4-H Teen Leadership & Community Change Conference

January 21-22, 2012

By Betsy Knox

Over 140 participants from 32 Michigan counties gathered at Kettunen Center to learn teen leadership skills and how to be agents of change in their home communities. A sampling of sessions offered include: Get Involved in a 2012 Political Campaign; Service Activities that Build Career Skills; Communicating through Conflict, Generating Ideas & Moving to Action; The Photovoice Project: Recording Your Life & Community and Seven Billion People: Global Sustainability & Limited Resources. We also offered a session called Outdoor Winter Club Activities, taking advantage of the beautiful surroundings and natural teaching lab that Kettunen Center provides.

As a result of participating in the program, 95% of the participants think that they can make a difference in their communities; 90% feel a sense of responsibility to their communities; and 94% will teach others what they learned at the conference. This conference was supported by the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, the Sandra Clarkson Stuckman Endowment and the Turner-Ousterhout Endowment.

Tree Donation to the City of Detroit

On Nov. 2, the nonprofit agency that manages Detroit’s Campus Martius Park accepted a delivery of a statuesque, 60-foot Norway Spruce tree that crowned the 2011 Detroit Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and related Winter Magic-Detroit festivities. The 50-year-old evergreen was a gift from Kettunen Center.


The Detroit 300 Conservancy had launched a statewide search for a Michigan tree in August without success. The Michigan Christmas Tree Association pledged support, and through its vast grower’s network ultimately located the tree with help from Michigan State University Extension. The tree was planted a half-century ago to celebrate the opening of the Kettunen Center. It has become a fixture at the Center, where it dominates the arboretum, said John Grix, director of the Kettunen Center. “It’s like a page out of the children’s book The Giving Tree,” Grix said. “It’s a magnificent tree and has given us so much over the years, helping create a beautiful sanctuary for our staff and guests. It’s a fixture here and will be missed, but unfortunately has long out-grown the arboretum. When we learned of the Detroit Christmas Tree search, we couldn’t think of a better use for it.”

The tree was harvested on Oct. 31 and arrived at Campus Martius Park Nov. 2 where it was transformed from wild, forest beauty to glittering, holiday royalty. It took more than a week to ready the tree for the Nov. 18, 2011 Detroit Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and Winter Magic-Detroit festivities, presented by DTE Energy Foundation.

Read more about the tree and lighting ceremony in the press:

• Cadillac News 9&10 video of tree cutting (John Grix interviewed)


• My Fox Detroit news video of tree arriving in Detroit


• Detroit Free Press story


• Detroit News story


• WXYZ ABC 7 Detroit

Fall Family Festivities in November

Join us for the Fall Family Fest Nov. 12, 2011 from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at Kettunen Center. Highlights of the day include a Live Birds of Prey presentation by Joe Rogers of Wildlife Recovery Association, apple tasting and cider making, interpretive fall hikes, canoeing and kayaking on Center Lake, disc golf in the forest, and discovering and tasting wild edibles. Cost per person is $7/person (includes lunch).

2011 4-H National Youth Science Day Celebrated

Forty-five 4th graders from Mesick Elementary School celebrated 4-H National Youth Science Day by participating in the Wired for Wind Experiment during a three-day camp program at Kettunen Center, Oct. 26-28, 2011. In the experiment, students designed and tested their own renewable energy wind turbines and determined the best location for a wind farm in their local community.

The students started the experiment by talking about electricity and all the energy sources used to generate electricity. Teams of two students built and tested a wind turbine design using poster board, plastic cups, blade protractor, dowels, hot glue, scissors, pencil, a hub, PVC tee and handle, a small generator and a multi-meter. The students learned that the amount of power their turbine would produce was based on how well they designed their blades. After testing their prototype and measuring the voltage, the students were able to experiment by changing the pitch of the blades and compare results.

The students complete the Wired for Wind Experiment in school by determining a good location in their local community for a wind farm by using a Michigan wind map, transmission map, information about endangered plant and animal species and a human population density map.

Kettunen Center received a 4-H National Youth Science Day Grant from Michigan 4-H Youth Development to offer the Wired for Wind Experiment to Mesick Elementary and to continue to offer the project to other local schools, summer camp and family fun day youth groups. The grant funding provide a program discount to Mesick Elementary and purchase supplies to continue to provide the Wired for Wind Experiment for other youth groups.

Volunteering in the Firewise Garden

Fourteen students from the MSU Horticulture Club donated their time Oct. 1 to maintain the garden areas at Kettunen Center. The Saturday clean-up project included weeding, raking, pruning and transplanting to improve the gardens at Kettunen Center. Elaine Bush, Firewise Project Director for Greening Michigan Institute, Manistee County MSU Extension, worked right along with the students that day and will continue to manage the Firewise Garden, an educational garden demonstrating fire-resistant gardening and structure materials at Kettunen Center. Kettunen Center really appreciates the work done by the students and their future plans to help next spring.