Coast Guard Festival – Semper Paratus

No summer in Michigan is complete unless you’ve taken part in the fun found at the Coast Guard Festival in Grand Haven, Coast Guard City USA.  While honoring the men and women of the United States Coast Guard, the CG Festival offers events for people of all ages. It’s always held during the last week of July and first week of August. Concerts,  picnics at Oval Beach, enjoy the lively rhythms of Semper Paratus (Always Ready) during the parades, on-board ship tours, dinners, a carnival and fireworks make for quintessential summer memories.  Head out to the Lake!

For more on the Coast Guard, take a look at these LLC resources.

Happy National Culinary Arts Month!

July is National Culinary Arts Month – so, “hats off” to our favorite cooks, chefs, bakers, waitstaff, barristas, bartenders!  Whoever sets the dates for the “national months” surely was thinking culinary thoughts, since July is also the National Month for: Baked Beans; Cherries; Grilling; Horseradish; Hotdogs; Ice Cream; Blueberries; and, National Picnic Month!

GRCC is well-known for its excellent Secchia Institute for Culinary Education.  The Library supports that program with a terrific culinary arts collection and a Culinary Arts Subject Guide.  If your meals are getting kind of hum-drum, take a look at some of the newest library resources that can perk up your menu.

go see gr! free with your RaiderCard

go see gr! is a program that provides GRCC students, faculty, and staff free general admission to several Grand Rapids museums and John Ball Zoo!  Student Alliance, Student Life, and Staff Development provide this benefit to students, staff and faculty.

GRCC-ites must present their Raider Card and a GoSeeGR! voucher – available for pickup in the Student Life Office – in order to be able to enter the attractions for free.  Check out the website for details.

Take a look at our Grand Rapids Subject Guide, too!

Wellness Starts at a Farmers Market

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to eat healthily, and what better place to help you do that than to shop at a farmers market?  Grand Rapidians have several to choose from, but the “grand dame” is Fulton Street Farmers Market  which opened in 1922.  The farmers market movement is growing, and most Michigan residents live close to at least one farmers market and/or to markets based at farms like those on “the Ridge” in Alpine Township.

Fulton Street Farmer’s Market is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday from 8 am – 3 pm. Be sure to schedule a shopping trip to the Market this summer.  And, take a peek at some of the cool LLC titles on eating more naturally.

JSTOR Daily: Where News Meets Its Scholarly Match

I recently discovered JSTOR Daily – and love it!  JSTOR Daily is an online publication that publishes “weekly feature articles that explore the sometimes-hidden depths of newsy topics.” Basically, the editors take a popular culture topic – something very much “in the news” or on your Facebook page – and they provide a well-written readable essay on the subject along with links to scholarly JSTOR articles.  GRCC licenses many JSTOR database subsets, so, while you have easiest access on-campus,  you can logon to JSTOR here with your last name and 7-digit Raider number and read the scholarly articles, too.  Read smarter with JSTOR Daily.