E-M:/ NMEAC Talent Show Fundraiser June 15 in Traverse City

[Kelly Thayer <kelly@mlui.org>]

Press Release from
the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council
June 5, 2002

For further information contact:

•       

Christine
Smith, Talent Show Coordinator

        

(231)
929-1732

        

E-Mail:
ckmciver@aol.com

•       

Ken
Smith, NMEAC Chair

        

(231)
947-3280

        

E-Mail: 
ken@greatprograms.org

Giant Tree-Huggers Talent Show Announced
Robin Lee Berry To Be Headline Act;
19 Other Groups Performing at Traverse City's Milliken Auditorium June 15

NMEAC is hosting an exciting event on June 15 aimed at saving one of
our area's greatest treasures: the Boardman River
valley.   Twenty groups, including regional jazz singer
Robin Lee Berry, will perform in the First Annual Tree-Huggers' Talent
Show at NMC's Milliken Auditorium in Traverse City.  

In addition to Robin Lee Berry, other acts will include guitarist/singer
Morgan Coyne, cello/piano duet by Eva Lymenstaull and Susan Day, comedy
skits by NMEAC, the Sierra Club and the Michigan Land Use Institute,
drummers, storytellers and a variety of other local talent.  The
show will be hosted by long-time Traverse City performer and civic leader
Bryan Crough.

Advance tickets at $12 are on sale at Oryana Food Co-op and can be
ordered by phone by calling the NMEAC office at 231-946-6931. 
Tickets at the door will be $14.

The show is a fundraiser to support a lawsuit filed by NMEAC and four
other regional and national environmental groups to stop the proposed
Boardman River bridge project. (To learn more about the lawsuit, please
visit
http://www.mlui.org/projects/transport/tcbypass/tcintro.html 
)


"The Hammond-Hartman road and bridge fight is the biggest campaign
NMEAC has ever been involved in," said  NMEAC chair Ken
Smith.  "The stakes are the biggest in our generation.  We
will either lose or save one of our area's most important natural and
recreational treasures.  Once the Boardman River valley is gone,
it is gone forever," Smith said.

"The Talent Show will be a blast!" said show coordinator
Christine Smith.  The acts were selected through an open audition
process that began in mid-April.  Some, such as Robin Lee Berry's,
feature original songs and long time Northern Michigan favorites. 
Others are brand new, developed especially for the show. 

"Nobody will escape un-scathed," said Christine Smith. 
"We'll be making fun of ourselves as well as everybody else. And the
music will be great."  Environmentalists as well as developers,
local politicians and road-builders are among the targets of satirical
music and skits  that the songwriters and skitwriters will roll out
on June 15.

The curtain will rise at 7:00 p.m.

Ken Smith,
Chair
NMEAC
539 East Eighth Street
Traverse City, MI 49686
Phone 231-947-3280
Fax 231-947-5734
-
*************************************
Mr. Kelly Thayer
Transportation Project Manager
Michigan Land Use Institute

205 South Benzie Boulevard
P.O. Box 500
Beulah, MI 49617

Ph: 231-882-4723
Fax: 231-882-7350
E-mail: kelly@mlui.org
Internet: http://www.mlui.org/