The Big Give just had their biggest give yet.
The Big Give is a group of men living in Midland County who get together three times a year, give $100 each, and vote where to donate the pool. It's called a giving circle (also see Midland 100 Club for women & MyPros Giving Circle for young pro's). The community foundation is such a big fan of the model that we host the fund, allowing their members to conveniently donate online. The group just donated the largest single gift in their 3-year history: $14,000 to the Foster Closet of Midland County. Foster Closet donates new and used clothes and other personal items to local children in the foster care system. "We are just a group of guys dedicated to improving the quality of life in our community," said Big Give founding member Kevin Kendrick. If you have a similar mindset and $300 a year to spare, they're recruiting members.
The planets have aligned.
Last year, we partnered with Midland County Parks & Recreation and volunteer extraordinaire Robert Mass (pictured) to bring our solar system to the rail trail. The model planets seen in the photo above will be spread across a 5.7 mile stretch of the Pere Marquette Rail Trail, beginning in downtown Coleman and spreading toward Midland. Size and distance are scaled down 600,000,000 to 1. Bikers, runners and walkers will be inspired by astronomy when the sculptures are installed in the coming weeks. Cheers for big ideas, collaboration and science.
The Midland County Youth Action Council got dirty.
Midland-based Little Forks Conservancy uses seed balls as giveaway items at events and gatherings where they promote local land conservation. Making them is a lot of messy fun, so our Youth Action Council decided to volunteer. Seed balls are made of potting soil, clay, water and native plant seeds from the Michigan Wildflower Farm. It's all part of Little Fork Conservancy's Conservation@Home program (funded by a 2016 community foundation grant) , which, if you're into being environmentally friendly in your own backyard, you should look into. Native plants for everyone.
