Marge Sorge

Covenant House Detroit

Covenant Community Care Receives Grant To Help Patients With Chronic Diseases, Behavioral Health

It’s sad, but true. In Michigan, nearly 17 percent of adults with mental illness are uninsured and find it difficult to get the treatment they need. To make matters worse, the disease puts them at risk for other chronic medical conditions. To help alleviate some of the burden Covenant Community Care was presented with a $96,250 grant from a unique partnership between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation, the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation an...

Changing Perceptions About DetroitDetroit Orientation Institute

Detroit Orientation Institute Celebrates A Quarter Century Of Changing Assumptions About The City

Detroit can be daunting for new arrivals – executives, journalists, students and residents alike. They wonder “where can I find out about the city’s history, businesses, possibilities, challenges, politics and culture?” “Is everything I’ve heard about the city true?” “Where can I meet the change makers?” “Where can I do it easily and quickly?” For 25 years the Detroit Orientation Institute (DOI), housed at Wayne State University, has been the answer to those questions. It will celebrate...

DetroitNeighborhoods

Neighborhoods Rising Summit To Offers Ideas, Tools, Actions To Transform Detroit

Every Detroit neighborhood must be livable, lovable and vibrant for our city to truly transform. Its future depends on it. Our neighborhoods are looking for ways to: Fight blight and crime. Set up strong block clubs. Find volunteers. Help youth find the right path. Find funding. Groom future leaders. Train for jobs. The 7th annual ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Rising Summit addresses these issues and more. It will be held Saturday, Nov. 5 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the downtown ca...

EntrepreneurshipMacomb CountyMake Cup

Detroit Area Entrepreneur Puts Your Makeup In Easy Reach And Keeps Plastic Out Of Landfills

You’ve heard the phrase “my cup runneth over.” Well the same can be said for most make-up zipper pouches. It’s a dilemma Christina Bellas decided to fix as she travelled around the Midwest designing uniforms for casinos. That was her profession before she started her company, Make-Cup. She spent days in planes, trains and automobiles and found one of her biggest issues was how to carry her cosmetics. Always wanting to look her best when meeting customers, she says she “had to freshen my make...

Detroit neighborhoodsKresge Foundation

Got An Idea For A Neighborhood Project? You Could Share In A $2 Million Grant From Kresge

$2 million. That’s the amount the Kresge Foundation wants to share with 15-20 Detroit community-based nonprofits with projects to transform neighborhoods. This is the third round of Kresge Innovative Projects: Detroit, a $5 million pilot initiative launched in 2014. The program asked whether grants of up to $150,000 for projects designed by community-based organizations can make an impact across the city. Applications for projects taking place within the city of Detroit and led by Detroit-ba...

Children's HospitalCostume PartyHalloween

Kids At Children’s Hospital Get A Reprieve From The Really Scary Stuff

She was just about 4 feet tall with straight brown hair and sad eyes with dark circles underneath. She came tentatively down the hall from her room at Children’s Hospital of Michigan pushing her IV cart. She looked timidly into the room filled with Halloween costumes, games, face paints and more and staffed by volunteers from Spirit Halloween stores. The sad face turned to joy when she joined the party became part of the magic of Halloween. One volunteer dressed as a pirate was particularly...

DraculaHilberry Theatre

Dracula Walks The Night At Wayne State's Hilberry Theatre October 21-November 6

It’s the time of year the undead walk, and they will be walking and blood sucking at the Hilberry Theatre from October 21 through November 6. That’s when Wayne State University’s Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance will breathe new life into Bram Stoker’s Dracula. You remember the story. The world’s best-known Transylvanian vampire stalks the street of Victorian London at night looking to drink the blood of new prey while a young lawyer, Jonathan Harker, and his fiancée, Mina Murr...

Arts & CultureDoing GoodFoundations

66 Detroit Area Arts And Cultural Organizations Share $5.1 Million In Foundation Grants

Sixty-six arts and cultural organizations in metro Detroit will share $5.1 million for their operations from The Kresge Foundation Detroit Program over the next three years. More than half of the organizations are based in the city of Detroit. The others are in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. A little more than half of the funding will support the activities of small- to medium-size organizations, with the balance going to larger institutions such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Henr...

Bike ride in Detroiteventsthings to do

Tour de Troit Returns For A Remarkable 15th Year - And You Could Win A Shinola Bike

There promises to be a caravan or convocation of cyclists there. (We’re not sure what you would call the more than 7,500 people expected to ride in this year’s Tour de Troit on Saturday, September 17, but we know it’s not a gaggle because that is an unorganized group doing nothing.) That certainly won’t be the case at the 15th year for this annual ride. Those participating will ride 30 miles – the very energetic will do 62 – and raise money for a great cause. Tour de Troit has raised more than...

abusedHelping the homelesshome design

Humbly Helping Our Formerly Homeless Neighbors To Truly Have A Home, Not Just A House

Humble Design is just that – humble. You won’t hear them tooting their horn about number of families coming out of homeless and abuse shelters they’ve helped have a home, not just house, or that they have made it possible for those families to smile again and rebuild their lives. The Pontiac-based organization does it all by repurposing donated gently used household goods that teams of designers use to furnish and decorate the house to make it as close to the dream home the family has always w...

General MotorsGiving Back

Five Metro Area Nonprofits Receive $50,000 In Grants From Two GM Assembly Plants

The General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center and Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant awarded $50,000 in grants to five metro Detroit nonprofit organizations committed to community development, environmental cleanup and educational programs. The nonprofits were voted on by employees at each plant and awarded through the GM Community Grants program, funded by the GM Foundation. The checks were presented during Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly’s annual employee appreciation day event. Each organi...

SyFyThe WhitneyThe Whitney Haunted

The Whitney To Hold Premier Party For Ghost Hunters Episode Featuring The Restaurant And Its Spirits

The Whitney is haunted and we have a picture of the ghost. Check out the shadowy figure of a woman on the left. The SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters looked for that ghost and others when it recently filmed an episode at the restaurant. The episode, Phantom for the First Course, debuts August 17 and you can see it at the haunted grounds. The Whitney is holding a “Restore the Floor” viewing party that day from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. The Ghost Hunters show starts at 9:00 p.m. For $75 a person...

Books for kidsDetroit Public SchoolsDetroit schools

Detroit Could Get Another First: Little Free Libraries In Every School In A District

Many of us carry our own little library with us. It’s called a Nook or a Kindle or one of the other e-readers. Mine’s a Nook. When I open it up sayings appear. One of them is a quote from Cicero, “A room without a book is like a body without a soul.” Reading books brings whole new worlds to life and sets the stage for future success. Unfortunately, the reading statistics for many kids in Detroit are dismal – 12 percent can’t read and 33 percent don’t read. Only 11 percent are elite readers....

DetroitITADAKUMike Han

Sustainable Sushi Restaurant ITADAKU To Open In Detroit Later This Year

It has been said preparing food is art. It can also be said art is food for the soul. Mike Han plans to give you both when his new, casual sushi restaurant, ITADAKU, opens in Corktown at 1701 Trumbull Ave. later this year. ITADAKU is the intersection of Han’s two greatest passions, art and sushi. Besides preparing the sushi, he will design and paint tableware, bowls and murals for the restaurant. The eatery will serve high quality sustainable sushi, fast. It will feature Daku Maki (large f...

Detroit YogaYogaYoga on the riverfront

Moonlight Yoga Comes Back To The Riverfront For Three Sessions

Ready to get your yoga on? Ready to warm up with the garudasana (eagle pose), do the happy baby or breath using the ujjayi? You can do it all and more on the Detroit riverfront by the light of the moon. On Wednesday, July 20, at 9:00 p.m. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy will host the first Moonlight Yoga session of the summer at West RiverFront Park located at 1801 W. Jefferson.   Moonlight Yoga is more than just fun. It can help you reduce st...

Detroit Park upgradesDetroit Parkspark

Viola Liuzzo Park In Detroit To Get $1 Million In Upgrades

Back in 1965, Viola Liuzzo left her home, husband and five children in Detroit and headed Alabama to help Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference register African-American voters in Selma. She helped by driving supporters between Selma and Montgomery so they could participate in the freedom march from Selma to Montgomery. On March 21, she and another civil rights worker, Leroy Moton, an African-American teenager, were driving back to Selma on Highway 80. Another car...

QLINE Construction Closing: Westbound Warren At Woodward Starts This Weekend

Many of you travel around Detroit on Woodward and Warren so we wanted to be sure you knew westbound Warren Ave. at Woodward Ave. will close on Friday, July 8, 2015 at 8:00 pm. Construction crews will be working extended hours until the construction for the QLINE at this intersection is complete. Pedestrian and vehicular detour routes will have directional signage. Motorists and pedestrians will be able to access businesses in the area. On-street parking will be maintained. Vehicles traveli...

artCranbrookMercedes Benz

Cranbrook Grad Student Makes Tracks With Art At Mercedes-Benz Financial Services

Brandon Bullard’s grandmother drove a Mercedes. His grandfather drove a Mercedes. His mother drove one, too. So when it came time for Bullard to produce a piece of art as part of his graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art it seemed only natural to create something for the Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Experiencing Perspectives program. The Colorado native first “played” the project in his head to come up with just the right formula for his original fiber art piece. The answer was to u...