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Weekend offers unique
events
Marquette residents and visitors will have a chance to experience the
spirit world and beyond on November 10 and 11 as the Upper Peninsula
Paranormal Society (UPPS) hosts Crossings Weekend. It includes fun activities
for any age, including hayrides, walking tours, a marketplace and a
masquerade ball.
Bobby Glenn Brown of Lake Superior Theatre will help with the walking
tour and hayrides, and both will be entertaining and enlightening. A
guided tour of Downtown Marquette is an ongoing request from visitors,
and Pat Black, executive director of the Marquette Country Convention
and Visitor’s Bureau is looking forward to this opportunity.
“The walks and hayride promise to be entertaining and loaded with
history,” Black said. “Hopefully, I can sell these tours and
enable the Lake Superior Theatre to generate some additional revenue.”
Along with providing fun for visitors, the events also are geared to
perk up business in Downtown Marquette for hotels, shops and restaurants.
“Our goal is to invite visitors and residents to attend whatever
event interests them,” Black said. “Enjoying some of our diverse
restaurants, either before or after, should also be a part of the evening.”
Another goal of the weekend is to raise awareness and support for UPPS,
a new organization started by the president and vice president of NMU’s
Paranormal Research team. President Maryanne Brown, photographer Sean
Stimac and their team have been on many investigations around the U.P.
with some surprising results.
Their scientific investigations use still and video cameras, environmental
testing, EVP readings and historical research. Brown said they take
a different approach than people might imagine. The group’s actual
aim is to prove there is no paranormal activity at these locations.
“If we can’t prove they aren’t there, it proves they
are,” Brown said. “Most of the time we come up with something
to help explain whatever is happening. But, there have been a few things
we can’t explain and some really good pictures.”
One of their most recent investigations focused on a business in Marquette
where a suicide had taken place. They recorded some audio in the room
that could not be explained, something the current residents had been
complaining about.
Another property in the Keweenaw gave them their most tangible results
to date. The property had been abandoned fifteen years ago, and the
family had left with baking still in the oven. They simply walked out
and never returned.
When thinking about their experiences there, Brown said they were fit
for a movie. The team heard a growling sound, saw movement in several
of the rooms and even got a picture of something coming through the
walls. They also recorded temperature shifts as much as ten degrees
difference on a stairway.
The night they were investigating, a medium with the team warned them
the male presence in the room was getting angry. Soon after there was
a loud crashing noise and a repercussion which actually shoved Stimac
out of the way. When the team was leaving, they heard something hitting
the car and several people saw light flash past them.
Trying to take a more scientific approach is crucial with Brown, and
for Marquette’s abandoned orphanage, she had three different mediums
assess the property. Even though they didn’t know each other, all
three had the same results. A little girl and a little boy were present.
Several pictures were taken during investigations, but it wasn’t
until six months later Brown noticed something in one of the photos.
After blowing it up, she could see the image of a face clearly.
The UPPS hopes to continue their investigations of the area, and encourages
people to ask questions. There is no fee for UPPS services. For details,
e-mail upps_marquette_mi@yahoo.com
“If there is something there, I will tell them,” Brown said.
“We would love to have everything be real, but we mostly find reasons
to explain it away. It’s usually drafts, or reflections or something
explainable.”
As for November’s festivities, Brown said the goal for the Crossings
Weekend is for people to have fun.
“It’s all good and positive stuff,” Brown said. “For
example, Reiki healing is now being used in hospitals. There is a sixty-percent
increase in healing at hospitals using it. But really, this is just
a fun weekend—that’s all there is to it.”
To wrap up the weekend, the staff at the Landmark Inn have been working
hard to ensure everyone has a fantastic time at the masquerade ball.
“What a perfect venue for this event,” Black said. “A
historic old hotel, darkened lobby, music, adult beverages and masked,
costumed adults enjoying what is a really dreary time of the year. Growing
up in Marquette, it has been a long time since an event like this has
taken place.”
A Haunted Stroll tour of downtown will be narrated with ghostly tales
of our most haunted buildings. Highlights include the Masonic building,
the Landmark Inn, J.J.’s Shamrock, Upfront & Company, The Backroom,
Getz’s and Jackson’s Cut Alley. Meet at the Commons area to
begin this one-hour walk. Admission is $5 per person, and tours begin
at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. on Friday, and 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30
p.m. on Saturday.
Seating is limited on the Haunted Hayride horse-drawn tour through Downtown,
complete with ghost stories and a few other spooky surprises. You’ll
travel all the way to Founders Landing and back for an admission of
$5. Meet at the Commons area for the rides, which leave at 6:30, 7:00,
7:30 and 8:00 p.m. on Friday, and every half hour on Saturday from 5:30
to 8:30 p.m.
Hidden identity is the key for the Masquerade Ball; you must wear your
mask until midnight. Those older than twenty-one can stop by the Landmark
Inn lobby for dancing and a cash bar. Admission is $5 and the ball starts
at 9:00 p.m. Saturday night.
A Mystical Marketplace will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on
Saturday, at the Landmark Inn. Local vendors will have their wares on
display all day. During this time, spiritual seminars will be held in
the Landmark Inn Penthouse on spiritual healing, psychic training and
more. Seating is limited, so arrive early. The schedule is as follows:
• Noon—“How to Be Your Own Psychic” with Roslyn
McGrath
• 1:00 p.m.—“Ghost Hunting” with Keith Norton
• 2:00 p.m.—“Energy Working” with Joan Jennings
• 3:00 p.m.—“Dream Analysis” with Norton
• 4:00 p.m.—“Introduction to Reiki Healing”
with Norton
While Norton has many documented successes behind him now, he wasn’t
always in touch with the spirit world, and didn’t start experimenting
with his gifts until he was twelve years old.
“At first, I would practice making contact with the spirits in
the afterlife just for fun, but soon realized that the gift I had was
something truly special,” he said. “I received my validation
that the gift I had was real when I actually made contact with my grandmother
who passed over unexpectedly two years before.”
Norton continues to contact his grandmother. He also has started practicing
Reiki healing, which uses a concentration of healing energy transmitted
by the practitioner. The word Reiki actually is a combination of two
Japanese words: Rei which means “universal spirit” and Ki
which means “energy flow.” With this energy that flows from
a higher source, Norton can target and heal specific ailments.
“I found that the Reiki greatly heightened my senses to the world
of universal energy,” Norton said. “I took this newfound heightened
awareness and combined it with my lifelong interest in the paranormal.
It was really amazing to me to be able to go to a place that I have
never been before, and accurately describe what it was like, and the
events that took place there in a previous time.”
Norton uses his gifts to help others find peace.
“As a medium, I find it really gratifying to be able to connect
my clients with their loved ones who have passed on,” he said.
Another presenter for the Crossings Weekend is Roslyn McGrath. Her list
of credits includes artist, author, teacher, healer, certified Health-Happiness-Harmony
Dowser, channel and publisher. Personal health issues in 1996 helped
McGrath get in touch with her talents as an intuitive. When she was
told there was no conventional medicine to help her, she sought alternative
methods.
While living in New York, she began going to a chiropractor familiar
with muscle testing and other techniques. During a particularly uncomfortable
adjustment, he placed his fingers on the back of her neck for a few
moments. Her neck felt better than she could ever remember and a tear
rolled down her cheek.
“I didn’t know what it was or what he did, but as I started
researching it, I learned that people can learn and teach this, and
then I found I could do other forms of healing,” she said. “I
was able to connect with other levels of reality through subtle perceptions.
When you raise your vibration you are more tuned in and can experience
more of the universe.”
The vibrations refer to an energetic healing or energy field healing,
which tells us that everything has a vibration or a frequency. If an
energy field vibrates slowly enough, we experience it as a physical
object. The faster the energy vibrates, the less physical it is. You
may not think we can read these vibrations, but McGrath has a clear
example.
“Although we don’t see emotions, we can feel them,” she
said. “You can sense when someone is happy or sad or hurt, without
them speaking about it. Our thoughts are at a higher frequency, and
our spiritual being is at a faster vibration.”
Healing works with these energy fields of the body, mind and spirit
to accelerate the natural healing process. People try to connect with
universal energy and the healer acts as a natural conduit.
McGrath’s first training was a Healing Touch Level 1 class. La
Ho-Chi was her next level, and the one she uses most.
She said this focuses on divine love and oneness.
“It’s a very simple method of a slight laying on of hands
or just over the body,” she said. “With clear intention it’s
a simple way to connect with the source energy; not just by thinking
about it but by actually experiencing it.”
Her professional experience as a visual artist and art educator, with
training from the R.I. School of Design and a master’s degree from
the State University of New York at New Paltz, also helps McGrath express
her gifts. She offers drawings called soul gift sketches to reflect
people’s inner gifts, which may not even be realized. She finds
symbols to help people recognize and validate these attributes, but
it’s just the starting point.
“People need to delve into that and see what they bring to the
process,” she said. “They can’t limit it to what I bring
them. I’m just a catalyst.”
McGrath has offered spiritual essence drawings to show attributes in
the present time and healer touchstone drawings for those working as
healers.
Like these drawings, McGrath’s workshop on Saturday promises to
get people in touch with their own gifts. “Be Your own Psychic—Tuning
into Your Natural Guidance System” is a training session for tapping
into psychic energy.
“All the wisdom we require is inside us,” she said. “I
would say, depending on your point of view, maybe not inside, but available
to us. But people don’t know how to connect with that voice. Our
culture has not nourished that.”
McGrath’s workshop at noon on Saturday will include several methods
to help get in touch with your inner voice, such as simple breath and
movement meditation and prayer.
“I’m going to share basic concepts fundamental to being able
to tune in,” McGrath said. “I’ll take people through
learning some tips to bring them to the state where they can more readily
receive this wisdom. It’s all about methods for clarifying.”
She will be providing a Practical Wisdom class this year to help people
apply their natural guidance system in everyday life.
A $5 donation per seminar is requested.
The U.P. Children’s Museum will host “Creating Fun With Spooky”
at 5:30 p.m. on November 9. Different stations will offer spooky hands-on
activities designed for preschool- and elementary-age children with
a parent or guardian. The event is free with museum admission or membership.
The museum is located on Baraga Avenue in Marquette.
Whether you are looking to expand your vision, enlighten yourself on
local history or just enjoy a fun evening out of the house, the Crossings
Weekend has something for you. For details, call 228-2369.
—Jamie Lafreniere
Area volunteers form
boys choir
Area volunteers interested in music and children came together to make
something happen—a county-wide boys choir.
In the fall of 2005, a group of individuals began discussion about creating
a boys choir in Marquette County. The committee, composed of NICE School
District vocal instructor Tony Beacco, Ishpeming School District vocal
instructor Shiela Grazulis, lshpeming-Negaunee-NICE Community Education
Division director Bill Hartman, and Ishpeming resident Bob Marietti.
From this initial discussion, plans moved forward, and a proposal that
has the support of administrators and vocal instructors from across
the county grew.
The committee contacted the Battle Creek Boychoir, an organization that
has been around since the ’80s that grew from a church music program,
and has relied on the expertise of their director, Brooks Grantier,
to form the local chorus. Bob and Cheryl Marietti even traveled to Battle
Creek earlier this year to meet with choir administrators and Grantier
to gather first-hand information.
A time-line for the creation of the choir formally started in September
2006, following the beginning of the school year. Auditions for the
choir were conducted across the county, open to all boys ages eight
to fourteen years of age with unchanged voices, including boys who are
home schooled.
A music camp was held at Bay Cliff Health Camp in September to aide
the organization and bonding of group.
The local choir is composed of sixteen voices from major school districts
in the county, with the boys ranging in age from seven to twelve.
The Ishpeming School District has offered their modern music room and
the beautiful W.C. Peterson Auditorium as the choir’s home venue
as an in-kind contribution.
Parents of the chorus members have formed an auxiliary, which is expected
to be a strong support arm through the contribution of volunteered time
and talents. Parents are responsible for their child’s participation
fee, $150 a year. Scholarships are available to families lacking the
financial ability to pay.
The choir has acquired the talent of vocal instructor and director Sharon
Green, who will lead the chorus.
“When I sat down with vocal teachers from the area to find out
who was available for the position, the chorus sang out ‘Sharon
Green’,” Marietti said. “We are lucky to have her; she
is a busy woman.”
Marietti said Green is very patient and brings out the confidence in
the boys.
Green, who is originally from the Manistique area, was a distinguished
music teacher in the Marquette school system for thirty-one years and
is presently a Northern Michigan University professor in the music education
department. Laura Woolard, Green’s sister, will serve as accompanist.
“They come from a very musical family,” Marietti said.
In this first year, the Ishpeming-Negaunee-NICE Community Education
Division is handling accounting and financial transactions, and the
NICE Community School District being the fiscal agent.
The Community Education Division is assisting in the promotion of the
program.
In the future, the group hopes to become a 501(c)3. The Mariettis will
act as business managers on an in-kind basis for the chorus during the
2006-07 year, with intentions to hire a paid business manager for future
years.
The first public performance will be the “We Will Sing” concert
at 3:00 p.m. on November 26 at the W.C. Peterson Auditorium in Ishpeming.
The event will feature of collection of songs, some winter-related,
and a lot of solos.
Tickets are $5 and are available at Peninsula Bank and Ishpeming Community
Federal Credit Union in Ishpeming; Range Banks and the Superior Iron
Range Credit Union in Neguanee; and Forsberg Flowers and Peninsula Bank
in Marquette.
“We’re hoping the concert will generate some funds, and create
awareness of our group,” Marietti said.
A board of directors will be created in the fall of 2006 to oversee
choir operation and prepare for the eventual move toward a total independence.
Public fundraising is ongoing.
A goal of $25,000 has been established for the 2006-07 performance year.
Businesses and individuals who wish to support the choir should send
their checks to: INN Community Schools, with “boys choir”
in the memo line, at 101 Pioneer Avenue, Negaunee, MI 49866. For details,
call 486-6379.
—Boys Choir press release
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