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Lupe Ramos-Montigny: ‘Everyone Deserves to be a Part of Something’
Anyone attempting to digest Lupe Ramos-Montigny’s entire resume would be well-advised to reserve the better part of an afternoon, and be sure to allow for snacks and hydration. But if you were short on...
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Dedicated educator retiring after 44-year career, during which “I knew ‘em all”
When the school bells ring and they throw open the doors at Northview Public Schools this coming autumn, it’s likely Dan Duba, principal at Crossroads Middle School, will be elsewhere. For the first...
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Ryan Colburn, MacGyver of the vet world
Ryan Colburn enjoys board games, taking in the movies, spending time with his family … … and sticking his head nearly into the mouths of grizzly bears named Yogi and Boo-Boo, to make sure their teeth...
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Nick Minnema – special and driven, for all the right reasons
Nick Minnema may never get his face on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but he represented West Michigan in a once-in-a-lifetime kind of way when he competed on an international stage alongside other...
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A limp can’t slow this high-achieving fighter who helps others
Beginning now, I’m not going to criticize the upcoming work force comprised of today’s high school students because I have seen The Promised Land, and it’s flush with young adults like Lauren Hudson....
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Dean Transportation: It’s all about the kids
The entry to Dean Transportation’s state headquarters in Lansing is nebulous, spartan, almost obscure. The company’s awards and tributes are crowded onto a countertop, stuffed into a spare room Myles...
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Food ‘angels’ support hungry kids through pandemic
They work all across Kent County, guardian angels with peanut butter on their hands and crumbs on their shirtsleeves, who labor quickly and quietly week after week so that kids remain fed during a...
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From Childhood Terrors to Lofty Dreams
For weeks on end, she chose to hold her tongue, and at one point, an instructor finally asked her why. With absolutely no malice, she gently replied that perhaps her classmates chose their words too...
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A Special Chair for a Special Child, Designed with Love
It’s billed as a “Health Sciences Early College Academy” for area high schoolers to get their feet wet in healthcare professions, biomedical technology and science in general. But what drew me to a...
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‘Make a Place Better Than When You Got There’
It’s not so much that Wyoming High School graduate Mirnes Kukic is bound for Harvard University as it is the personal qualities that surface as you chat to discover that he loves to fish, counts his...
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A Promise Made, a Promise Kept
For more than 150 years, they’ve been turning out heroic figures at the former Grand Rapids Central High School – now Innovation Central High. But this school season, the bar was raised when a humble...
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Can’t Keep A Can-do Man Down
It took the better part of four years for Mike Alanowski to get his foot in the door as a full-time employee in the facilities department at Kent ISD. And now that he’s entrenched, it’s doubtful anyone...
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Stop, Look and Here’s Some Love
When Kattie Eason first stepped onto a Wealthy Street SE corner to serve as a school crossing guard at Henry Elementary School – now Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Academy — she was 21 years old....
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