Honor, Michigan: When It Takes a Village to Save a Village

A village in Northwest Michigan works together to imagine, plan for and create the town they always wanted.

TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Over ten years ago people of all ages and backgrounds gathered on picnic benches alongside US 31 in the Village of Honor, Benzie County. The subject: what could be done for Honor to again prosper? With a shared sense of vision, a heroic nonprofit with the common name of “HARP” and a leader named Ingemar Johansson convened everyone to craft a big picture plan that singled out things like blight removal, business attraction, affordable housing and even a rainmaker park, now called Platte River Park, that could be created, providing unrivaled access to over 1,500 feet of the Platte’s Blue Ribbon trout waters. Those things either have been or are being completed, crushing the plan’s benchmarks for success. That success stands as a memorial to the dozens, even hundreds that have contributed. Like Shelley Rosa, Township Clerk, Honor Champion and a kind, wonderfully generous and engaged person who tragically left us way too early. As Ingemar put it, “Shelley always showed up with good humor, good ideas and great leadership to lift others up and keep things marching down the path we created.”

More than ten years later, tributes of philanthropy rise to the cause, like the Foundation with little experience in Benzie County that just awarded $20,000 to help prepare Platte River Park for use by people of all ages, needs and abilities – universal access – that will be enjoyed by hundreds of thousands drawn to Northern Michigan.

Find out how you, in fact everyone, can make a difference and have a stake in this remarkable story or a similar story in your community. It’s what can happen when good people unite around the right purposes for their hometowns. Go to our website¹ to read more in the November issue of Northern Lights today.

Tim Ervin
Tim Ervin & Associates
+1 231-794-0089
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¹ https://www.venturenorthfunding.org/northern-lights