Page 2/The Sun and News, Saturday, July 29, 2023Kent County Youth
Fair kicks off Monday
Just weeks after the
neighboring Barry County
Fair wrapped up, it is Kent
County’s turn to provide a
heaping helping of rides,
games, fried food and 4-H
animals.
The 88th Annual Kent
County Youth Fair, which
has been in existence
since 1934, will kick off
on Monday and will
extend through Saturday,
Aug. 5.
The most noteworthy
change associated with
this year’s installment of
the fair is that it will be
held at a new location.
Fresh off a recent rib-
bon-cutting ceremony,
The Grand Agricultural
Center of West Michigan
— or, The Grand for short
— will play host to the
fair this year at 13801
Cascade Road in Lowell.
The new grounds measure
140 acres in size and is the
former site of the Deer
Run Golf Course.
All of the action for-
mally kicks off on
Sunday, with an opening
ceremony and royal court
coronation, which will be
held at the performing
arts tent.
From there, each day of
the fair is filled with activ-ities and features a theme,
including:
— Monday: Hero’s Day
— Tuesday: Midway
Opens
— Wednesday: Reading
for Rides
— Thursday: Livestock
Auction Day
— Friday: Access
ABILITIES Day
— Kids Day
Standish, Mich.-based
Anderson Midways will
be providing the rides for
the fair this year.
The Kent County Youth
Fair draws over 50,
visitors annually and
attendance is expected to
grow exponentially with
the expanded space and
new facilities that come
with The Grand.
The visitors and exhibi-
tors will notice more space
on the grounds since the
project increased the
usable acres drastically —
from 19 acres to 140.
“The grounds will offer
more space for everyone,”
KCYAA President Bill
Zaske said. “We have a
new carnival this year that
will be able to offer more
rides, games and food.”
A full, day-to-day
schedule is available at
kcyf.org.“It’s a collegial award, in
my opinion,” Herrick said. “I
would not have gotten that
(award) had it not been for all
the other people in the chorus
who do things every week,
who help set up risers, who
help another person learn a
part. It so happens that I’ve
been in that position to do a lot
of things for the chorus ... I
absolutely love it.”
Judy Westers, the interim
music director for the Grand
Rapids Sweet Adelines, says
Herrick has tirelessly served
the chorus in various roles
over the years.
“She is an amazing singer,
helps lead our bass section and
also wrangles all of the talentfor MC work that enhances
our performances,” Westers
said in a press release. “Those
are just a few things she does
to serve. Most of her service is
behind the scenes. She is my
go-to person when I need help
with anything.”
As a member of the Sweet
Adelines chorus, Herrick has
sung at numerous community
events and festivals around
West Michigan over the years.
She has also sung in numerous
Sweet Adelines competitions
at both the regional and inter-
national levels.
Barbershop-style singing is
fairly complex, involving tak-
ing four different voice parts
and blending them into a sin-
gle unit.
“When we sing four-part
harmony, if we do it right,
there’s always a fifth sound,
either an overtone or an under-
tone ... It is difficult to get a
number of voices who hit that
chord in such a way, at exactly
the right spot, to ring that fifth,
or to cause that undertone to
occur. That’s what we strive
for,” Herrick said.The Grand Rapids Sweet
Adelines chorus has nearly 60
members, ranging in age from
32 to 90. Some members come
from as far away as Gaylord,
Lansing and Battle Creek.
Herrick says what makes the
chorus unique is the different
qualities and backgrounds of
each member.
“You can get a very young
person who knows everything
about music, or you can get a
young person who knows
nothing about music,” she
said. “Each person is unique.
Even though we strive to make
the chorus unified, it’s the
uniqueness of every member
that gives the chorus its quali-
ty.”
There’s even a family con-
nection for Herrick with the
Sweet Adelines chorus. Her
daughter, Penny Hock, is the
group’s music librarian and
one of its arrangers.
Herrick also spoke about
the competitions the chorus
takes part in, which usually
occur in the spring. The cho-
rus practices for months to get
ready for competition. She
says there’s a great deal that
goes into a performance when
judged at a competition.
“We are judged on our abil-
ity to sell the song. We’re
judged on our ability to sing
appropriately, to pick music
that goes with our character,
the ability to be theatrical ...
This is not a choir. It is a show.
It’s theatre, it’s Broadway. It’s
more than just how well we
sing that song,” Herrick said.
One of the top highlights of
Herrick’s singing experience
with Sweet Adelines took
place in 2021 when she and
other members of Sweet
Adelines sang at the 80th-an-
niversary commemoration of
the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“We didn’t know until six
weeks before we left that we
were really going to go,” shesaid. “There were probably 47
or 48 singers (from our chorus
who went), accompanied by
family members.”
“We got on the (USS)
Missouri, which is housed (at
Pearl Harbor). We just said,
‘Let’s just sing.’ We saw a
couple of people in uniform,
and we started to sing. We
have an armed forces medley
that we do. We looked up, and
coming down the gangplank
from the third or fourth bridge
(of the ship) were all of these
vets from World War II. They
were in wheelchairs, they had
walkers, they had friends
pushing them ... These guys
would take their wheelchairs,
and they would struggle to
stand up and salute. I tell you
what, I was glad with 30 other
people because there was a lot
of gaps in what I was singing
(from the emotions). That was
a testimony to us that we could
do that.”
In June, the chorus sang at a
naturalization ceremony at the
Forest Hills Fine Arts Center,
where more than 250 people
from 67 countries took their
oath to become citizens of the
United States.
“They are leaving countries
behind that are in such turmoil
for the thought and perception
that they’re going to come
here for a better life. To stand
up there and sing for them in
words that they hear and listen
to and can commit to causes us
to be far more committed to
this country,” Herrick said.
Herrick will turn 80 on
April 4, 2024 — 4-4-44 is her
birthdate — and says singing
with Sweet Adelines keeps her
young “without question.”
“I tell everybody that this
organization is the most stable
thing in my life because it’s
seen me through two divorces,
the death of my mom, all of
those life experiences,” she
said. “I still have friends on the
east side of the state that are
still singing in barbershops.
It’s a phenomenal, wom-
en-centered dynamic.”
“It’s women who pull
together in such a way that we
create harmony — not just
musically, (but) emotionally,
mentally, spiritually,” she
added.
The Grand Rapids Sweet
Adelines chorus meets every
Monday night year-round at
Forest Hills Presbyterian
Church in Cascade Township,
where Herrick and her hus-
band Nick attend.
For more information about
Sweet Adelines, visit grsa.net.lage zoning administrator.
Commissioners agreed to not
put in a provision requiring
planning commission approv-
al for a special land use.
Village Manager Jeff
Thornton said he has not
received any requests from
residents for solar units to be
installed — yet.
“I understand that some
residents in Glen Valley have
spoken to their architectural
design group. They are, I
understand, have put things
on hold until you folks con-
sider a solar ordinance,”
Thornton said.
The emphasis of the ordi-
nance is on solar units in resi-
dential neighborhoods.
Village planning consultant
Nathan Mehmed didn’t see
the need for the village to
address large-scale solar proj-
ects in the ordinance.
“Given that you’re a vil-
lage and you’re largely builtout, your large-scale solar
(project) is probably not
something that you would
see,” Mehmed said. “I’m not
even sure that you would see
a small, independent system
where it’s generating power
for the grid. What you might
see (is) your rooftop solar,
which you already have at
Chase Bank. You might see
small panels in yards. You
might even see rooftop (pan-
els) on some of your stripmall buildings.”
“Home solar and small-
scale solar on buildings are
becoming more and more
popular. They’re getting
cheaper; they’re getting more
efficient,” Mehmed added.
Village Attorney Kathryn
Zoller will take the commis-
sioners’ ideas and put togeth-
er ordinance language to
bring back to the planning
commission when it meets
again in late August. Theordinance will go through a
public hearing process at the
planning commission and, if
recommended for approval
by commissioners, would
then go to the Village Council
for final approval.
Also, on Thursday night,
the planning commission
welcomed its newest mem-
ber, Monique Brennan.
Brennan is the Caledonia
Resource Center coordinator
and vice president of theCaledonia Area Chamber of
Commerce board of directors.
“We’re definitely happy to
have one more person,”
Commission Chairwoman
Amanda Crozier said.
Brennan’s addition leaves
one vacancy remaining on the
planning commission.
Applications are being
accepted for the remaining
opening and can be found on
the village website, villageof-
caledonia.org.SOLAR ORDINANCE, continued from page 1
JUDY HERRICK, continued from page 1
616 - 8 91-1 2 3 3
[email protected]
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Alto’s Judy Herrick is 79 years old and hasn’t
slowed down when it comes to singing with the local
chapter of Sweet Adelines International.