones has lots of fans around these parts of Michigan. “Oh, she’s one of my favorite people!” Sue Moore exclaimed. “When I grow up, I want to be just like you,” Jan (Krum) McNally told Marilyn Jones at the conclusion of her talk at the Ladies Library meeting in Schoolcraft.
Over 100 people showed up for her 90th birthday party last year, including people she went to high school and college with and many friends and family from the area. Jones was married to her husband for 47 years before he passed away; they had five children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In 2009 she fell and severed a knee cap, broke a wrist, and slit a sizable piece of her earlobe. She spent weeks in intensive care, her family warned by doctors that they didn’t think she would make it, and did three months in rehabilitation.
“It really changed my life,” Jones explained. “I had published one book at that time, called “One Lump or Two” because I loved drinking tea. When I had those life-threatening injuries, I asked Angel to publish a second book if I died.” Again Angel didn’t hesitate. “Get well, Grandma, and we’ll do it together!” And they did.
Jones recently fell again and it took another three months in rehabilitation to recuperate. But again, the fall resulted in another book being published.
“When Angel calls me, she often says to me, ‘Are you ready?’ Of course, I always say, ‘Yes! What am I ready for?’” Jones said. And hence the title of her third book. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”
The Schoolcraft Library has sponsored a Tournament of Writers contest for the past three years. Jones has placed in poetry, non-fiction and fiction categories for all three consecutive years, an impressive feat. “I’m in the teenage division,” she quipped. In fact, she won in the Senior category.
For only $10, people can pick up a copy of Jones’s new book and have her autograph it. She will have a book signing event during Schoolcraft’s Christmas Walk on Friday, December 2 from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, December 3 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the United Methodist Church in Schoolcraft.
Another book signing is planned for Jones and another local author, Barbara Vortman, who also just released her second and third books as well, called “Child of Mine” and “Don’t Be Cruel.” The Schoolcraft Library will host a book signing for the two local authors on December 9, from 10 a.m. to noon in their Community Room.
“Friends ask me where I get my ideas and I don’t really know. Something will trigger a memory. I might start out writing thinking it will be funny and when I’m done, it turns out seriously. Sometimes the stories just take on a life of their own and they kind of write themselves,” Jones explained of her craft.
“It took many years before I realized that I could do something like this. It’s humbling to know that others are interested and enjoy what I have to say.”
by Justin Gibson | Dec 5, 2017 | Community, Vicksburg
Hali Tavalsky.
My name is Hali Tavalsky; I am the daughter of Cathelia and Jeff Cowles. I am an alumnus of Vicksburg High School and Northern Michigan University (NMU). I have a Bachelor of Arts in English and Psychology with a minor in Business and a Master of Arts in English with a dual concentration in Writing and Pedagogy (Teaching).
At 24, I moved to China, in August, for a year-long teaching internship. I’ve always been fascinated with the Chinese culture, and the thought of their history being thousands of years old. It has been a dream of mine to visit China. As I progressed through school, I began playing with the idea of teaching abroad. I had actually been doing research on how to do this when an opportunity through NMU came up.
Northern Michigan has partnerships with schools in various parts of China, but they are wanting to expand. One partnership is older, but both parties wanted to rebuild the connection. The opportunity was posted through campus, and so I started researching and asking questions about it.
Now, I am teaching English at Guangya School at Luxehills Community. I teach seventh through twelfth graders and am here on a year-long contract. Although I have only been here for a month, I am really enjoying it. The school is very accommodating, and the people here are extremely friendly. There are other foreign teachers here as well teaching various subjects, math, history, geography, art, etc.
I live in a small, gated community in Chengdu city, which is located in the Sichuan Provence. Chengdu is also the home of all the panda research in the world, but that’s a topic for another time. The community and the city are extremely safe, and I am very happy this is where I have ended up. I am looking forward to the adventures this year will take me on and will hope to keep writing letters back to my home in Vicksburg.
by Justin Gibson | Dec 5, 2017 | Community, Vicksburg
Adam Sinclair and Michelle Bednarski.
Michelle Bednarski and Adam Sinclair and their families are pleased to announce their engagement.
Michelle is a 2004 graduate of Posen High School and attended Grand Valley State University, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in education. She currently works at an optometrist’s office in the Hudsonville area. Bednarski is the daughter of proud parents Michael Bednarski of Mackinaw and Donna Bednarski of Posen, Michigan.
Adam graduated from Vicksburg High School in 2003. Moving to Grand Rapids, he received his Bachelor of Science in Health Professions and in Psychology in 2009 followed by a Master of Business Administration in general business, receiving both degrees from Grand Valley State University. He is employed at Spectrum Health as a Senior Quality and Safety Improvement Specialist. Sinclair is the son of Robert and Barbara Sinclair, lifelong Vicksburg residents.
The couple will wed in March and then reside in Dorr, Michigan.
by Justin Gibson | Dec 5, 2017 | Community, Vicksburg
Kristen Stanford.
The Buckham Agency, a Portage insurance firm, recently promoted Vicksburg resident Kristen Stanford to the position of Senior Customer Service Representative at the organization. The promotion follows Stanford’s successful completion of Farm Bureau’s Certified Insurance Representative (FB CIR) designation.
“We are so blessed to have Kristen as part of our office team,” said Agent/Co-Owner Stephanie Buckham. “She is kind, hardworking, and cares deeply about the people in the community we serve.”
Stanford has been with the agency for three years. She lived in the Vicksburg area as a child before moving away and eventually earning her bachelor’s degree from McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois. She returned to the area to start her family. Along with her dedication to her customers, she is also active in the community as a member of Lakeland Reformed Church in Vicksburg. She enjoys canoeing and spending time with her family.
The Buckham Agency is located on 450 W. Centre Ave., Ste. A, Portage. It is owned and operated by Jeff and Stephanie Buckham, Jr. of Schoolcraft.
by Justin Gibson | Dec 5, 2017 | Community, Vicksburg
Jim Butterfield and Natasha Yakimenko in Russia 21 years ago when they were dating.
By Sue Moore
Continued from November –
Jim Butterfield and Natasha Yakimenko, now Vicksburg residents, met in Moscow, he as a Western Michigan University professor, she is a freelance translator. They carried on a three-year long-distance romance after he returned to Michigan until Natasha came to the U.S.
Butterfield, from Mishawaka, Indiana, had graduated from Indiana University, then from Notre Dame with a Ph.D in 1989. He sent applications to universities all over the U.S. and the first interview he got was at Western Michigan University. He has risen to become a full professor in the political science department. His specialty is Russia but he is interested in civil society, and transitions and development, especially in post-communist societies. As a specialist in the former Soviet Union and several of the successor states, he has been to the region over 40 times. He has traveled extensively throughout provincial Russia, including to many cities that were formerly closed to foreigners.
Before the collapse, he was accompanied by “handlers” who oversaw his activities. “If you build trust, speak the language, act like a human and ask questions, you can learn and barriers come down so quickly. As a grad student in my early 30s, I was the first American many Russians had ever met.”
His initial interest was in Communist reforms in agriculture and why they had never worked. “There was over-centralization with too many decisions made at the top. There was a risk aversion by farm managers to change things.
“Loyalty was more important. Ag production was inefficient with lots of waste. Ideally, Marx thought that people would do the work out of the goodness of their heart, meaning the worker would have moral satisfaction, but that didn’t evolve into meaningful productivity.” The common saying in the USSR: “The government pretends to pay us and we pretend to work.”
This year, Butterfield is teaching a new course on terrorism and political violence at WMU along with Russian and Central Asian politics.
He has twice been a visiting associate at the University of Cape Town’s Centre for African Studies and in 2013 was a visiting faculty member at the Kazakh Agro-Technical University in Astana, Kazakhstan. In 2009-2010, he received a Fulbright Scholar award and spent the academic year at Saratov State University in Russia. He returned there as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar in May 2014. He received another Fulbright Scholar award in 2016-2017 and spent a semester as a visiting professor at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
His first home in Vicksburg was a rental on Vine Street. He thought it would be a good place to raise his daughter, Sarah, who graduated from Vicksburg High School and now lives in Kalamazoo. He later purchased the Chuck Varker home on Park Street where Natasha visited, then took up residence in 1997 when they were married. She moved her son, Ivan, to Vicksburg when he was in middle school. After graduation, he attended George Mason University and then returned to Moscow where he has a job in the newsroom of Russia Today (RT.com) as an editor and personnel trainer.
Meanwhile, Natasha became a U.S. citizen and has been working as a freelance translator. Her first job here lasted more than 10 years with the Center for Citizen Initiatives, an organization aimed at promoting dialog between American and Russian citizens. The Center brought thousands of Russians to the US; Natasha accompanied them on their travels. She spent many a breakfast, lunch or dinner at Rotary Club meetings along the way. Rotarians often hosted the visitors.
Yakimenko loves to garden. She found her place to grow things in the Vicksburg community garden near the Leja Industrial Park eight years ago. She regularly exchanges gardening techniques and best practices with others and still keeps her plot in tiptop shape.
What language do they speak at home? “When Jim is tired, he speaks English and when I am tired, I speak in Russian. We understand each other perfectly. Jim loves to travel and I’m more content staying put because I like continuity. We have two homes as I inherited my parents’ small dacha outside of Moscow so I’m happy with just that,” Yakimenko said. Natasha’s mother died at the age of 88. She traveled to the U.S. a number of times and loved it here, her daughter said, although did she not speak any English.
by Justin Gibson | Dec 5, 2017 | Community, Vicksburg
The sun may be shining and the weather cooperative, but winter is coming soon. It’s not too early to think about the hazards presented by snow and ice and stay ahead of them, reminds a press release from the U.S. Postal Service.
“The snow and ice always seem to know when we have plans, special things we need to do, or just when we want to stay inside where it’s warm and toasty,” said Vicksburg Postmaster Travis Graham. “Making sure that property is safe and accessible is important for the letter carriers is good preparation for winter.”
Graham wants to remind customers to make sure to keep pathways, stairs, walkways and the approach to mailboxes free and clear from snow and ice. This will prevent injuries and allow postal employees to provide the best possible service, even in the worst weather. In addition, Graham cautions to be sure mailboxes can withstand the conditions of heavy snow and snowplows all winter long.
Mail delivery in rural areas and on private and secondary roads can be especially challenging for rural carriers; snow removal occurs less often than on primary roads. Most carriers on these delivery routes drive their own vehicles and often get stuck or cannot access the mail boxes due to snow and ice buildup. Removing the snow from around these mailboxes is definitely appreciated, he said.
Customers in rural areas can benefit from renting a post office box at their local post office. Boxes can be rented for 6- or 12-month periods and provide consistent delivery, even in inclement weather.
