Celebrate the 1960s and '70s

Local musician Daniel Lai and the band Delirious Love will perform at the Quarter Bistro & Tavern in Ann Arbor on Saturday. The show is open to the public and starts at 9 p.m.
For more information, visit http://www.thequarterbistro.com/events.php

One of Michigan’s newest rock/pop bands with combined 12 years experience, features the talents of six local musicians bringing the sights and sounds of the 60s, 70s and 80s alive in a stunning and intimate setting. Performance includes the sounds of Chuck Berry and the beginning of Rock & Roll era to the British invasion with The Beatles – as well as classic hits from Motown, Neil Diamond, Tom Petty and beyond.

Entertainment lineup brings fresh faces

The 65th annual Manchester Community Fair evening lineup promises to be a crowd-pleasing selection of music and entertainment variety.
“We tried to get as many new and fresh acts that we could find this year,” entertainment coordinator Ben Wotjas said. “We want to keep rotating the entertainment to keep things new.”
New to the fair this year include a Guitar Hero videogame contest sponsored by Best Buy, a pizza eating contest sponsored by Classic Pizza, as well as performances by local musician Jim Dokurno and Manchester Enterprise Editor Daniel Lai’s band Delirious Love.
“We’re pretty excited about the caliber of entertainment we managed to get for this year’s fair,” Wotjas said.
The Cottonwood Cloggers, a well-known dance group, will kick-off the entertainment at 8:30 p.m. July 7.
Led by Atticus Sumner, the group includes members from across the state of Michigan and performs an eclectic mix of blues, country, rock and roll, and jazz.
“During the show, you will see Atticus’ music in motion Atticus has inspired many people through his dance and audiences too will be able to experience this talent with a nationally recognized musical phenomenon,” the group states on their Web site.
Sumner and the Cottonwood Cloggers have appeared frequently on television, radio and in newspapers throughout the country. The group performed at the Fox Theater in Detroit, opened for the Grand Ole Opry with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, Ricky Skaggs, Holly Dunn, and the Bellamy Brothers.
The Cottonwood Cloggers have also performed at past fairs in Manchester as well as the Manchester Chicken Broil.
The Cloggers will also perform at 6 and 7 p.m. July 9 and 6 p.m. July 10 at the fair.
On July 9, the musical styling of Jim Dokurno will delight audiences beginning at 8 p.m. on the main stage. Based out of Marshall, Dokurno’s musical influences include ’90s grunge rock.
“He’s a super fantastic singer and songwriter and he will be performing a solo set of music,” Wotjas said.
After years of playing with rock bands, Dokurno has finally stepped out on his own to find his place in the music scene, releasing his first solo album in January 2005 (“The Finding My Voice Demos”).
“With music ranging from slow moody rock to ballads of love and anger, Dokurno finds the way to get straight to the point with few blurred lines in between,” Dokurno’s Web site states. “Overly honest lyrics about life and the stories with in it, take his songs to new heights. Thrashing his guitar to bring out the most angered tones and gently massaging it to bring out every ghostly note. Dokurno rounds it all off with a stage presence that is untouchable.”
Dokurno’s influences include: Nirvana, Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, The Verve Pipe, Papa Vegas, Sponge, Damien Rice, Foo Fighters, Colic, Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles, and Led Zepplin.
On July 9, the Longneck Strangler Band takes to the stage at 8 p.m. The band takes a new and innovative approach to some of country music’s great songs. The Detroit-based band has performed at Cheli’s Chili Bar and The Dawghouse.
The band is self-described as Johnny Cash and Hank Williams meets AC/DC.
“If both their love of rock and roll and their being from Detroit may deny Longneck Strangler an invitation from the Grand Ol’ Opry, a quick inspection of Longneck Strangler in performance reveals qualities that rank them with any other country band on the market,” the band states on their Web site. “The singer switches between acoustic guitar and fiddle when he is not demonstrating his impeccable vocal delivery, the guitarist may sling a Gibson Flying V… but he does stop moving to work the steel guitar, the drummer knows when to keep four-on-the-floor (and when not to), and the bassist lays down the most solid two-feel this side of the Mason-Dixon Line while (occasionally) wearing a cowboy hat.
“These four musicians combine diverse but overlapping backgrounds into the Longneck Strangler sound, which, for the sake of simplicity, you could arguably label country.”
Rounding out this year’s musical lineup is Manchester Enterprise Editor Daniel Lai and the band Delirious Love. The band will perform from 5 to 7 p.m. July 11 on the main stage. Based in Taylor, Delirious Love is one of Michigan’s newest rock/pop band’s with a combined 12 years of experience. The band features the talents of six local musicians bringing the sights and sounds of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s alive in a stunning and intimate setting. The band carries audiences back to the sounds of Chuck Berry and the beginning of Rock & Roll era to the British invasion with The Beatles – as well as classic hits from Motown, Neil Diamond, Tom Petty and beyond.
Delirious Love has performed at the Manchester Oktoberfest, the Riverfolk Music & Arts Organization’s “Halloween with a Heart” fundraiser in 2008, The Quarter Bistro & Tavern in Ann Arbor, and other local venues throughout Southwest Michigan.
For a complete listing of this year’s activities and events at the fair, visit www.manchestermi.org/fair/
Daniel Lai can be reached at 428-8173 or dlai@heritage.com.

MHS names valedictorian, salutatorian for Class of 2009

Manchester High School recently announced the valedictorian and salutatorian for the Class of 2009. Both students attained over a 4.0 cumulative GPA on the weighted scale.
Samantha Jane Kreklau is the MHS valedictorian with a 4.25 GPA. She is the daughter of Deborah Kreklau and James Kreklau, Jr. She was a member of the track team for four years during which time she was a scholar athlete and received the Cascade All-Conference Academic Athlete award.
As a four-year member of the MHS Student Council, she served as president her senior year, and as a two-year member of the National Honor Society she served as membership secretary.
During her four years in Drama Club she served both as its president and as treasurer. Kreklau’s other activities include: four years in Key Club, serving as treasurer and bulletin editor; four years in Quiz Bowl; and participant in LifeSmarts. She recently received the Kiwanis Club Scholarship and Social Studies Department awards.
Outside of school, Kreklau was a 13-year member of Girl Scout Troop 977 and three-year member of the United Methodist Church Outreach Committee. She has worked for her church as well as Alber’s Apple Orchard and the Manchester District Library. This fall she plans to attend the University of Michigan.
Brian Kemeter is the MHS 2009 salutatorian with a 4.20 GPA.
He is the son of Gene and Sharon Kemeter of Manchester. He played football all four years of high school. He was a two-year member of both National Honor Society and Student Council. Kemeter received the Math Department award for the Class of 2009. He was also a student mentor for two years. He was selected as the Optimist Club’s Student of the Month for March 2008, WXYZ-TV Channel 7’s “Brightest and Best” 2009 student award, and awarded the Second Team Academic All-State for the 2008 football season.
Besides his work at school, he also volunteers in the community, including working as a tester at the Manchester Chicken Broil. This fall Kemeter will attend the University of Michigan to study business.
Kreklau and Kemeter have been outstanding representatives of Manchester High School as well as the Manchester community.

Community lends helping hand

By Sarah Pettigew
Guest Writer

To say that the current economic climate is tumultuous would be an understatement. For many of us in Michigan as well as around the nation, layoffs, plant closures and store liquidations are almost so common place that our ears no longer perk up with a jolt of shock when they're mentioned on the news.
When I drive through my once seemingly affluent hometown, the neighborhoods are dotted with auction signs on homes that have weathered foreclosure. The costs of our groceries escalate even as our ability to pay for them diminishes, and many of our neighbors wonder just how they'll keep it all together enough to move one day further.
However, I am exposed to another type of reality. For two years, I have been a part of a free community meal program that serves bi-weekly meals at First Congregational Church in Wyandotte.
As a regular, cook, server, greeter and volunteer coordinator there, I have almost seen it all – young women barely surviving beatings by enraged boyfriends, elderly folks sleeping in cars and traveling from place to place, children with no mittens in winter from homes where there is little to eat, couples who have worked all their lives suddenly faced with joblessness, victims of crime and sufferers of illness.
These are the images people expect to hear about when I tell them I am affiliated with a soup kitchen.
The unanticipated reality that overshadows these bleaker images, however, is a reality of hope.
People often ask me if it depresses me to share meals with those who struggle. In truth, I have been humbled, cheered, and inspired by not only the triumphs of those guests from our community meal program who overcome the adversity of daily existence, but also by the outpouring of generosity and support from local churches, businesses, and individuals that continues to foster our very important work.
When our larder is looking a little worse for the wear, a stranger will ask if we accept donations of canned goods.
Out of silverware? Here comes a woman who saw some on sale and thought we'd need some.
What's at work here is something reminiscent of that never-out-dated story of the loaves and the fishes with a little bit going far enough to reach all who had hunger.
The religious among us might say that this phenomenon we experience when we serve soup is God's hand providing again and again, while others might applaud the same spirit of humanitarianism that still motivates us to look out for one an-other.
What I know for certain is that something wonderful is at work here, in Michigan, where we're all supposed to have given up hope, where we're supposed to be washed up, fed up and given up for dead.
Even when we have little, somehow, our combined efforts are mighty and infallible. From the woman from the library who bakes when she can so that we'll have something to tuck into bagged lunches, to the soup kitchen “guests” who supplied us with produce from their garden to help stretch out a meal, to the mom and pop places that have a surplus they can share.
From the disabled students who scoop beans on a plate with infectious smiles, people who are your neighbors are banding together, usually anonymously, always without hope for recognition or repayment, and making a statement about a different reality here in Michigan.
That reality is one of selflessness and hope, and we've still got second helpings for everyone.
Last night, as I took stock of the few cupboards where we store our food stuffs, I couldn't help but notice the very bare spaces where rows of cans once overflowed, but I smiled to myself as I pulled out the components for an upcoming meal.
There is enough for tomorrow in our pantry, and I hold onto hope that our shelves will continue to bear enough goods to sustain us for the next meal and the next.
I have faith that our community will continue to sustain us.
Thank you, to our community of friends who are tireless in their commitment to compassion.
Sarah Pettigew is the director of a local soup kitchen. Waynewright Community Meals serves a warm meal and bagged lunch from noon to 1 p.m. at 98 Superior in Wyandotte on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To get involved contact,1-734 285-3540 or email teampetti-grew@hotmail.com