Musician Ben Weaver, cycling around Lake Superior, to perform at Portage Lake District Library July 12

Musician Ben Weaver will perform at the Portage Lake District Library Sunday, July 12. (Poster courtesy Portage Lake District Library)

HOUGHTON -- The Portage Lake District Library, the Friends of the Land of Keweenaw (FOLK), and the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC) will sponsor his performance at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 12, at the Portage Lake District Library.

Weaver will travel 1300 miles around Lake Superior by bike in sixteen days and perform in thirteen locations along the route. He will act as a charter bearer to the Great Lakes Commons, a grassroots effort to establish the Great Lakes as a thriving, living commons with shared waters that we all take care of and protect in perpetuity. He will use their visionary Commons Charter in his performances as an invitation to engage communities along the route in broad and inclusive conversations about the state of our fresh water.

Weaver is a songwriter, poet, father, letterpress printer and adventure advocate. He has released eight studio albums of original music and four books of poetry. The bicycle is his chosen mode of transport for all activities in all types of weather.

FOLK is a local grassroots environmental organization that works to protect the Lake Superior watershed. UPEC is a grassroots group that focuses solely on environmental issues across all of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

All library programs are free and everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, please call the library at 482-4570.

Water expert Wendy Pabich to speak TONIGHT at Finnish American Heritage Center

HANCOCK -- Author Wendy J. Pabich will speak on water issues at 7 p.m. TONIGHT, Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock.The presentation, free and open to the public, is hosted by Finlandia University's Servant Leadership House.

Pabich is an environmental scientist, speaker, educator, adventurer and artist obsessed with all things water. As the founder and president of Water Futures, Pabich works to find innovative solutions to one of the planet's most pressing problems -- the quest for sustainable water.

The Servant Leadership House at Finlandia is an intentional residential experience built on the core commitments of service, leadership and community. The house, with up to six female students each year calling it home, was established in the fall of 2014 after the hard work of many people came together to help restore the former Robinson House.

As part of the experience for the students this year, they are studying the topic of water, which includes reading Pabich's book Taking on Water. In it she shares her story of attempting to measure and reduce her own water footprint in her day-to-day household water needs, the food she consumes and the clothes she wears. Mixed in with the facts and figures of how water permeates our lives, Pabich offers suggestions for small, but important, changes everyone can make toward changing our wasteful water habits.

Copies of Pabich's book can be found at Finlandia's Sulo and Aileen Maki Library or at Finlandia's bookstore, North Wind Books.

Learn more about Pabich at waterdeva.com. Read about Water Futures at waterfuturesinc.com and Finlandia's Servant Leadership House at finlandia.edu/servantleadershiphouse.

Inset photo of Wendy Pabich courtesy Finlandia University.