Kierstin Gunsberg | Author

Food Pantry Visits Continue to Rise

April 18, 2026

While northern Michigan makes headlines as a top foodie destination, the number of locals struggling to access affordable, nutritious meals is simultaneously growing.

According to Feeding America’s 2025 Map the Meal Gap study, food insecurity in Grand Traverse County ros… Read More >>

Kids Take the Stage

March 21, 2026

Whether your kid has a knack for commanding a room with on-the-nose impersonations and knows every line of Hamilton by heart, or they’re shy to even read aloud in class, engaging them in performing arts can help build their confidence. To get you started, here are four northe… Read More >>

Staying the Course with Communities in Schools

Jan. 24, 2026

It’s not often you get to spend a lunch break belting out the lyrics to your favorite song while friends cheer you on, though the world would certainly be a brighter place if that were true. Then again, for students at Kalkaska Middle School (KMS), it actually is, thanks to Shyenne St… Read More >>

Nahli Curtis Is Carving Her Line

Jan. 10, 2026

Much to the chagrin of cooped up Michiganders, the skies have been steadily dumping snow since Thanksgiving week. But that’s just the way Charlevoix teen Nahli Curtis likes it. For the freeriding snowboarder (meaning she carves out her own runs on ungroomed backcountry, following a to… Read More >>

What to SNOW about the 2025-26 Ski Season

Dec. 20, 2025

No one cheers an autumn blizzard quite like a kid with a brand new sled…except, maybe ski resorts and their season pass holders.

So when that early November snow dropped piles of the white stuff all across northern Michigan (Leelanau saw 10 inches!) it was just the kind of si… Read More >>

Small Acts, Big Impact by Do a Little Good

Dec. 6, 2025

If you haven’t heard of Elk Rapids’ nonprofit Do a Little Good, it probably wouldn’t surprise president Glori Crowell. When she and a few close friends started the community-focused organization in 2018, their aim wasn’t big media campaigns or gala fundraisers, but q… Read More >>

Northern Michigan’s Toys for Tots Network Braces for Record Need

Nov. 22, 2025

As so many best-places-to-visit lists will tell you, there’s nowhere quite like northern Michigan. Mike Kent, assistant coordinator for Toys for Tots Northwest Michigan, agrees—but not just because of our beaches, bays, and food scene.

“We live and work in an extre… Read More >>

Anxiety, Screens, and Self-Esteem

Nov. 8, 2025

If adulting feels hard sometimes, let it be a reminder that growing up can be, too.

Data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness shows that one in six Michigan adolescents ages 12-17 experience a depressive episode each year, while the University of Michigan Medicine’s ps… Read More >>

Fall Foodie Calendar

Oct. 18, 2025

Whether you’re looking to sample gourmet bites along one of NoMi’s wine trails or just want to feast on some good ol’ BBQ while taking in fall’s fleeting colors, these October and November foodie happenings promise plenty of opportunity to gather, graze, and go back … Read More >>

Second- and Third-Act Entrepreneurs

Oct. 4, 2025

In the last decade, northern Michigan has grown its reputation as an entrepreneurial hub for college grads and their startups, thanks to events like the TCNewTech pitch competitions and incubators like 20Fathoms and Grove Community Incubator. But twenty-somethings aren’t the only ones… Read More >>

Great Lakes, Great Plants, and Great Ideas

Sept. 20, 2025

Summer’s winding down, but for the green-thumbed, that just means it’s time to start plotting next year’s gardens. And at this year’s Great Lakes, Great Plants symposium, five horticulture experts are ready to load you up with ideas on the best—and perhaps most… Read More >>

Meet the Students and Grads of Interlochen's Singer-Songwriter Program

Aug. 30, 2025

It was the early aughts when, thanks to a little luck and a whole lot of talent, Courtney Kaiser-Sandler’s demo landed in the hands of John Mellencamp. The “Jack & Diane” singer was so impressed with Kaiser-Sandler’s vocals that he invited her to be one of his ba… Read More >>

Sharing Is Caring at the Library

Aug. 23, 2025

With more than 400,000 books, movies, games, and curious finds (ukuleles! weaving looms!) available across the Traverse Area District Library (TADL) system, the six-branch network has almost everything.

But for what it doesn’t have, there’s the Michigan Electronic Librar… Read More >>

Step Into the Frame

Aug. 16, 2025

On the surface, custom framing may seem like a calm, quiet career where picking the just-right shade of cream matting to accentuate a favorite childhood photo is the gist of the gig.

But, as Jane Garrett, manager of Traverse City’s Fusion Fine Art Framing and Gallery (located … Read More >>

40 Women Over 40: A Photo Series

Aug. 16, 2025

They say age is just a number. But when the big 4-0 started creeping around the corner, Traverse City photographer Jamie Kirschner (owner of Crackerjack Photography) felt an impending feeling that she wouldn’t exactly label as excitement. After all, cultural perception hasn’t al… Read More >>

Buzz Kill?

Aug. 2, 2025

It’s been a summer of bummer news for our pollinator friends, from scientists reporting the presence of microplastics in bee brains to stats showing that this year’s commercial honeybee population saw mass die-offs nationally.

And bad news for the bees is bad news for us… Read More >>

More Room to Pour

July 19, 2025

As millions of visitors make their way through Traverse City’s summer maze of road construction and traffic jams, Scott Stuhr is hoping some of those visitors veer to the West Side.

That’s where he and his wife and business partner, Leah, recently opened their newest Sil… Read More >>

10 Finds at Mullaly’s 128 Studio & Gallery

July 5, 2025

School’s out and so is the sun! For a cool and creative reprieve, grab the kids and hop on over to Mullaly’s 128 Studio and Gallery in downtown Elk Rapids. (Seriously—you’ll see why below.) That’s where owner Barb Mullaly has been welcoming visitors of all ages… Read More >>

What Comes After the Pines?

June 21, 2025

As the morning commute rushed by on May 7, streams of yellow caution tape outlined the woods off West Eleventh Street and Division in Traverse City. After years of debate over how to respond to the growing number of unhoused people living in those woods in an encampment nicknamed “The… Read More >>

ActionGlow on the Go

June 7, 2025

Ask most twenty-somethings what their dream summer looks like, and chances are it’s not loading into a 40-foot bus with their brother for an extended cross-country work trip.

But Garret and Dakota Porter aren’t most brothers.

At just 13 and 16 years old, the Trav… Read More >>