Past Programs

By South Haven History Students

The National History Day Contest Theme for 2024 is “Turning Points in History”.
“A turning point in history is more than just an important event that happened a long time ago. A turning point is an idea, event, or action that directly, or sometimes indirectly, causes change.” -NHD.org

The students, with the guidance of their teacher, Julie Sheppard, will be preparing their projects for the National History Day 2024 competition. Join us at Scott Club as their live audience to witness the result of the hard work that goes into these wonderful projects.

By Robin Beebee

From comfort to creativity, marijuana has many positive effects. Robin BeeBee, founder of Selectively Social Cannababes, will provide an overview of the various types and uses of cannabis, including the distinctive properties of THC and CBD as well as their diverse health and wellness benefits.

By Peter A. Schmitt, PT, DPT, MS

While in Oberstdorf, Germany, Dr. Schmitt’s interest was piqued by residents of all ages using what looked like ski poles to walk on dry land. His subsequent research revealed a body of evidence-based literature indicating significant value of the technique for both able-bodied and disabled persons alike. Dr. Schmitt will discuss the history of Nordic walking, its inception and progression. Demonstration will include proper technique as well as some simple exercises that can be done with Nordic walking poles. He will also show examples of different pole designs and discuss equipment selection based on the pros and cons of each. The presentation will include a free raffle drawing for a set of Nordic walking poles.

Peter A. Schmitt, PT, DPT, MS, is a retired Doctor of Physical Therapy with a 45-plus year career in the Chicago area. His clinical and management roles within multiple settings included a wide range of patient diagnoses with eventual areas of specialization predominantly focused on diabetes prevention, amputees, neurological conditions, and movement disorders (including Parkinson’s Disease) within the geriatric population. In the course of expanding his clinical “toolbox”, he trained as a Nordic Walking instructor through the American Nordic Walking Association (ANWA). Dr. Schmitt has presented at the Rush University Hospital Movement Disorders Patient Symposium, demonstrating the poles’ value in improving gait in Parkinson’s patients.

By Author, Dr. Anna-Lisa Cox

Anna-Lisa Cox is an award-winning historian of nineteenth-century America whose studies have focused on race relations of the frontier and rural Midwest. Her 2006 book, A Stronger Kinship, documents the history of Covert, Michigan and the policies of inclusion and equality that helped to form it. If you would like a signed copy of her book, please purchase it on Amazon in advance and bring it to the program.

Dr. Cox is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Her original research underpins two exhibits at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture while her writing has been featured in a variety of publications including The Washington Post and The New York Times. The blog entry she co-wrote on racial massacres in the antebellum North for the Smithsonian’s NMAH blog went viral in the summer of 2020. Her recent book The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality was honored by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of the best history books of 2018. She just completed a major project for the Library of Congress Folklife Center collecting oral histories from multi-generational African American farmers in the Midwest. She is currently directing the Questioning Conversation video series for the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program while completing her next book.

By Sue Reichert, M.M, M.A

The 19th century began with a U.S. government “Indian Problem” that cultivated into a tragic and deadly period for our Native American ancestors. “Their Spirits Still Cry” – Life in an Indian Boarding School links the written and oral history of what life was like at the schools, and how it impacted Native American lives and the lives of their families and generations to follow. By linking these oral and written accounts with historical documentation, photos, treaties, the Meriam Report, and archaeological findings, we can try to pull together a picture of what life was like at an Indian Boarding School. This program is also a tie-in to the 2023-24 Great Michigan Read* selection of THE FIRE KEEPER’S DAUGHTER by Angeline Boulley which will be discussed in book club May 28th.

Sue Reichert earned her Masters of Anthropology from Western Michigan University in 2016 beginning a new chapter after 37 years at the Kellogg Company in Quality and Research & Development. While studying for her master’s degree she focused on Indian Boarding Schools, an area she is very passionate about because of her Native American ancestry. Another of her passions is bringing archaeology into schools, creating an in-depth curriculum fitting within Michigan school standards. Getting students excited about archaeology and that “it is not what we find, but what we find out” (Michael S. Nassaney, Ph.D.), is crucial.

*The 2023-24 Great Michigan Read is presented by Michigan Humanities and supported by national, statewide, and local partners, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Meijer Foundation, Library of Michigan, Image Creative Group, and BiblioBoard. Laborers’ International Union of North America, MSU Federal Credit Union, and Library of Michigan.

By M. Christine Byron

The “Green Book”, as it was commonly called, was a travel guide for African American motorists listing places where African Americans were welcome customers, so they could “vacation without aggravation.” Christine Byron will give an overview of the history of the “Green Book”, started by Victor Green, and focus on places in Michigan that were listed in the travel guide from 1938 through 1966/67. Some places, like Idlewild and Detroit, were well-known for their African American communities, and had multiple listings. Other places, like Bitely and Paw Paw, had only a few listings. Some surprises like Bay Shore were fascinating discoveries. As a historian of Michigan tourism, Byron will take you on a journey back to a time when Black travelers were advised to “carry your Green Book with you … you may need it.”

Christine Byron retired from her position as the Local Historical Collections librarian for the Grand Rapids Public Library. She is an avid reader of Michigan history and has collected old Michigan travel and tourist memorabilia for over twenty-five years. She and her husband, Tom Wilson, have co-authored five award-winning books in their Vintage Views series on the history of Michigan tourism. Historic Leelanau is their sixth book. Christine and Tom operate a business creating prints from old Michigan and Great Lakes tourist and travel ephemera.

By Black History Leadership Society

Join us at the Scott Club as we begin celebrating Black History Month with the South Haven Black History Leadership Society as they present their program for 2024: “Fighting to Keep Black History Alive”.

Each year the Black History Leadership Society chooses someone that exemplifies community leadership and will announce their Honoree for 2024. The Society also awards a student the Youth On The Rise Scholarship each year. We will learn about the scholarship, how we can contribute, and how it makes an impact on our local community.

By Brenda Walker Beadenkopf

Brenda’s Philadelphia Quaker father, Charles C. Walker, met and corresponded with Dr. Martin Luther King. When and why did they meet? What common beliefs held their friendship? How did they develop the principles, strategies, and tactics of nonviolence used successfully in the movement? Nonviolence sounds like a simple concept, but in the 1950s and 1960s, it became the basis for a complex national movement that changed the face of the nation. Charles Walker was one of the ordinary Americans that helped start that revolution.

Quaker historian and author of A Quaker Behind the Dream, Brenda Walker Beadenkopf works tirelessly to promote her father’s work with Dr. Martin Luther King at conferences and many other venues in the United States and Kenya and has spoken and led workshops about the importance of nonviolence in the successful protests of the 1950s and 1960s. After graduating from Southwestern Michigan College’s journalism program with a 4.0 GPA, she served as editor of the award-winning Berrien County Record newspaper in Buchanan, Michigan, published three books about her father, and has had articles printed in Guideposts, Friends Journal and Highground magazines.