Tag Archives: Kerrytown Book Festival

charities, Events

Sweet September

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Maypole and tango are just two of the many dances at Dancing in the Streets. (Photo: © Vickie Elmer)

September brings back to school schedules and cooler evenings, yet there’s still beautiful days and events to savor.

We are going to three of them this month and want you to come along. They are:

Sept. 6 – Dancing in the Streets.  Learn to dance an array of international dances, or enjoy music and dance from Main Street.  If you feel adventurous, try Cajun-Zydeco or belly dancing. Or swing and English country dancing may be more your style.  We will be right in the center of the festival, starting around 12:30 so you can enjoy some treats before you move your feet.

Sept. 13 – Kerrytown Book Festival . Held in the Farmers Market, this festival is a great place to meet authors and small publishers. We will be on our sidewalk outside 303 Detroit Street with a make a book mark activity and lots of sweet treats.

Sept. 13 – Monarch Migration Festival at Leslie Science and Nature Center.  This ticketed event features games, educational activities and a chance to help the monarchs on their journey south.

Then it will be one or two more Saturdays and the Italian ice cart goes dark by the end of September. Order your quarts so you won’t be without if Indian summer visits us in October.

This year, we expect to return with roasted chestnuts grown in Michigan a few times in November and December. So watch our Facebook page for announcements of those events. When the weather turns cold, we are glad to join your company’s holiday party with this distinctive holiday treat.

charities, Events, Kerrytown news

Lucky 7: Breakfast and Art, Birds and Books

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This young woman is serving oatmeal at The Breakast. (The Breakfast at St. Andrews photo)

Next up on the Lucky 7 charities are two organizations that feed the body and the creative soul – and then two others that bring the world to us.

On Wednesday, we celebrate and support The Breakfast at St. Andrews.  It offers a free morning meal 365 days a year, serving oatmeal and muffins and more to 90 to 150 people daily.  The Breakfast, established in 1982, operates from a church basement on Division, just a few blocks from our Kerrytown space. Vickie has volunteered and written aboutthe organization for The Ann Arbor Observer  and continues to back its good food and good community.

FLY goes to schools in Ypsilanti and beyond to bring out the young artists. (FLY Art Center photo)

On Friday, we support and celebrate FLY Art Center.  FLY  encourages creativity and self-expression through art camps, events and bringing its art activities on the road. It also brings art projects to a variety of elementary schools.   Come to our Main Street location – near Washington – from 3 to 7 p.m.

Then we have a weekend of charitable wonder – those who give us a window into a bigger, beautiful world:

On Saturday, our friends at the Leslie Science & Nature Center come out to Kerrytown, and if all goes well they may bring along an owl or another creature.  Leslie gives thousands of people, young and old, the chance to experience nature and learn about animals – leaving Ann Arbor. It offers field trips, summer camps,a “Fall Flight” and “Star party” and much more.  Our Leslie hours are 9-12, though we’ll sell Italian ice until 2:30.

Sunday we’re out for the Kerrytown Book Festival and oour Lucky 7 charity is Washtenaw Literacy. (We’re also giving free Italian ice to each Book Fest volunteer, but that’s a separate sweetness.)  Each year, Washtenaw Literacy trains volunteer tutors who help others start or improve their reading and writing abilities. In 2012, Washtenaw Literacy worked with 1,800 adult learners.  We’re serving ice on Sunday around 10:30 to 4:30.

Our final charity fun-raiser – for this year anyway – will be Wednesday, Sept. 10. The charity remains a mystery (for a while longer anyway). So please show up on Detroit Street in Kerrytown for our finale!

 

charities, Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Sweet charity series

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Mity Nice believes in charity and giving back – in our daily operations and after we tally up any profits at yearend.

This year, we’re planning a fall charity fun-raiser – for seven charities!  This is a big undertaking for a little company,  yet we can’t help but feel excited and hopeful: We want to raise awareness, raise new volunteers – and donate a healthy share of our total sales each day to good local causes.

Here’s the schedule of charities:

While we have the charities, we still are looking for some fun for this fun-raiser – street musicians, performers, sidewalk poets or magicians who will join us. Interested? Drop us a line at busker@mitynice.com and let us know what charities and what days you’d like to play.
Even if you couldn’t dance or play music in public, you can participate. Share details of our fun-raiser with your friends – and bring a bunch of them down. Buy a pineapple Italian ice or a lemonade, an Italian soda or a Maize & Blueberry muffin – and we will give to the cause of the day.
Join us for seven days of sweet charity!
Events, Kerrytown news

Second Sunday: Books are Beautiful

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Anyone who knows Vickie knows she adores books and reading. She considered becoming a librarian (and chose another wordsmith occupation – journalist / freelance writer – instead). And she started the Mity Nice Stories on the Steps near our cart, and hopes to continue it for a long time.

So our next Second Sunday event, held in conjunction with the Kerrytown Book Festival, is special, even though it also is considerably smaller than our recent Fairies & Fairy Door Festival or Mity Nice Street Fair.

We are celebrating books, especially books for children and books about fairies and friendship, at the Books are Beautiful Second Sunday.  (We have a couple of new books that we think you’ll really love!) We will read and share our favorite titles – and create a book-related craft project or two, including a custom bookmark.

Then we’ll encourage you to spend time at the wonderful activities in the Book Festival. (We’re supporting the festival by giving all its volunteers a Mity Nice Italian ice sometime in the afternoon.)

What: Children’s arts and crafts table, poet’s corner and story time

When: Sunday, Sept. 9, 12 – 3 p.m.

Where: At the Mity Nice cart, on the sidewalk at 303 Detroit Street

Who: Mity Nice staffers and you

Why: Because we love books and poetry — and celebrating with friends!

How:  Get ready by re-reading your favorite books – we’ll be asking you about them! Then invite along a friend to this lovely afternoon.

What else: At the Kerytown Book Festival make a book with our friends from FLY Art Center, who created the moustaches and wands during our Fairy Festival. There’s also a 3 p.m. session for kids called “Stories about Stories” with a local librarian.