Page 6/The Sun and News, Saturday, June 3, 2023Young pilot flyover highlights Yankee Springs
Memorial Day ceremony
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
It’s not often that a
19-year-old college student
gets asked to do a flyover at
a patriotic event.
But when the opportunity
was presented to him, Cooper
Marcukaitis jumped at it.
Marcukaitis, who just
completed his freshman year
at Michigan Technological
University in Houghton,
opened the Memorial Day
observance in Yankee
Springs Township Sunday byflying his Piper Cherokee
180 over the veterans memo-
rial next to the township fire
station. His uncle, Tony
Marcukaitis, a 30-year mili-
tary veteran, was on board
the plane as well.
The son of the Brian andKris Marcukaitis, Cooper
earned his pilot’s license in
high school while he attend-
ed West Michigan Aviation
Academy, which is located at
the Gerald R. Ford
International Airport in
Grand Rapids. He is current-
ly in the Air Force Reserve
Officers Training Corps
(ROTC) program at
Michigan Tech and is study-
ing geospatial engineering,
said his grandmother, Sandy
Marcukaitis, who was one of
the organizers of Sunday’s
ceremony.
Bruce Campbell, a Barry
County commissioner and
commander of Veterans of
Foreign Wars (VFW) Post
422 in Delton, was the key-
note speaker for the ceremo-
ny. Township Supervisor
Rob Heethuis spoke on thehistory of Memorial Day.
Musician Mick Lane, who
has performed at past
Memorial Day events inYankee Springs, sang several
patriotic songs. The ceremo-
ny ended with a 21-gun
salute, the playing of “Taps”
and a moment of silent in
memory of those who lost
their lives in service to their
country.
Cooper Marcukaitis will
join the Air Force as a com-
missioned officer after grad-
uating from MTU and has
made it a goal to fly F-15s
while in the Air Force. He is
active in Civil Air Patrol and
belongs to the Thornapple
Flying Academy.What should you expect from
your investments?
To help achieve your
financial goals, you may
need to invest in the finan-
cial markets throughout your
life. However, at times your
investment expectations
may differ from actual
returns, triggering a variety
of emotions. So, what are
reasonable expectations to
have about your invest-
ments?
Ideally, you hope that your
investment portfolio will
eventually help you meet
your goals, both your short-
term ones, such as a
cross-country vacation, and
the long-term ones, such as a
comfortable retirement. But
your expectations may be
affected by several factors,
including the following:- Misunderstanding – Var-
ious factors in the economy
and the financial markets
trigger different reactions in
different types of invest-
ments — so you should
expect different results.
When you own stocks, you
can generally expect greater
price volatility in the short
term. Over time, though, the
“up” and “down” years tend
to average out. When you
own bonds, you can expect
less volatility than individual
stocks, but that’s not to say
that bond prices never
change. Generally, when
interest rates rise, you can
anticipate that the value of
your existing, lower-paying
bonds may decrease, and
when rates fall, the value of
your bonds may increase.- Recency bias – Investors
exhibit “recency bias” when
they place too much empha-
sis on recent events in the
financial markets, expecting
that those same events will
happen again. But these
expectations can lead to neg-
ative behavior. For example,
in 2018, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average fell
almost 6% – so investors
subject to recency bias might
have concluded it was best
to stay out of the markets for
a while. But the Dow jumped
more than 22% the very next
year. Of course, the reverse
can also be true: In 2021, the
Dow rose almost 19%, so
investors who might have
been susceptible to recency
bias may have thought they
were in for more big gains
right away — but in 2022,
the Dow fell almost 9%.
Here’s the bottom line:
Recency bias may cloud
your expectations about
your investments’ perfor-
mance — and it’s essentially
impossible to predict accu-
rately what will happen to
the financial markets in any
given year. - Anchoring – Another
type of investment behavior
is known as “anchoring” —
an excessive reliance on
your original conviction in
an investment. So, for
instance, if you bought stock
in a company you thought
had great prospects, you
might want to keep your
shares year after year, even
after evidence emerges that
the company has real risks
— for example, poor man-
agement, or its products
could become outdated, or it
could be part of an industry
that’s in decline. But if you
stick with your initial belief
that the company will inevi-
tably do well, and you’re not
open to new sources of
information about this
investment, your expecta-
tions may never be met.
In many areas of life, real-
ity may differ from our
expectations — and that can
certainly be true for our
investments. Being familiar
with the factors that can
shape your expectations can
help you maintain a realistic
outlook about your invest-
ments.This article was written by
Edward Jones for use by
your local Edward Jones
Financial Advisor.
Edward Jones, Member
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OPTOMETRISTMiddleville parade, ceremony mark another Memorial Day
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Memorial Day in
Middleville on Monday
included the annual parade,
sponsored by the local Lions
Club, and ceremonies at Mt.
Hope Cemetery, where local
residents paid tribute to those
who gave their lives in ser-
vice to their country.
American Legion Post 140
Commander Rich Jenkins
spoke of the 13 area resi-
dents whose names are
engraved on the veterans’
monument, who lost their
lives while in military ser-
vice.
“This day is not about me;
it’s about them. It is allabout the ultimate sacrifice
so all of us can enjoy the life
we live,” Jenkins said. “I
hope you’ve enjoyed
Memorial weekend to its
fullest because my brothers-
in-arms would have wanted
that as well.”
Andrew Beck, this year’s
honored veteran in
Middleville, gave the key-
note address at the cemetery.
He shared the story of two of
his Army comrades – Robert
Unruh and Andrew Ward –
who died in Iraq.
“(They) are part of the
collective reason why we’re
here today,” Beck said.
“Memorial Day is a day of
remembrance and reflectionwhile we honor their selfless
service. We remember the
time we shared together, we
reflect on our lives since
we’ve lost them and we con-
template how to best honor
their memories.
“While freedom comes at
a cost, the men and women
who laid down their lives did
it so that we would have
opportunities to build a bet-
ter world. Today, I challenge
you to celebrate their lives
and honor the continual cost
of our freedoms by living a
life worthy of their sacri-
fice.”
The service concluded
with a rifle salute and the
playing of “Taps.”The annual Middleville Memorial Day parade makes its way up the hill on Main
Street in downtown headed toward Mount Hope Cemetery Monday morning.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)
Cooper Marcukaitis flies with his uncle, Tony
Marcukaitis, on Sunday for a Memorial Day celebra-
tion in Yankee Springs Township. (Photo courtesy of
Sandra Marcukaitis)