As Heard on NPR

This morning, innovation in Michigan's Thumb made the national news. Laker Middle School was featured for its bioenergy projects, including wind turbines, biodiesel, and even powering the district school superintendent's residence with renewable, low-cost energy. To hear the 4-minute story, visit www.npr.org/templates/story.php?storyId=89369909 and click on "Listen Now."

Want to go see it for yourself? Join Creative Spirit Center and Chippewa Nature Center in a tour of the school and the Harvest Wind Farm in Pigeon MI, on Friday June 20. We depart Midland at 8.30 am and return between 4 and 5 pm. Our local guide will take us through these inspiring projects and we will share in a lunch and discussion after our tour. Midland ecologist Peter Sinclair and naturalist Janea Little of Chippewa Nature Center will accompany us and provide orientation as we travel. We have the option of regathering in Midland some time after the tour for tips from Dr. Laura Vosejpka of Northwood University on reducing our individual carbon footprints.

Creative Spirit Center is going green one step at a time. We are inspired by the words of Midland architect and philosopher Alden B. Dow, who said that it is human creativity that will solve the ever-evolving needs of human beings. Our need today for renewable sources of energy is one that presses on our awareness whether or not we are actively thinking about global warming, the price of imported oil, and the cost of heating our homes in the winter.

What has been done in the Thumb might spread throughout the whole Mitten (and beyond)! Creative thinking and creative action can move us through an uncertain future into a better life for individuals and for society. Each of us has creative gifts to bring to the party.

Our hope is that those joining this tour will be moved by the grandeur that emerges when human ingenuity links harmoniously with the power of nature. And that our lives will change for the better because we will dare to use our own creativity in similar ways. The scale of the 500-foot-tall windmills in Pigeon or the scale of our action as we repurpose, recycle, and re-use materials in our own home may differ, but both are contributing to a future that is able to support the dreams and desires of our children.