March 24, 2021 FridayMusings is your source for what we love about Livonia
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With national campaigns asking leaders across the country to endorse taking the COVID-19 vaccine and with our Mayor implementing a Vaccinate Livonia program FridayMusings thought to ask our other local elected leaders if they would take the vaccine if offered or if they have already taken the vaccine. Here are the responses.
14 elected officials representing Livonia responded that Yes they would get the COVID-19 vaccine shots if offered and available or had in fact already received the shot (s), 1 said it was a private decision and did not answer the inquiry, 5 did not respond after 2 requests were made:
State and County Elected Officials
Michigan State Senator Dayne Polehanki: I just received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine as I am 51 and am now qualified. I look forward to receiving my second dose in about a month.
Michigan State Representative Laurie Pohutsky: I have not yet taken the vaccine but I will absolutely be getting it when I am eligible and can obtain one.
Wayne County Commissioner Terry Godfroid Marecki: Yes I am getting my second shot on Friday.
City of Livonia Administrative Elected Officials
Livonia Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan: Yes. I would take the vaccine. Yes. I have already received the vaccine.
Livonia Clerk Susan Malone Nash: Yes. I have been vaccinated. Received both doses. I think it is important for all of us to look out for each other. Getting vaccinated is not just for yourself but for our community
Livonia Treasurer Lynda Scheel: After reading several articles, watching different news reports, and talking with many people, I made the decision that I would get the vaccine; and I have received the Pfizer vaccine.
Livonia City Council
Livonia Councilwoman Cathy White: I will take the COVID 19 vaccine if offered.
Livonia Councilman Jim Jolly: I received the vaccine, I trust experts and science.
Livonia Councilwoman Laura Toy: It is an individual choice and a medical one as well- yes I have had the Covid 19 shot.
Livonia Councilman Brandon McCullough: I am in full support of vaccinating from this horrible virus, this is the process of saving lives while returning to a more normal way of life. I received shot number one, and my wife Kacie, who is a special education teacher has been fully vaccinated for three weeks.
The following 1 elected official did not answer the question as to whether or not they have had the shot or would if available:
Livonia Councilman Robert Donovic: I am not a medical professional, if people choose to get a vaccine or not to get a vaccine, that’s their personal private decision.
No response was received from 2 City Council members.
Livonia Board of Education
Livonia School Trustee Colleen Burton: I am thrilled to have received the Covid vaccine! In addition to protecting my own health, I am grateful for this opportunity to do my part to protect the health of my high-risk family members and coworkers. Any step that I can take to help put this virus behind us and get back to normal life, count me in!
Livonia School Trustee Karen Bradford: Yes, I am fully vaccinated and am in favor of everyone getting the vaccine when available. We all need to do our part.
Livonia School Trustee Liz Jarvis: I have already had both doses, and I am grateful to LPS for overseeing the process. I am also glad that they offered the inoculation to all staff and administration of the district, to speed up our return to "normal". The more people who get the vaccine, and the sooner we can do it, the more quickly we can escape this pandemic.
Livonia School Trustee Madeline Acosta: As a Board Trustee, I was offered the COVID-19 vaccine along with the LPS staff at the end of January. With the overwhelming shortage of vaccines, I opted to defer vaccination until the general population is able to do so--allowing for the higher risk populations to be taken care of first. Meanwhile, I was able to take my family members to the Livonia Senior Center to receive their vaccines.
No response was received from 3 School Board Members.
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When President Biden, Obama, Clinton and Bush joined forces to encourage getting the COVID-19 vaccination I smiled.
When the State and County elected officials living in Livonia said they had received the vaccine or were when eligible I smiled.
When most of our city and school elected officials said they had received the vaccine or were when eligible I smiled.
When Clerk Susan Nash wrote "it is important for all of us to look out for each other. Getting vaccinated is not just for yourself but for our community," I applauded.
The typewriter advocates that taking the vaccine is a decision for the community not for one person alone. These are not my words but certainly appropriate:
"I don't need the vaccine, they said while enjoying life without polio, tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rubella, measles, whooping cough, the mumps, smallpox, diphtheria, rabies, shingles and a bunch of other stuff."
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Livonia is grateful to our City of Livonia leadership and employees, our Livonia Fire & Rescue firefighters and paramedics and our Livonia Police Department and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers for their support and dedication!
Thank you to our wonderful neighbors and businesses that have dropped off snacks and lunch for the team at the Senior Center so they can continue to vaccinate our seniors!
All of Livonia appreciates their support and the support of all in our hometown who have received their vaccination. Received their vaccines not just for themselves but for the entire community.
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Alan Helmkamp on John Dufour and Ron Reinke
Enjoyed the article on some of Livonia Parks’ history, featuring my buddies John Dufour and Ron Reinke.
In addition to working together for so many years, John and Ron were very close friends. For just one example, John was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Recreation and Park Association Hall of Fame in 2015, and Ron gave the accepting remarks on his friend and mentor’s behalf (by the way, John was also a member of the inaugural 2005 Class of the 1835 Livonia City Hall of Fame).
As mentioned, John and Ron were also members of the Livonia Optimist Club along with you and me and so many others, Ron was instrumental in securing the donation by the Optimist Club of a lighted scoreboard serving the main baseball diamond at Ford Field about 35 years or so ago.
I also had the pleasure of working with Ron for over three years when he was the Assistant Director of Parks for the Wayne County Parks Division.
Good men both, and thanks for sharing.
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Dennis Nazelli on the role parks and recreation played for his family
Just read your entry from Musings about John Dufours' career in the development of the Parks and Rec Departments for the cities of Dearborn and Livonia. Mary and I moved to Livonia 42 years ago. Before that, my hometown was Dearborn since 1950. Our house was across the street from a park that had an ice rink, a basketball court, two ball diamonds, swings, slides, a huge walnut tree, a fountain, paid summer staff, and once a week with a dime and a bag lunch, a bus would take us to camp Dearborn for a day. And, if us kids wanted more, our bikes took us to parks close by to enjoy a friend's recreation activities or a public swimming pool.
The park was where I grew up, learned how to catch and throw, shoot a basket, play hockey -- there wasn't much time at all to get into trouble.
And, then we found a house we could afford in Livonia. Our son, Christopher, was 9 and we signed him up for scouts, baseball, football, and basketball. The LJFL needed basketball coaches, and so began a sub-career into the ranks of basketball coaching. I loved coaching. Never played, but I became a student of the game. Chris became one of the top basketball players from Livonia. From Livonia Cardinal to Stevenson Spartan to College Hawks.
At age 14, he was a member of the first US youth team (Livonia Cardinals) to compete in the Soviet Union which I coached. In less than ten years, I went from recreation league to high school (Dearborn HS) to College (Schoolcraft) to an international stage (Leningrad).
The Dearborn and Livonia parks put me on this path of sports, growth, and accomplishment. I will always give them the credit for that.
Thanks for taking me down memory lane,
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Lynn Bankes on how vision benefited Livonia
Good newsletter on Livonia parks and recreation. I would also add vision. Ed McNamara had a vision. You gave two Park Directors a great deal of credit for their accomplishments but they were truly successful because of Ed’s support.
I remember ice cream socials, picnics, and summer concerts in the park space between the senior center and city hall. Now summer concerts don’t have a specific area for the concerts. Whatever that land is used for is not community-oriented.
We have little land left. It has to be carefully planned.
My link to Livonia is your newsletter. Thank you.
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Livonia online
prayer event opens
doors to new approaches
Organizers of the 47th Annual Livonia Prayer Breakfast went virtual last year during the pandemic and this year COVID-19 is forcing them to do the same, but there is a silver lining.
While the streamed event “could never replace the in-person,” there are some benefits from going to a webinar set up, explained Prayer Breakfast Chairman Ken McMullen. For instance, the reach last year was much broader with thousands of people from 14 countries listening to the presentation with beautiful pictures and speakers ranging from pastors to an astrologer. It’s still getting hits one year later at heavensdeclare.org.
One on one
McMullen sees this as a time of renewal and refocus. “It is about a community coming together in prayer, whether it is in a fine banquet facility, or in our room with the door closed and logged in to Zoom."
To register for this year’s free event, 7:30-8:30 a.m., May 6, email to chamber@livonia.org for a Zoom link.
The on-screen event is a positive way to strengthen individuals in their prayer and business lives, McMullen said.
“Faith is an individual journey and our relationship to God is an intensely personal one,” he added. “The prayers we pray in our rooms with the door shut are those no one else ever witnesses or knows about. Yet it's these prayers, our secret prayers to God, that He promises to reward. Imagine the intensity of our corporate gatherings of worship if we all had personal and intensely private prayer lives God was rewarding."
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Company flourishes
This year’s speaker is Brig Sorber, executive chairman of Two Men and a Truck International, Inc.
Brig and his younger brother John Sorber started the business in the early 1980s in Okemos, Mi to earn spending money. Using a 1966 pickup truck, the brothers placed an ad in a local shopping guide that read “Men at Work Movers…Two Men and A Truck.”
The company has grown to about 1,300 trucks and 3,500 employees in 32 states at more than 350 locations worldwide, including Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Two Men and a Truck is the largest franchised local moving company in the United States.
Sorber is a visionary and mentor who starts each day with a prayer, “Lord, help me to open my eyes and open my ears to the way You want me to run this business.”
Longtime presence
The Livonia Prayer Breakfast was started 47 years ago and is a version of the National Prayer Breakfast held annually in Washington, D.C.
The mission of the group is to communicate positive, faith-filled principles that inspire and empower people to reach their maximum spiritual and personal potential, McMullen said. It is a reaffirmation that people of goodwill, standing together, can transcend racial, geographic, or cultural differences, and create unparalleled opportunities for community progress.
This year McMullen is stepping down as event chair after 14 years and serving on the committee for 16 years.
The 2021 Livonia Prayer Breakfast is free, however, donations will be accepted to defray promotion and other costs. Go to livoniaprayerbreakfast.com for more information.
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