Tireless Connie Binsfeld looks forward to Narrows Bridgewalk

Glen Arbor Sun

Connie Binsfeld, the Burdickville resident and former lieutenant governor of Michigan under John Engler, hasn’t missed a single Labor Day Bridgewalk, and she doesn’t plan on watching from the sidelines this year either. The popular annual trek across the Carl Oleson Jr. Memorial Bridge, which splits Big and Little Glen Lake at the Narrows on M-22, officially marks the end of summer, and will take place this year at noon on Monday, September 3.

Binsfeld has led the procession throughout the Bridgewalk’s first 10 years, either on foot or riding in a golf cart or a sheriff’s squad car, and though she isn’t as mobile as she was during her 28 years in public office (she retired in 1998), 2007 shouldn’t be any different.

“For us the Bridgewalk is nostalgic. For over 50 years we’ve crossed that bridge, since the days when we lived on Little Glen Lake,” says Binsfeld. “Longtime residents and newcomers alike both enjoy the walk.” Binsfeld’s favorite Bridgewalk memory was in 2000, when a ceremony to celebrate the millennium unfolded and flowers were thrown into the lake as a tribute “to those who came before us.”

The t-shirts commemorating this year’s Bridgewalk are designed by local artist Lois Saltsman, printed by Roger Poppa at Petoskey Pete’s and available for purchase at Dune Wear and T’nT Video in Glen Arbor, Roman Jones in Empire and at the event itself. Proceeds benefit the Boy Scouts. As usual, the Bridgewalk will end for lunch at the Narrows Deli on the south side of the bridge.

From the Glen Arbor Sun archives: an interview with Connie Binsfeld, August 1998, the same year she was elected to the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame

“My mother really didn’t want me to run for public office. She was always real patriotic, giving American flags to all her students. Yet when I told her I was running for the Michigan House of Representatives, she said, ‘Oh dear, I wish you wouldn’t do that. Those politicians — they’re just not very good people. I wish you wouldn’t become one of them.’ My mother sent me a news clipping from the local newspaper when I was elected, that encouraged politicians to ‘stick their thumbs in their mouths the first six months they're in office.’ She eventually came down to Lansing, got her picture taken with former Governor (William) Milliken and changed her mind.

“People asked me to run for County Commissioner when the Park bill passed [39] years ago. We were concerned about protecting what we had, and still helping the National Park. It was an interesting time; people were against all the planning and zoning. Before they could do what they wanted, now the Park was coming in. We had to create a marriage between the Park and the people.”