Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore - Join Our Friends (U.S. National Park Service)

Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes...helping to preserve and restore the natural, cultural, historical, and recreational resources of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The Friends work in co-operation with the National Park Service by raising funds through donations and grants and by volunteering time and skills to complete a long list of projects proposed by the park management. Explore their web site at www.friendsofsleepingbear.org to learn more about the organization. They are always looking for more people who share their desire to make Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore even better. You can join from their web site, then come to one of our meetings and meet some new people while enjoying the beauty and history of the Northern Michigan lakeshore.

The Friends meet once each month from April through October. They operate the Adopt-A-Trail program for the park, so if you are interested in helping keep hiking trails in good shape, let them know. Also, the group raises money through grants and donations to fund projects that enhance the quality of our park. The Friends group is the primary sponsor of the Port Oneida Fair (first weekend in August), which highlights the cultural heritage of this rural farm land.

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear was founded in 1998 in response to a public outcry to save the historic structures in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that were being neglected due to lack of maintenance and preservation funds in the park. Since that time, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear has been raising awareness and financial support for the preservation of the Lakeshore's nearly 400 historic structures and landscapes as well as conducting stabilization projects with their own volunteers. If you are interested in the cultural history of this area, check out their website www.phsb.org or stop by their interpretive center at the Lakeshore's historic Olsen Farm on M-22 north of Glen Arbor.

The Manitou Islands Memorial Society helps preserve the history and cultural traditions of the Islands, distributes educational and interpretive materials and programs, keeps records of burials and gravesites of original settlers and others interred on the Islands, promotes the proper care and maintenance of the Islands' historic and cultural assets, and supports the Park Service as volunteers on the Islands.

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