Hospice Tree Lighting
The annual Sparrow Clinton Hospice tree lighting honors those who were cared for by Sparrow Hospice Services this past year. Since the Sparrow Hospice Program began in St. Johns in 1983, over 2600 lights have been added to this tree to represent each person cared for during the past 32 years. Michelle Wiseman is the founding and current director of this program.
Piano recital is Monday, October 26
Piano Recital at First Congregational Church of St. Johns, Monday October 26 at 7 PM featuring MSU students Soyoon Choi (piano) and Chae-Heon Bak (cello).
They will be performing music by Bach, Haydn, and Granados.
Admission is free.
Halloween Party at the Depot – Saturday, October 24
Decorate a pumpkin, enter the costume contest, play games, create your own monster and enter the Haunted Hallway if you dare! All of this, along with cider and donuts will be happening at the St. Johns Depot on Saturday, October 24, 1 – 3 PM. Kids, bring your parents and get into the spirit of things!
This event is open to all, at no charge, thanks to the generosity of the following organizations and people:
– St. Johns Kiwanis;
– Postal Connections;
– Uncle John’s Cider Mill;
– Andy T’s;
– Verizon, the Cellular Connection;
– Sharon Shutes, face-painter;
– Middle School volunteers from the Builders Club and interested high school student volunteers;
– Tonya Phinney and the Clinton County Arts Council.
This spooktacular event is being coordinated by St. Johns High School junior, Emily Everts, under the auspices of the Railroad Museum, a branch of the Clinton County Arts Council. The Clinton County Arts Council is grateful for grant support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Arts Council to host Creative Meeting – Thursday October 29
With an eye to expanding the awareness of the arts, Clinton County Arts Council will host a gathering of various arts council members and artists from the greater Lansing area on Thursday October 29 from 5-7 p.m. at the Gallery in St. Johns. The primary purpose of the mixer is to explore methods to bring arts into greater community focus.
Persons interested in arts encouragement are welcome to attend, but advance registration is requested.
Meanwhile, on a closer to home effort, the Council will be conducting a beginners’ watercolor class on Thursday November 12 at 6 p.m. This class will be taught by Livonia resident and artists Sarah Tule, who recently join CCAC.
The class is designed for ages 12 and up. Registration is $35.00 including all necessary supplies. Information may be secured by calling the Gallery at 989 224-2429.
Overview Lions Club Recycling Program 1978 – 2015
During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the need to recycle came into focus. At the National. State and Local level we learned the importance of re-using our recyclable trash and waste to make new products and help preserve renewable and non renewable natural resources.
The St Johns Lions club initiated a recycling program as a way to help the environment and as a revenue source to help fund it’s local humanitarian and community service programs that help those in need. The sale of recyclable materials has helped fund the local food bank, providing funds for community projects such as the Clinton Memorial Hospital expansion, the Briggs public Library, Paine-Gilliam-Scott Museum, Senior Center, a Little League ball field, the new Band Shell at the city Park, supporting local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, other youth groups, and other community service programs. The St Johns Lions have touched the lives of many people in our community.
The Lions started small, accepting only newspapers, when their recycling program the began in 1978. In the early 1980’s the operation moved to it’s current location on North Swegles Street. It started with one warehouse bay and a small metal shed where the public could drop off their newspapers.
During the 1980’s, other recyclable materials were accepted, requiring the rental of more bays at the warehouse. Other recyclables included plastic, glass, metal cans, aluminum, magazines, Styrofoam and cardboard. For nearly a decade, the Lions club provided a service of picking up residents recyclables curbside one Saturday a month. From it’s beginning until the late 1990’s all the work at the recycling center was done by Lions Club members who volunteered their time to make the program successful.
As the amount of recyclables increased, the Lions Club applied for and received a Clean Michigan Grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. This permitted the club to purchase equipment such as a fork lift, baling machine, pallet pusher, plastic shredding machine, and a glass crushing machine. This made the recycling center operations more efficient.
In recent years there have been wild swings in the price the club receives from the sale of these recyclable materials. An example is the value of cardboard. Within a short period of time, we have seen the price the Lions receive vary from as high as $300 per ton to a low of $5 per ton. These price swings highlighted the need for additional warehousing space to hold the recyclable materials until the products could be sold at an acceptable price. To meet this need, the Lions club purchased the entire warehouse facility. Additional storage space was added with the construction of a new pole building at the north end of the property.
The rapid growth of the world’s human population is stressing the world supply of renewable natural resources like wood fiber, and to non renewable natural resources like oil and other minerals. This means that each of us needs to do our part by recycling. If you are bringing your recyclables to the Lions Recycling Center, we thank you. If you haven’t, the Lions Recycling Center is open for you to drop off your recyclables 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Your support will make it possible for the Lions to help fund their community service and humanitarian programs.
The Lions club wants to thank Clinton County, the surrounding townships and the City of St Johns for their encouragement and support of the operation of the St Johns Lions Recycling Center. We also want to again say “Thank You” to all the people who bring their recyclables to the Recycling Center.
If you want more information about Lions, or about becoming a member of the St Johns Lions, so that you can help make St Johns a better place to live and to help those in need, you can call the club president Tim Black at 517-204-6688.
Free Veteran’s Dinner at Lowe Social Hall – Saturday, November 7
Veteran’s and their family are invited to a free dinner and fellowship hosted by the Charge Outreach Group of Lowe and Maple Rapids United Methodist Church.
Saturday, November 7th 5:00 pm
5485 W. Lowe Rd. St. Johns
Please RSVP by October 30th to 989-224-4460 or mapleriverumccharge@gmail.com.
Lowe United Methodist Church: If you haven’t seen the beautiful landscaping at Lowe Church, please stop by. The design of the plants is beautiful, and the stonework is truly amazing.
City needs to hear from you
The City of St. Johns is working to update the 5-Year Parks and Recreation Masterplan.
Your responses to this survey will help to shape the actions of the city over the next five years.
The short survey will ask about your park and recreational program use, as well as your thoughts on future park funding.
Your participation is voluntary and all respondents will remain anonymous. This survey should take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/St_Johns_Recreation_Masterplan
The results from this survey will be incorporated into the new 5-Year Recreation Master Plan. This plan will be posted for community review during the month of January at the St. Johns City Hall and the Briggs Public Library. It will also be available online through the City Recreation website and social media page.
A community review meeting will take place at the end of January before the plan is submitted to the state.