Past Programs

By Keith Howard, Digital Preservation Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library
7:00 pm in person at Scott Club
To attend by Zoom, request an invite by email to info@scottclub.org

The story of the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago Railway, otherwise known as the “Fruit Belt Line,” is a rather long and twisted tale of “wishful thinking and hoped-for wealth.” The short-lived railroad originally was planned to be an efficient electric interurban train connecting Kalamazoo and South Haven. Instead, it became a ramshackle steam train that meandered through Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties toward the Lake Michigan shoreline. Join us as we learn how the “Fruit Belt Line” came to be and what became of it while we trace its route through the West Michigan countryside.

Keith Howard is a Digital Preservation Specialist at the Kalamazoo Public Library and a former instructor of business communication and information technology at WMU’s Haworth College of Business. He has a true passion for exploring and documenting local history. Keith has authored or contributed to more than one hundred articles on the KPL website, and his work has appeared in several leading publications, including Michigan History Magazine, SW Michigan Spark, Brewery History journal, and others. Keith lives in Oshtemo with his dog, Benson.

By David Benac, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Western Michigan University

The sustainability movement strives to meet cultural, economic, and environmental needs for the long term. Michigan demonstrated the power of this complex movement before the term existed. In the late 1960s, Berrien County challenged the use of DDT when the insecticide threatened the culture and economy of Southwest Michigan. At the same time, Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) created the Black Lake Conference Center launching one of the most significant efforts in US history to connect environmental health, civil rights, and workers’ rights into a single movement. This presentation explores the ways Michiganders created a blueprint for sustainability that we’re still trying to match today.

David Benac is an associate professor of history at Western Michigan University. He teaches and advises graduate students in environmental and public history, including cultural resources management, environmental movements, heritage tourism, historic preservation, and oral history. His research investigates how individuals and communities develop cultural ties to environments (built, natural, and landscape) and how these connections emerge in grassroots activism. His current major work is a forthcoming book titled Voices of Ecological Truth Tellers: The Rainforest Action Network and Grassroots Organizing.

12:00 pm at Van Buren County Senior Services, 08337 M-140. NO ZOOM.
RSVP Required. Email to info@scottclub.org

Join the Scott Club members for a wonderful lunch and entertainment. We will call our Annual Meeting to order at 12:00 pm. The installation of our new executive board will take place during the meeting. After the meeting, we will enjoy a lunch prepared by Senior Services and followed by an entertaining program by Andrea Cheeseman, entitled:

Collaborating with Frogs and other Musicians

Andrea Cheeseman is a clarinetist, teacher and new music advocate based in southwest Michigan. Throughout her career, she has been committed to playing good music and collaborating with inspiring people who challenge her. She is a sought-after performer of electroacoustic music and has been the featured artist at festivals such as Third Practice, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance and Electronic Music Midwest.

Send an email to info@scottclub.org for details and to RSVP.

By South Haven History Club Students

To celebrate the 50th anniversary, the National History Day’s theme will be “Rights & Responsibilities in History”. This year’s theme invites students to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. The key to this theme is addressing BOTH rights AND responsibilities. These are two powerful forces in history, but one does not work without the other. -NHD.org

History teacher, Julie Sheppard, will bring students to the Scott Club to present their contest theme projects. This is an opportunity for the students to present in front of a live audience. Please join us to encourage them on to state and national competition!

Friday, May 9th from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Saturday, May 10th from 9:00 am to noon.

Beautify your surroundings with gorgeous plants by supporting the South Haven Scott Club Annual Flower Sale. Geraniums in many colors and a variety of ferns and hanging baskets will be available. Funds raised will help us maintain our historic building and provide a rich variety of programs.

By Tobin T. Buhk, Author

Visit some of Michigan’s creepiest locations in this photographic expedition of historic prisons and county jails. Take a trip back in time and venture inside the old Detroit House of Corrections, the State Penitentiary at Jackson and several county jails. Eavesdrop on inmates working off the “hard labor” portion of their sentences in the prison shops, enter a cellblock, and learn about late 19th century prison life. Meet the wardens, turnkeys, keepers, sheriffs and their most infamous residents.

Tobin T. Buhk is a freelance author specializing in historical true crime. To research his first book, Cause of Death, he volunteered in a county morgue. His subsequent true-crime publications include Skeletons in the Closet, True Crime in the Civil War, and Poisoning the Pecks of Grand Rapids. Mr. Buhk lectures frequently on historic crime.

By Alexandra Newman, Region IV Area Agency on Aging

“The Story of Aging” is an overview of Area Agency on Aging’s programs and services through the lens of real community members who have called the Agency’s free Info-Line for Aging and Disability and want to share their stories with others. Along the way, Alexandra will share a few tips on how she gets a good client impact story through interviews and photos, and how Area Agency on Aging can help connect older adults and people with disabilities to a wide network of providers, partners, and programs to help them age independently.

Alexandra Newman is the communications and outreach coordinator at Region IV Area Agency on Aging. When she joined the Agency in early 2023, she brought a decade of story-telling experience to the role. A journalist by training, she uses a variety of mediums to tell the story of Area Agency on Aging. A job at The Herald-Palladium newspaper brought Newman to Southwest Michigan in 2017 and she instantly fell in love with the unsalted Lake Michigan coast. She’s an advocate and cheerleader for keeping older adults and people with disabilities living independently in their homes or wherever they may choose.