Eye-Opening Success
We didn’t know if anybody would actually show up, but they did, and in droves: Our Beulah office hosted three Tuesday morning receptions in July with Institute policy experts Andy Guy, Patty Cantrell, and Kelly Thayer. Their presentations on Great Lakes water, new entrepreneurial agriculture, and transportation choices drew big crowds that listened intently and, between bites and sips of the fine morning fare provided by L’Chayim Delicatessen, asked good questions. The series, “Tuesday Morning Eye-Openers,” drew both old friends and new; they were so successful we may repeat them at our Traverse City office. Can the MLUI Roadshow be far behind?

Milliken Fund Milestones

	Helen and William Milliken

Thanks to the generosity of former Governor William and First Lady Helen Milliken, the Institute is having better success attracting major private donors. The couple agreed to lend its name to the Institute’s new fundraising effort, the Milliken Fund, and it has already attracted 32 sizeable gifts, each between one and ten thousand dollars. If you’d like to be part of this special group of supporters, please contact Development Director Betsy Alles at 231-882-4723 or betsy@mlui.org. And thanks so much to our new Milliken Fund members!

Leelanau Launch
Thanks to a lead gift of $10,000, the Institute launched a grassroots organizing and education effort in Leelanau County this summer — the Leelanau Smart Growth Coalition. It will strengthen our ties to residents who want to preserve the county’s beauty without stifling its growth. The Institute is offering training, organizing, and communication resources that can help make the fine work already being done there even more effective. The Institute’s Johanna Miller and Jim Lively, respectively a native and a 20-year resident of the county, lead the effort. Find more information at our Web site, www.mlui.org.

Money Talks!
Fourteen committed, talented people. Four offices. An active, award-winning, resource-rich Web site. Influential, must-read, often pioneering publications about the ravages of sprawl and the cures for it: These things cost the Michigan Land Use Institute $1.1 million over the past year. Please, if you have not already, invest some of your smart money on Michigan’s Smart Growth leader. Join up online at www.mlui.org or send a check to: MLUI, PO Box 500, Beulah, MI 49617. Thanks!

Re-Joyce
The funding cornerstone for the Institute's work on state transportation policy, the Joyce Foundation of Chicago, recently renewed its support with another one-year, $125,000 grant. And the Mott Foundation of Flint has renewed its general support of our work to curb sprawl with a two-year, $90,000 grant. This steady support in an era of sharp economic downturns speaks well of the respect the Institute earns from some of the nation's most discerning foundations.

Summer Sensations

	MLUI/Gary Howe
	L. to R.: Lillie Wolff, Sarah Morris, Jay Hite, Kyle Smiddie, and Erin Haibel.

The Institute’s Beulah and Traverse City offices overflowed with energy this summer, thanks to the hard work of five interns. Kyle Smiddie and Sarah Morris, both of Philadelphia’s Haverford College, researched and wrote several articles for our Web site. (Special thanks to Institute members and Haverford alums Ted Curran and Grant and Reed Schneider — brothers of Institute founder Keith — for underwriting their 10-week stay.) Erin Haibel, of Ferris University, helped Art Director Gail Dennis and Webmaster Doug Rose handle a crush of design work. Lillie Wolff, of Kalamazoo College, teamed with Jim Lively on organizing projects in Leelanau County. Jay Hite, a recent University of Michigan graduate, researched highways and sprawl for Kelly Thayer and Jim Lively’s transportation work. And U of M graduate students Amy Brooks and Jack Van Dyke telecommute from Ann Arbor as they research a special Institute report on highway designs that compliment, rather than ruin, the communities they serve.