Dunegrass lives! Popular music festival rises from the ashes for 17th year

Glen Arbor Sun

The Sleeping Bear Dunegrass Music Festival is back, albeit in a new location on the Empire Eagles’ M-72 property six miles east of Empire. Come join the revelry from Friday, July 31-Sunday, Aug. 2, and enjoy excellent blues, roots, rock, reggae, bluegrass, progressive, funk and contemporary acoustic music playing on two stages from around Leelanau County and the state.

Dunegrass kicks off with a set by Susan Fawcett on the Vandergrass Stage, Friday at 6 p.m. and continues past midnight. Friday and Saturday feature open mic sessions from 11 a.m. until noon and then roll all day long and into the night. Check out the website www.dunegrass3.org for a full lineup. Organizer and Winwin Productions owner Ryan Lake says he’s most excited about Porter Batiste Stoltz, which will play Saturday at midnight. But locals are also psyched to see so many familiar faces, including The New Third Coast, The Corvairs, Cabin Fever and Ms. Princess Sarah Jane Everlasting.

Tickets at the gate cost $85 for all three days (or $70 on the website if you get them in time). The Empire Eagles’ location offers more than 20 acres of property for parking, primitive camping, food and craft vendors, safety services, a kids’ tent, an events tent and three days of beautiful music.

dunegrass6At first glance, this year’s festival will appear a shadow of what Dunegrass became under the guidance of Grassroots Productions, a nationally known company that went bankrupt after mismanaging and overbooking bands for last year’s festival. Lake estimates that the 2009 festival will spend less than 20 percent of what Grassroots did last year. Lake’s expectations of 2,000 attendees are much more modest, and realistic, than the miscalculations that saddled Grassroots with an insurmountable debt of $175,000 (see interview with Lake here).

But downsizing the festival — making it local again — is exactly the point.

“We are very excited about this year’s lineup,” says fellow organizer Ted Grossmeyer. “We have concentrated on producing a ‘Made in Michigan’ festival this year, and with only a few exceptions we are featuring bands and performers from Michigan. We are reaching back to the festival’s foundations, and following the vision of the founding Vanderberg family, that together have made the festival such a success over the years.”

Recent setbacks

Until just two months ago, Dunegrass was seemingly dead in the ashes following a series of setbacks in recent years. Days after the festival in 2007, founder Mike Vanderberg collapsed and died in the field — owned by the Deering family and adjacent to the St. Philip Neri Catholic Church in Empire — where the festival was held. (During the 1990s, Dunegrass was in the field now occupied by the New Neighborhood across M-72 from the National Park Visitors Center.)

Steven Volas of Grassroots Productions had already taken over the job of booking bands and managing the festival’s finances from the Vanderberg family, and last year he brought a lineup of Woodstock proportions to Empire. Household names including Donna the Buffalo, Buckethead, Peter Rowan, Bela Fleck and the ageless folk artists Richie Havens and Arlo Guthrie were to grace our tiny town.

dunegrass14-copyBut if that lineup appeared too good to be true, it was. Sun editor and Dunegrass emcee Norm Wheeler recounted after last year’s festival, “A lotta people didn’t get paid, that’s the buzz … By Saturday noon of Festival weekend it was clear backstage that something was amiss. The Grassroots brain trust huddled in the big motor home and emerged frequently with long faces or in tears. Someone in the know told me that there wasn’t enough money coming in to ‘cover the nut’ (pay the bills), and maybe some big names on the schedule would cancel. Sunday morning started with the news that Richie Havens would not be coming (‘His flight had been canceled’).”

In an interview with GlenArborSun.com before last year’s festival, Arlo Guthrie said, perhaps prophetically, “It’s nice to see [that Dunegrass is] still going. It’s natural for it to grow into a bigger thing, but you don’t want it getting too big. Every organization has to decide at some point what it wants to do. Most feel the pressure from an audience asking, ‘How are you gonna top this? Who you gonna get that you didn’t have last year?’ Soon you get caught in a spiral … as if what happened before wasn’t good enough.”

By the time the dust settled on Dunegrass ’08, many bands, venders and organizers had not been paid — neither had a law firm that Grassroots contracted to fight a “not in my backyard” suit filed by a couple renters who lived next to the Dunegrass site. Grassroots Productions was $175,000 in the hole, the festival’s name was seemingly tarnished within the music industry, and Volas left town with his tail between his legs.

Mike Vanderberg’s daughter Amelia considered reviving the Dunegrass festival without Grassroots Productions, but by late fall it was clear that the Deering family would not agree to host Dunegrass again. And Volas missed a deadline in February to appear before the Empire Village Council to discuss future Dunegrass plans.

Fast forward to May. A group of local residents including Grossmeyer, Laura Sielaff of the Empire Eagles, and Mike’s surviving wife Carol Vanderberg, were meeting regularly to discuss reviving the local festival. Sielaff and the Empire Eagles could provide the land, but they needed someone with connections to the local music industry. Entire Ryan Lake, who joined them and agreed to start Winwin Productions for the purpose of pulling the Dunegrass Festival out of the ashes.

Though he wouldn’t mention specific names, Lake admits that some Michigan musicians he contacted were wary of playing at Dunegrass after last year’s debacle. “They felt burned,” he says. Nonetheless, through Lake’s connections (he’s a musician, himself, and will play Sunday at 2 p.m.), he was able to build trust among local musicians — especially those from the Earthworks Collective, which includes Steppin’ In It, Daisy May & Seth Bernard and Luke Winslow King — that this year’s festival was returning to its roots and focusing on local talent.

Through Lake’s damage control efforts, Davis (whose band Steppin’ In It played at this summer’s Manitou Music Festival Dune Climb concert) re-upped to play on the first night of this year’s Dunegrass Festival.

Did Lake ever think there were simply too many obstacles to overcome to bring back this vibrant music festival in just two months?

“Nope,” he answered. “The wind just seemed to be blowing our way.”

Check out the official Dunegrass website, www.Dunegrass3.org, for more information, and visit our archives at www.GlenArborSun.com for past Dunegrass coverage.

Wind turbines in Leelanau County?

Glen Arbor Sun

Local opinions, for and against, passionate and protective, are blowin’ in the wind

Ever since the Michigan Wind Energy Resource Zone Board (WERZ) released a report on June 2 that named Leelanau County as the second best location statewide for industrial-scale windmill farms, local citizens have vociferously debated this prospective news in coffee shops, stores, restaurants, and in the editorial pages of The Leelanau Enterprise, the county’s paper of record.

On one side are those who believe we need to take advantage of this prized and abundant natural resource, especially given our current energy crisis. On the other side are those who think this area is far too beautiful, and the environment too sensitive, to erect 262-foot wind turbines.

The public will have until Tuesday, Aug. 4 to comment on the WERZ report (available at www.Michigan.gov under the Public Service Commission page: the direct link is also available here), and public hearings are scheduled downstate for Aug. 24 in Bad Axe and Aug. 31 in Scottville. WERZ will also hold a training program at the Township Hall in Empire on July 23 at 6 p.m. for local planning commissioners, elected officials, administrators, planners, developers and anyone else interested. Space is limited and the program costs $70.

Our country and our society need new ways of creating energy that don’t rely exclusively on coal, nuclear power or oil and petroleum from politically troubled parts of the world — that opinion is now largely unanimous. And out-of-work, archaic Michigan needs new jobs, income sources and ways to rebuild its industrial backbone. The most known sources of alternative energy — that don’t contribute to global climate change — are wind and solar. But those of us who head south, or dream of doing so, during the cold months know that the sun doesn’t shine year-round in northern Michigan, at least not enough for solar power to satisfy our energy wants and needs.

Wind power, on the other hand, is everywhere, and it doesn’t break for the season. The WERZ board’s report —prepared by the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants along with the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute, and funded by the Michigan Public Service Commission with support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation — reports that Michigan ranks 14th of the 50 states in its wind power capacity potential and that the state could “experience significant commercial wind energy development” in the years to come.

Ever since Michigan passed Public Act 295 late last year — known as the “Clean, Renewable and Efficient Energy Act” — WERZ has studied which regions of the state boast the highest wind energy harvest potential. It identified four regions: the west coast of Allegan County in southwestern Michigan, Antrim and Charlevoix counties northeast of Traverse City, an area including parts or all of five counties along Lake Huron in the thumb of Michigan … and Region 3, which includes western Benzie County and part of Manistee County to the south and almost all of Leelanau County — our home.

The industrial thumb region already boasts two commercial wind ventures — Harvest Wind Farm LLC and Michigan Wind I — which went live last year and currently provide 122 megawatts of energy, or 94 percent of the state’s installed wind energy capacity. WERZ estimates that the thumb region could host between 1,578 and 2,824 one-and-a-half-megawatt wind turbines, generating as much as 12 million megawatt hours of energy per year.

Leelanau County’s rolling hills and orchards along Lake Michigan also boast promising wind potential. The WERZ board estimated that between 435 and 778 turbines could be erected in Region 3, which includes Leelanau County, and they would supply between 2 million and 3.5 million megawatt hours per year to the region and beyond — making us energy independent while putting money in our coffers when the excess energy is sold back to the grid.

But unlike the thumb, our neck of the woods is a beautiful tourist destination, known around the state and the world for its dunes, forests and beaches, its wildlife, wineries and National Park. Anyone who has walked or biked her scenic roads, or sat with an easel and brush in one of her meadows, will have an opinion on whether 80-meter-high (over 262 feet) wind turbines ought to appear in her midst — in the name of sustainable energy.

And therein lies opposition to industrial-scale wind farms, even if that argument borders on a “not in my backyard” sentiment.

“Too large, too industrial”

JT Hoagland, chairperson of the Leelanau Economic Development Corporation, personally opposes “big wind” because, he says, we live in a largely seasonal/tourist area, whereas the “beets and beans (produced in the thumb of Michigan) are not a tourist draw … and it’s closer to markets like Detroit.”

“Personally, if I don’t want to see condos on the hills, it’s hard to support wind,” Hoagland wrote to the Glen Arbor Sun. “I try to be consistent.”

Tim Johnson, chairperson of the planning commission in Centerville Township, in the heart of the county, remembers when a company called Noble Environmental Wind Power released a study in 2005 that advocated wind turbines running through Centerville Township and up the spine of the county. A majority of citizens who turned out at public meetings opposed the idea, he says.

“People thought it was too large, too industrial,” says Johnson. “Their biggest concern was size and appearance, and the noise associated with them. People were worried they’d devalue the property values. And they were concerned about migratory birds dying.”

Noble’s initiative, Johnson recalls, was perceived as a big corporation coming in, installing giant windmills, turning local land into an industrial site, and then leaving town with the profits.

Centerville’s planning commission has since drafted legislation to regulate wind energy — legislation that would likely stop industrial-sized turbines but allow smaller windmills that could power individual homes.

“Folks who turned out were in favor of renewable energy,” Johnson says. “But I personally have reservations about 400-foot windmills.”

Johnson, himself, has a 70-foot windmill and solar panels on his property, which combine to generate 90 percent of the energy he uses. (The Glen Arbor Sun has printed numerous stories lately about Leelanau County residents — such as Allan Fici and Sun co-editor Mike Buhler — who’ve taken it upon themselves to install windmills or solar panels to generate their own energy.)

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — the local branch of the National Park Service — weighed in when Centerville drafted its legislation against large wind turbines, primarily expressing concern for the safety of migratory birds and endangered species such as the Piping Plover.

“Fifty percent of the Great Lakes species fly through here annually,” says the Park’s Deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich. “We wouldn’t want the Plovers flying into wind turbine blades.”

Wind worth considering

But Jim Lively, program director of the Leelanau Smart Growth Coalition for the Michigan Land Use Institute, doesn’t think that the public has given wind turbines a fair shake since the June 2 WERZ report and since a front-page story ran in the Enterprise on July 1, which largely dismissed support for “big wind” and generated a flurry of letters to the editor.

“I think this is worth talking about,” says Lively, a Burdickville resident. “We’re not necessarily on board saying that we want the biggest wind farms in Leelanau County, but this is something we should talk about from a bigger perspective. I’ve honestly heard input stating that (industrial-sized windmills) are good policy, but that it’s too pretty for them in Leelanau County.”

To argue in favor of wind power over other, destructive forms of harvesting energy, Lively cites a website called ILoveMountains.org, where the viewer can see live Google Earth images of mountaintops being stripped in West Virginia for coal.

“We think it’s pretty here, and we can watch the devastation happening in those mountains, while we sit in air-conditioned homes watching our flat-screen TVs. We should at least think about wind power, because we’ve got it here.”

“Of course the drawbacks (to wind turbines) are legitimate questions to address, just as global climate change is legitimate to address,” Lively continues. “And we have a moral obligation to think about how we can help the cause of renewable energy.”

The Michigan Land Use Institute views the ability of an individual township to stop wind turbines, such as the case with Centerville Township, as potentially problematic. “The institute’s position is that there ought to be room for statewide regulation as well,” says Lively. “Local zoning can’t be the only thing.”

Lively also views wind power as compatible with agriculture — Leelanau County’s original occupation, and still the livelihood of many farmers in places like Centerville Township. Every township has an agricultural area, he says, but in actuality they are also residential.

“If people live in agricultural areas, they should realize there will be tractors and other noises, including wind. We think that agricultural districts should allow wind energy as a use by right.”

Community-sized wind energy

The Empire Renewable Energy Committee embraces community-sized wind turbines, though not on the scale of what WERZ has proposed. Executive Director Liana May considers turbines similar to the 150-foot Vestas tower on M-72, west of Traverse City, as a “happy medium between huge wind turbines and windmills at every house.”

“We’re interested in developing community wind energy tailored to the needs of our individual community,” she says. “In Empire, we’d like to see our energy come from a more sustainable source.”

As locations, May says the Committee is exploring several farmer-owned fields east of Empire high enough to catch the wind but set back far enough from town that they wouldn’t be directly visible from National Park overlooks, the beach, or Empire itself. She says that several farmers are very interested in hosting windmills, because this could mean an added source of revenue for them, and they could continue to maintain their fields.

Two active wind turbines, May believes, would be adequate to power Empire.

But the Committee’s initiative in development faces a roadblock in an Empire Township height limit of 40 feet. The Committee is attempting to build community support for the project and may apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the “stimulus” American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for funds before hurdling that legal barrier.

“It’s important to convey that you don’t have to develop giant wind farms,” says May. “They don’t have to be owned by people who don’t live here, and you don’t have to ship (the energy) downstate. We can use our own resources and improve our standards of living without hurting the land.”

When discussing the prospect of industrial-sized wind turbines, local politics and attitudes always come into play. It’s important to note that the WERZ study and feasibility of wind farms in Leelanau County is based on natural wind energy potential and not on local political conditions, including zoning, public policies, land use, community support or opposition, costs associated with transporting energy to the electrical grid or to consumers and economic factors. The study states that WERZ doesn’t necessarily endorse or advocate for wind development in these regions — it is simply “identifying the regions with the highest wind energy potential.”

But whether or not wind turbine proponents and renewable energy advocates are able to garner popular support, we can’t deny the massive energy potential all around us — it’s blowin’ in the wind.

“It’s nice to know that Leelanau County has something to offer besides sand dunes and cherry orchards,” concludes the Michigan Land Use Institute’s Jim Lively. “We’ve got some of the best wind power in the Midwest, and we can’t ignore that resource.”

Target Women: let them eat yogurt

The Glen Arbor Sun interview with Sarah Haskins

Chicago native, and Glen Arbor summer native, Sarah Haskins is all the rage with web-savvy young women these days. Her hilarious, and smart, satirical show “Target: Women” airs at 7 and 10 p.m. on Thursdays (Eastern Standard Time) as part of infoMania on Current TV and www.Current.com — an independent media company started by former Vice President Al Gore. Haskins has been featured in Mother Jones; Salon.com predicts she’ll soon land on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show”; and a Huffington Post reader likened her to the next Samantha Bee. Personally, I’ve scored brownie points with female friends when I tell them I actually know Sarah Haskins — we used to work together at the Pine Cone ice cream shop in Glen Arbor in the mid-90s. That was before she got big.

Haskins spoke to the Glen Arbor Sun about “Target: Women,” being funny, being famous, and what she’ll do first when she visits Glen Arbor later this summer.

How did you end up in Los Angeles, and how did you get hooked up with Current TV?

Current TV is actually the reason I came to Los Angeles. I was living in Chicago and touring with the Second City. I’d been touring for about two and half years and was wondering what I’d do next when — and this is when it gets a little crazy — my next door neighbor from childhood told me about a job opening up at Current (where she used to work). So, I applied and had a weeklong freelancing tryout and was accepted.

Speaking of L.A., is it a real place? How does one go about living there?

It is a real place. It’s actually very nice if you can find the right spot. My neighborhood has a lot of trees. This is important to me. The L.A. that we see in “The Hills” or movies about Hollywood — that’s a very particular part of this city, but certainly doesn’t encompass the day-to-day existence here. Or at least mine. I still think “clubbing” is something you do when you’re hunting.

How was your show “Target: Women” born? And what is its mission (other than to make us laugh)?

Born, as many things are, by accident — I’d been working at Current about six months as a writer and wanted to do an on-air piece. In the course of watching TV to find something to satirize, I watched dozens of annoying ads about women and yogurt. “Hey,” I thought, “This is a thing.” And then we made that thing.

Its mission is to make you laugh first, and, hopefully those laughs provoke some thought about how advertising speaks to us and makes us feel about ourselves — men and women alike.

The episode parodying women’s relationship with yogurt seems to be the most popular. What brand of yogurt do you eat, Sarah?

None! I hate calcium. (To my Mom: that’s a joke.)

What’s the greatest compliment you’ve received for “Target: Women”? How about the strangest comment?

The greatest — a 15 year old in Massachusetts wrote me a letter — a real letter — and said that I was her and her best friend’s favorite comic and they were inspired by the clips. I was touched.

The strangest … well, you don’t have to go far on the Internet to find strange things. Several people have declared that they would like to marry me. I would like to dissuade them: no, do not marry me. I can’t cook and I snore. Unless you will take care of the taxes. Then, I’ll think about it.

Also, in real life I am engaged, so, that makes it somewhat difficult.

Does your mom watch “Target: Women”? How about other women in your family who precede the Internet generation?

Mom does. I think she likes it. She’s gets the Internet.

What makes you funny? Did you read a book about being funny when you were a kid?

I think being funny comes from a profound desire not to be embarrassed, something that happens to me fairly regularly. I am a clutz. (Ask Ann (Derrick) and Brendan (Burrows) at the Good Harbor Grill, where I worked for about seven summers.) So, you can laugh or drive yourself insane. I do remember, very clearly, reading a box set of Erma Bombeck that my Grammy had in Michigan — sitting on her couch, looking at the lake and laughing hysterically. I thought that the power to do that was so great and that laughing is a great feeling. So, it became part of the way I express myself.

You grew up in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and vacationed at the family cottage on Big Glen Lake. What do you miss most about the Midwest? What don’t you miss about the Midwest?

I miss Fall. And I miss the sense of community that is so important in so many Midwestern places — be it Chicago or Leelanau County. And the Cubs. I miss the Cubs.

I do not miss April, which pretends to be a spring month, but is a horrible tease and a liar.

Will you visit Glen Arbor this summer? What’s the first thing you’ll do when you get up north?

Absolutely. I will swim. And then I will go to the Good Harbor Grill and eat and catch up with Ann and Brendan. And then I will go to Art’s and have a (Bells) Oberon. Oh — I miss Oberon too. No Oberon out west.

Any chance you’ll include a reference to Glen Arbor in an upcoming episode of “Target Women?” We’re kind of funny up here, right?

I’ll try. How’s that Narrows bridge going? There’s humor in that, right?

Is it true that you and I worked together as 15 year olds at the Pine Cone ice cream shop next to the Good Harbor Grill, and that I accidentally dumped soft serve syrup all over the floors once?

This is true. Jacob, I will say, you were not meant for a life of ice cream. I am very happy you are a journalist. Because I love you. But you were bad, bad, bad at serving ice cream.

Pete Edwards’ Nordic Walking Poles help wounded war heroes walk again

Glen Arbor Sun

Wounded Iraq war veteran and Traverse City resident Michelle Rudzitis drove to Mount Adams in Washington state earlier this year for three days of solo hiking, camping and collecting her thoughts— two and a half years after a roadside bomb in Baghdad severed her left leg and nearly killed her. Rudzitis took a pair of Nordic Walking Poles given to her by Glen Arbor resident, and local running and ski coach, Pete Edwards.

The custom-made, one-piece polls strapped to her hands and didn’t put pressure on her wrists. Spikes at the base of the polls dug into the ground, allowing Rudzitis, 34, to walk on uneven terrain. She prefers them over canes and other support devices she has tried since coming home. “With the poles I can swing my arms and do normal motions,” said Rudzitis. “They’re especially helpful for walking up hills.”

Ever since Nordic Walking instructor Edwards received a letter three years ago from Wade Walrond, a Senior Station Manager with the American Red Cross at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., thanking Edwards’ website, www.SkiWalking.com, for donated walking poles, the Lake Street resident has been targeting America’s wounded warriors with his popular product.

“When the first two military orders come through, I just felt bad charging them,” said Edwards. “It didn’t seem right to take money (from wounded veterans) or to get a military contract.”

Edwards predicts that a couple dozen wounded veterans are currently using his poles. He hopes to increase that amount into the hundreds within the next year. Edwards will visit Fort Carson in Colorado this month, and he expects to demonstrate his product to doctors and nurses at Walter Reed in August.

This spring, his wife Lissa and his son Keefer visited Walter Reed, and Keefer gave wounded veterans, including Jeanette Nieves of Brooklyn, N.Y., a demonstration on how to use the walking polls. As of press time, Nieves and several of her comrades in arms were awaiting their custom-made poles, and she should have received them just before Fourth of July weekend.

“They help you walk like normal without too much weight on one side or the other,” said Nieves, 45, who was wounded in Iraq in 2006. “They work better than a cane because a cane doesn’t allow you much leverage.”

Not just for skiers

For Edwards, the appeal of his poles to wounded veterans was one of hundreds of confirmations that one-piece Nordic Walking poles are safer, lighter and much more durable than twist-locking adjustable-length, telescoping or collapsible poles. He discovered five years ago that Nordic Walking Poles were not just for expert skiers deprived of snow, but doubled as an aid for those with balance and stability issues.

Edwards started volunteering to host free Nordic Walking Clinics at Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Diabetes support group meetings. Three years ago he donated dozens of pairs of durable, one-piece Nordic Walking poles to Walter Reed. He has also shipped free Nordic Walking poles directly to injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Family members, doctors and physical therapists have been amazed by the improvement in their posture, balance, stability and gate.

For over 25 years Edwards has coached local runners and skiers. His skiers have used the poles to ski walk and bound hills during the warmer months. After a knee injury ended Edwards’ own marathon-running career, his Nordic Walking Poles saved the day — allowing him to continually walking and running without pain.

Using Nordic Walking Poles custom-made to one’s height automatically helps a person’s walking posture and radically reduces stress to the shins, knees, hips and back. Nordic Walking is low impact and yet provides a highly effective workout — burning more calories and working more muscle groups than regular walking. For the reason, Nordic Walking has been the fastest growing fitness activity in Europe for several years. Over seven million Europeans walk with poles — both in the city and in rural areas.

People who use canes or walkers often find that Nordic Walking Poles are much more comfortable and stable. Feedback from amputees and others with head trauma or balance issues indicates that poles dramatically improve balance and stability.

Walking again, with God’s help

Since Michelle Rudzitis began using the Nordic Walking Poles, she and Pete and Lissa Edwards have become good friends, and she visits them often in Glen Arbor.

Rudzitis’ war story is particularly painful. On Jan. 22, 2007, she was on patrol in a Humvee in the Iraqi capital when a roadside bomb exploded, sending copper slugs and shrapnel into the vehicle. She and her gunner were severely wounded, and the driver and interpreter were killed instantly.

When Rudzitis arrived at a military hospital, she had no pulse and was technically dead. She lost her left leg above the knee, and the right leg was badly damaged by shrapnel. Rods and pins were inserted to hold its bones together.

The fact that she’s alive today is a miracle.

Ironically, before the mission a colonel had ordered her unit to remove the five inches of protective glass from the doors of their vehicle because the glass could allegedly shatter and hurt them. But Rudzitis attests that another patrol with glass in the doors of their Humvee were also hit by a roadside bomb, and the glass stopped a copper slug, probably saving lives.

“I’d rather have a leg full of glass now than not have any left leg at all,” she said.

Rudzitis, who was promoted to staff sergeant after the attack and before her retirement, spent seven and a half months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, an experience she called “horrible … out-patient care leaves a lot to be desired.”

“It’s no wonder why many of our veterans are homeless,” she added. “Many don’t get care they need.”

The journey through hell didn’t end when she returned home to northern Michigan. Until recently, her interactions with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have put her through one trial after another. Rudzitis still gets mail telling her that she’s not completely covered for all of her medical expenses, including frequent doctors visits and prescriptions for ongoing physical and mental pain. She often pays $30 or $40 out of her pocket for co-payments.

Once or twice a week she feels deathly ill, sick to her stomach, and can’t get out of bed. She has issues with stuttering and memory loss, as well as vision and hearing loss. Not to mention Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

But on her road to recovery, at least Rudzitis has a sturdy companion when she goes hiking or stares up at a beautiful mountain. She attests that Pete’s Nordic Walking Poles have helped her immensely.

Rudzitis believes that she was brought back to life by the grace of God.

And now she can walk again too.

Seattle Machinists Apprenticeships Trains Next Generation of Windmill Workers

Apollo News Service

Journeyman machinists are retiring at a rapid pace throughout greater Seattle. To offset the dwindling workforce, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 160 is teaming up with area companies to offer a multi-year apprentice program that brings fresh hands into the industry.

The Seattle Machinists Apprentice program, which has existed since 1941 but seen a recent surge in popularity, currently boasts 34 participants. The program graduates four to eight apprentices every year.

“Journeymen are retiring and this is viewed as a dying trade,” said Kristin Nottingham, an organizer with IAM District Lodge 160. “Most people don’t think of taking classes to become machinists. But this is a great way to break into the industry.”

Most companies involved in the program are union shops, and employers cover all costs for schooling or supplemental instruction, usually at nearby Renton Technical College, which offers training for careers in assembly, gear, maintenance and marine machining, soft tooling, and tool-and-die making.

Applicants must have graduated high school or hold the equivalent of a GED, be at least 18 years old, and be physically able to perform the trade. Potential apprentices apply directly to employers that are pre-approved by the union’s apprenticeship committee. The union itself neither teaches nor trains apprentices, nor does it act as a referral. But the committee does evaluate each applicant’s prior experience and work history in order to place the trainee in the appropriate program. The apprenticeship committee also ensures that employers comply with the Washington State Apprenticeship and Training Council’s rules, including the rule that companies employ at least one journeyman-level worker for every apprentice.

The machinist apprenticeships typically require nearly 8,000 hours of training over a four-year period. Apprentices are paid 68 percent of the journeyman rate to start and receive four-percent raises every 900-1,000 hours worked until their pay reaches a journeyman’s salary.

The program recently added a 7,424-hour gear machinist apprenticeship, specifically for a local gear manufacturing and repair company called Gearworks. Considered a model employer for the apprenticeship program, Gearworks currently employs nine apprentices who are learning to make and maintain gears for wind turbines.

Wind now represents 25-30 percent of Gearworks’ business. The company was founded in 1946 and is now one of the largest gear manufacturers in North America, but it didn’t branch into the booming wind energy sector until 12 years ago, when it began redesigning wind turbine gearboxes for California-based EnXco.

“In five years, we expect to be doing 30 to 40 percent of our business in wind, or more,” said shop superintendent Mike Robison.

The Gearworks apprenticeship program requires between 160 and 1,000 hours honing the following skills: engine lathe, milling machine, drill press, tool & cutter grinding, keyset and spline broaching, small gear hobbing, small fellows gear shapers, thread milling, large gear hobbing, large fellows gear shapers, maag gear shapers, bevel gear generators, CNC gear hobbing, gear grinding, and gear measurement and inspection. Though the program includes supplemental instruction at Renton Technical College, the vast majority consists of on-the-job training.

Once hired full-time, Gearworks machinists make a journeyman’s rate of approximately $26 per hour with handsome retirement benefits.

Thirty-year-old apprentice Michael Bowman made $15 an hour as a cook before joining Gearworks three years ago. He enjoyed working with his hands, and machinery work was in his bloodline — his great grandfather was a mechanical engineer with the German navy. Bowman also knew that he’d reached the apex of his career as a line chef and that the booming wind sector offered far more room for professional growth.

“It’s nice to know that we’re part of the future, pushing toward more green energy,” said Bowman.

Gearworks currently employs 100 workers, nine of whom are apprentices. The program may soon expand to keep pace with graduating apprentices and retiring workers. The average age of a Gearworks employee is 40 years.

“The most important skills are learning how to work with the equipment,” said vice president of marketing, Jerry Magnuson. “Anyone can crunch numbers and formulas on paper, but doing it with the machinery requires a very skilled employee. A wind turbine gear is a special gear, maybe one of most accurate gears made in the world.

“If [entry-level employees] express interest and have a good work ethic and aptitude, we encourage them to take basic classes at a local community college. If we have an opening for an apprenticeship, we hire them.”

Twenty-seven-year-old Aaron Grieler has completely nearly three years of his four-year apprenticeship. Grieler came to the job with prior experience. He took machining classes for two years in high school and subsequently worked in a tool and die shop. He worked in construction before landing at Gearworks.

“This job fits my mechanical aptitude,” said Grieler. “I grew up working on cars, and I’ve always been fascinated with mechanical devices. Wind turbines are unique in their own way. Every gearbox manufacturer has their own special technique.”

Last year, Gearworks posted sales of $25 million — its fifth straight year of record revenues. The economic recession has thrown a wrench into the company’s plans, however, and management has reduced the workweek to 32 hours for 60 percent of its employees. But Magnuson believes that 2009 will prove to be a temporary setback, given wind energy’s bright future.

The local Apollo Alliance in Washington State is working hard to continue driving investment and quality job creation in the clean energy economy. After spearheading the Climate Action and Green Jobs bill and other policies to create good green jobs over the past several years, Washington Apollo Alliance is currently discussing with key stakeholders how to promote in-state manufacturing of the rolling stock needed for the growing mass transit system. When successful, this effort would create greater demand for trained machinists, steelworkers, metal fabricators, and many other skilled workers.

Gearworks also builds gears for the mining and aerospace industries, works with marine propulsion and gas compressors, and even contracts with the Department of Defense. But wind, which could generate 40 percent of the company’s revenues by 2014, is Gearworks’ fastest-growing sector.

Gearworks made its foray into wind energy when it began retrofitting 300-kilowatt machines for EnXco. “The number of wind turbines being installed is growing every year, so business for us has naturally increased,” said Magnuson. “We expect that to continue.”

The company’s longest-running project is with FPL Energy, a leading U.S. wind energy developer. Since 2000, Gearworks has rebuilt approximately 300 gearboxes for FPL’s wind farm of 250-kilowatt turbines in California. Rebuilding the gearbox costs approximately $40,000 per wind turbine.

Magnuson explains that each gearbox for a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine weighs 35,000 to 40,000 pounds and requires a 2,000 horsepower load test to make sure it performs properly. Building the infrastructure and equipment for testing gearboxes will cost an estimated $3 million, Magnuson believes. The company plans to seek approximately $5 million in federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to build a large gearbox test facility at its Seattle plant, which would employee 30 to 40 more workers.