Major donation will bring two new exhibits to life at Dekker Huis Museum in Zeeland
ZEELAND — A significant donation to the Les Hoogland Fund will support two major projects at Dekker Huis Museum, according to an announcement from the Zeeland Historical Society.
The donation comes from Todd Hoogland, Julie Hoogland Taylor, Gregg Hoogland and Jane Hoogland Jipping, along with contributions from other individuals.
Les Hoogland died in 2024. He was Zeeland's longest-serving mayor, with 22 years in office, championing community growth and connection. He and his wife, Viv, made several contributions to Zeeland and the greater West Michigan region.
'We are incredibly grateful to the Hoogland family and all those who contributed to the Les Hoogland Fund,' Audrey Rojo, curator at the Zeeland Historical Society, wrote in the announcement. 'This donation ensures that Zeeland's history — especially the stories of our veterans and civic leaders — will be preserved and shared for generations to come. Les and Viv's deep love for this community continues to inspire us.'
The first project will revitalize the museum's Veterans' Memorial Room. The Stories of Service Exhibit will showcase the sacrifices and contributions of local servicemen and women, as well as highlight the role of local veterans' organizations, such as American Legion Post #33. Planned improvements include structural repairs, upgraded lighting and enhanced displays that offer a deeper, more engaging historical experience, according to the release.
The second initiative, The Les Hoogland Civic Legacy Exhibit: The Heart of Zeeland, will introduce a brand-new exhibit focusing on the city's civic leadership. This display will honor the efforts of community leaders, city governance, police and fire departments, and other essential public services that have shaped Zeeland's past and present. Featuring interactive elements and a fresh design, the exhibit will provide visitors with an in-depth look at the city's civic history and the individuals who made a lasting impact, according to the release.
More: 'He loved this city': Zeeland's longest serving mayor Les Hoogland dies at 94
"This project is about more than honoring the past — it's about empowering the future,' wrote Museum Director Katelyn VerMerris. 'By showcasing the stories of service and leadership that built Zeeland, we hope to inspire others to carry that same spirit forward in new and meaningful ways. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of our community that is making these projects possible."
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Renovations and exhibit installations are set to begin in the coming months, with an anticipated completion date in October 2025. The museum will stay open as much as possible during the renovations with an adapted exhibit flow as needed.
Additional funding is needed to incorporate interactive features in the veterans' display, which will help visitors connect more deeply with veterans' stories. To support this effort, donations can be earmarked for the Les Hoogland Fund.
For more information, visit zeelandhistory.org.
— This story was created by reporter Karly Graham, kgraham@petoskeynews.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Major donation will bring new exhibits to life at Dekker Huis Museum
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Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Yahoo
Major donation will bring two new exhibits to life at Dekker Huis Museum in Zeeland
ZEELAND — A significant donation to the Les Hoogland Fund will support two major projects at Dekker Huis Museum, according to an announcement from the Zeeland Historical Society. The donation comes from Todd Hoogland, Julie Hoogland Taylor, Gregg Hoogland and Jane Hoogland Jipping, along with contributions from other individuals. Les Hoogland died in 2024. He was Zeeland's longest-serving mayor, with 22 years in office, championing community growth and connection. He and his wife, Viv, made several contributions to Zeeland and the greater West Michigan region. 'We are incredibly grateful to the Hoogland family and all those who contributed to the Les Hoogland Fund,' Audrey Rojo, curator at the Zeeland Historical Society, wrote in the announcement. 'This donation ensures that Zeeland's history — especially the stories of our veterans and civic leaders — will be preserved and shared for generations to come. Les and Viv's deep love for this community continues to inspire us.' The first project will revitalize the museum's Veterans' Memorial Room. The Stories of Service Exhibit will showcase the sacrifices and contributions of local servicemen and women, as well as highlight the role of local veterans' organizations, such as American Legion Post #33. Planned improvements include structural repairs, upgraded lighting and enhanced displays that offer a deeper, more engaging historical experience, according to the release. The second initiative, The Les Hoogland Civic Legacy Exhibit: The Heart of Zeeland, will introduce a brand-new exhibit focusing on the city's civic leadership. This display will honor the efforts of community leaders, city governance, police and fire departments, and other essential public services that have shaped Zeeland's past and present. Featuring interactive elements and a fresh design, the exhibit will provide visitors with an in-depth look at the city's civic history and the individuals who made a lasting impact, according to the release. More: 'He loved this city': Zeeland's longest serving mayor Les Hoogland dies at 94 "This project is about more than honoring the past — it's about empowering the future,' wrote Museum Director Katelyn VerMerris. 'By showcasing the stories of service and leadership that built Zeeland, we hope to inspire others to carry that same spirit forward in new and meaningful ways. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of our community that is making these projects possible." Subscribe: Receive unlimited digital access to your local news coverage Renovations and exhibit installations are set to begin in the coming months, with an anticipated completion date in October 2025. The museum will stay open as much as possible during the renovations with an adapted exhibit flow as needed. Additional funding is needed to incorporate interactive features in the veterans' display, which will help visitors connect more deeply with veterans' stories. To support this effort, donations can be earmarked for the Les Hoogland Fund. For more information, visit — This story was created by reporter Karly Graham, kgraham@ with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Major donation will bring new exhibits to life at Dekker Huis Museum
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Ewing sends Stothert packing, gives heart of ‘blue dot' a Democratic mayor
John Ewing Jr. and wife, Viv, celebrate during his victory speech. (Courtesy of Howard K. Marcus) OMAHA — Frustration over streets, a streetcar and seeing the same mayor for three terms showed at the ballot box Tuesday as politically divided Omaha voters sent Republican Mayor Jean Stothert into retirement in lieu of a fourth term. They elected Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing Jr., the Democrat in charge of the offices where people annually pay their car taxes in the Omaha area, who has pledged a City Hall focused on providing better basic city services. He campaigned hard on the idea that Omaha could build better streets, hire more police officers to fight more types of crimes, work with neighborhood groups, nonprofits and others to fight root causes of crime and help all parts of the city grow. 'Tonight we embark on a new chapter,' Ewing said to a cheering crowd. 'Together we will build an Omaha that offers opportunity for the 'good life' — to everyone.' Moments before, as he launched his victory talk, he pointed out a pastor in the crowd who, along with another minister, told him about 13 years ago that he was going to be Omaha's first Black mayor. 'I didn't know if I truly embraced it at that moment,' he said. 'But they said that to me with such conviction, it stuck with me.' Ewing said he couldn't have done it without his wife, Viv. He introduced his family, including his brother, daughters and parents seated in the front. 'Mom and Dad, I hope you're proud.' To his supporters, he said a few times throughout the night: 'I promised you guys we weren't going to be outworked.' Election night was going Ewing's way from the start. After the first wave of results were announced, he told the crowd that this was the best he's felt in weeks, noting the exhaustion of the last laps of campaigning. After the second round of votes was announced, Ewing punched a fist in the air and Viv threw both arms up. His margin grew to nearly 11,000 votes by 10:15 p.m. Democratic leaders past and present packed the downtown Omaha Hilton for the Ewing celebration, including former Gov. Ben Nelson, former Mayor Jim Suttle and former State Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha. Ewing, a former high-ranking police officer, is the first Democrat to serve as Omaha mayor since Suttle engineered a victory in 2009 and revived the city's finances before losing to Stothert after raising a new restaurant tax. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the City of Omaha by about 18,900 voters, according to the Douglas County Election Commission. Ewing also will become the first elected Black mayor of Omaha, having cleared the final hurdle that narrowly eluded former Democratic State Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha in 1997. She lost a close race to former Omaha Mayor and U.S. Rep. Hal Daub, R-Neb. As the Omaha World-Herald reported, City Councilman Fred Conley briefly became acting mayor in 1988. Ewing told the Examiner that since he became treasurer — and then became the first person of color in Nebraska to win a countywide election — he'd go into classrooms and say: 'There's nothing special about me. What it means is that your dreams are possible, as well.' 'And that's what I want them to see,' he said. Daub's name was mentioned by many in the west Omaha crowd that gathered for Republicans on Tuesday night. Some had wondered whether Stothert, like Daub, might have overstayed her welcome despite having governed with significant popular support. Local political observers had predicted that Stothert's biggest challenges were likely voter fatigue, unrest about the economy under President Donald Trump and the lack of a clearly articulated plan for a fourth term. Stothert struck a proud and defiant tone in her concession speech, saying she leaves a city in much better shape than she found it. She has argued it has more money to repair roads, property tax rates that are lower and it is reviving the urban core with private donor partnerships. 'Tonight I'm very proud, grateful and hopeful. Proud of 12 years of success. I'm grateful for your support, your friendship and your trust. And I'm hopeful that the momentum we have created will continue,' Stothert said in a brief speech around 9:15 p.m. She said she called Ewing and 'congratulated him,' saying he is 'inheriting tonight a great city.' Her supporters at Tuesday's gathering at west Omaha's A View on State included Gov. Jim Pillen and former Gov. Dave Heineman, along with former gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster. Heineman, a longtime political activist before he ran, said Tuesday's results show a changing Omaha, one that is increasingly Democratic-leaning in a ruby red Republican state. 'It's been moving that way for some period of time,' he said. 'The demographics of Omaha are changing.' Pillen, who endorsed Stothert, said he was sad to lose conservative leadership in the state's largest city. He said she had done a great job making the city one of the safest large cities in the country. 'That comes from leadership focused on what really matters,' Pillen said. 'You know, as governor, I'm going to support the new mayor. That's what we do in Nebraska. But yes, I'm disappointed. … I'm selfish. I wanted her for four more years.' Tuesday's reflections were a marked change from the aggressive tone of the end of the race, which included attack ads on Ewing from the right about Democratic Party support for young people who are transgender and attack ads on Stothert from the left for the mayor backing Trump, whom she supported. In an interview, Ewing said he thought Stothert's attacks and 'making things up' were desperate moves that hurt her. He said 'people in this community … know me.' Stothert took no questions after her concession speech. But she has defended the attacks. 'This is not a national race where you can make up things and then people have to wonder if it's true,' Ewing said. 'They've seen what I've done in this city.' This spring both candidates also lobbed back-and-forth attacks about each of their records. Stothert's team criticized Ewing's office for using a decades-old calculation for paying local school districts and governments that a state audit corrected. Ewing's team blamed Stothert for the city's potholes, streets and inability to fill budgeted positions at the Omaha Police Department that Stothert added but sometimes struggled to fill with enough applicants to outpace retirements and departures. Ewing's campaign pressed its edge with early voting and door-to-door campaigning that showed up in Tuesday's results when Ewing built an early 3,572-vote lead that the traditional GOP Election Day edge could not overcome. In fact, the gap widened in the second batch of results that included the first wave of Election Day votes, as well as the third. On Tuesday night, Ewing repeated many of his goals, including improving public safety and adding to the city's stock of affordable housing. 'To ensure that every Omahan has a place to call home,' he said. Some Stothert supporters had wondered privately whether the mayor might suffer from people assuming she would win and not bothering to vote. With so-so turnout for an off-year city general election, enthusiasm proved a problem. County officials expect turnout to hit about 32%. Ewing's winning margin in the mayor's race is likely to grow on Friday, when Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse's office still has to count about 7,000 early voting ballots returned on Election Day. Those tend to come in as the early results do on Tuesday, which leaned toward Ewing. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
New York Times
27-01-2025
- New York Times
Venice in Winter, With a Poet as Our Guide
By 2 a.m. we were happily lost again. Dimly illuminated arches and doorways reflected off the green canal waters. My daughter, Vivian, 16, and I were on a lion hunt in Venice, an annual occurrence for six years now. If I felt slightly silly coming to this ancient tourist trap every year, I was comforted that arguably the world's coolest tourist, the exiled Russian, Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky, did the same thing for 17 winters, resulting in what many regard as the bible of travelogues, 'Watermark,' published in 1992: 135 pages of vivid, profound, often funny impressionistic musings on the city Brodsky called 'the greatest masterpiece our species ever produced.' Brodsky's fascination with Venice was colored by his childhood in St. Petersburg (then named Leningrad), another city of canals, where he'd lived in a communal apartment on a bustling street lined with czarist palaces. 'I, too, once lived in a city where cornices used to court clouds with statues,' he wrote. My own attraction was shaped by a Danish childhood next to the languorous waters of the Baltic Sea. As for Viv? Strolling the city is the only endurance sport we can both participate in as equals and where the setting trumps her phone screen. She is a warrior princess here. Venice recently made headlines for charging a 5 euro admission fee to stem the Disneyesque hordes of summer fanny packers. (The fee is supposed to double in April.) But on this March night the city was as tranquil and evocative as an ornate tomb. A whiff of frozen seaweed blew off the Adriatic. Viv mischievously pulled out her cellphone, but we use map apps only as a last resort. 'Not yet,' I said, and she put it back into her pocket. We climbed the steps of yet another one of the city's more than 450 bridges and peered around the next alley leading to a square where, lit up like an alter, was our lion. The marble beast called the 'Piraeus Lion' was plundered from Athens's main harbor in 1687 and was as familiar to Viv and me as the family dog. It has become a touchstone for many of our walks. The star of four mismatched marble lions guarding the Arsenale gate to the city's ancient fleet, the beast's ferocity was mitigated by our knowledge that runes were graffitied into its flanks by marauding Vikings — our kinsmen! I suppressed the usual desire to drone on about the lion's 23-century history. Why kill intuitive beauty with data gleaned from tourist books? The real pleasure of wandering in Venice is to drown our egos in undefinable grandeur. 'The city is narcissistic enough to turn your mind into an amalgam, unburdening it of its depths,' Brodsky wrote. 'After a two-week stay — even at off-season rates — you become both broke and selfless, like a Buddhist monk.' 'The imperative of cold and brief daylight' Throughout the 1960s, Brodsky's free-spirited personality and verses got him into hot water with the Soviet authorities, who subjected him to increasingly messy persecutions. The relatively unknown poet grew into an international cause célèbre until finally, in 1972, the Soviets booted him from the country with little more than a small leather suitcase in which he packed two bottles of vodka. He landed in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the University of Michigan, where he continued writing prolifically as a poet in residence. When he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987, the charismatic writer became a literary pop star, packing lecture halls around the world with his melodic readings. 'Watermark' opens with Brodsky arriving for the first time in Venice's main train station in 1972, hoping to seduce a Russian acquaintance. She rebuffed him, but he instead became seduced by the city whose smells, surfaces, moods and tastes he would detail as tenderly as a lover's. 'Love is an affair between a reflection and its object,' Brodsky wrote. 'This is in the end what brings one back to this city.' He returned almost every winter, when he could enjoy Venice unclouded by tourists. 'This is the season low on color and big on the imperative of cold and brief daylight,' he wrote. 'Everything is harder and more stark.' 'Part damp oxygen, part coffee and prayers' In the bohemian Dorsoduro neighborhood on the south bank of the Grand Canal, where some bars display 'No Tourist' signs, I met the American expatriate painter Robert Morgan, 82, to whom Brodsky dedicated 'Watermark.' After half a century in Venice, Mr. Morgan still works in his studio every day, painting sky blue cityscapes. He was introduced to Brodsky when both men were in their late 20s, creating a bond that lasted to the grave. 'We took to each other because we were both single exiles in love with this place,' Mr. Morgan told me. 'We walked and talked, often all night, without any big purpose, although we did tend to bump into a lot of women, cocktails and cicchetti.' Cicchetti are Venice's version of tapas, which absolve Venice of two centuries of mediocre tourist restaurants. These snacks were also integral to Viv's and my nightly foraging routine, where instead of dining at restaurants, we wandered bar to bar nibbling fresh cod, cottony finger sandwiches, pickled vegetables and other bites to be walked off until the next worthy spot. 'Joseph joked that wherever he ate here, he knew he was eating better than the Soviet Council of People's Commissars, who had given him so much trouble,' Mr. Morgan said. Mr. Morgan invited me up to his flat, with its bright paintings and flowers, tended to by his sparkling writer wife, Ewa, 52. Tea was served, gossip and stories shared. Brodsky's playful spirit animated his octogenarian friend. 'You could see him observing everything behind the cigarette smoke and Irish whiskey,' Mr. Morgan said. 'Always making mental notes even when entertaining an entire table.' I wandered 10 minutes east of the Morgans' apartment to a dead-end street, Calle Querini, where, at No. 252, a salmon-colored house was the setting for a provocative literary encounter in 'Watermark.' A marble plaque above the narrow front door explained that this was where the American poet Ezra Pound lived with his mistress, Olga Rudge, while broadcasting Fascist propaganda to the United States during World War II. Brodsky wrote about squeezing through this doorway in 1977, five years after Pound's death, with his girlfriend, the writer Susan Sontag, for tea with Rudge, guarded by a three-foot phallic bust of Pound. Although Brodsky had translated Pound to Russian in his youth, Rudge's pro-Mussolini utterances and the oppressive bust had Sontag and Brodsky hastily retreating back down this tiny street into the night. The bust is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. One morning after an all-night walk, Viv and I emerged on Piazza San Marco, Venice's main square. The pale winter sun rose across the lagoon and the weak rays unexpectedly exploded off the five domes of San Marco, turning them into lighthouses against the leaden sky. Brodsky described winter mornings here as 'part damp oxygen, part coffee and prayers,' and sure enough, the bells in the campanile began tolling for morning Mass while waiters pulled out tables and chairs from the surrounding cafes. This was our last stop, as it usually was for Brodsky, who often ended up lounging on these very chairs with a cigarette and an espresso. Venice, forever Brodsky's chain smoking and lifelong poor health felled him in New York at the age of 55. His Italian wife, Maria Sozzani, whom he had met just six years earlier when she was a student at one of his lectures, arranged for him to be buried on the cemetery island of San Michele just north of Venice. The funeral was not without one last drama in this dramatic man's life. Mr. Morgan told me that he and Roberto Calasso, Brodsky's Italian publisher, went to the cemetery before the cortege floated across the lagoon and discovered the grave was adjoining none other than Pound's. 'Roberto and I told the gravediggers there's no way he could be buried there, and they hastily found a spot a few yards away. They were still digging when the coffin arrived.' On our last evening, Viv and I jumped on a vaporetto and crossed over to San Michele, whose cypress trees towered over the island's walls like ghost sails. 'I knew what water feels like being caressed by water,' Brodsky wrote sensually about sailing to this island of death. He often tarried here among the many exiled Russians' tombs, notably the composer Igor Stravinsky and the ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, where dancers still leave their worn slippers on his gravestone. Viv and I wandered over to the familiar rounded white marble headstone at the edge of the Protestant section, where two Ukrainian women in miniskirts despite the cold were taking selfies. Brodsky seduces even from the grave. San Michele closed at 6 p.m. and we headed back to the tiny jetty beyond the cemetery gates as Venice's night lights set the medieval towers aglow across the lagoon. The evening fog danced across the walls and around the cypress trees like ballerinas. One of San Michele's cemetery cats approached Viv while we were waiting for the vaporetto, which reminded me of a line from 'Watermark': 'I would like to live my next life in Venice. To be a cat there, anything, even a rat, but always in Venice.' Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
