|
Oct. 26, 2003
By JOHN CHARLES ROBBINS
Staff writer
The irrepressible spirit of two boys is helping to secure a corner of paradise for generations to come.
For Peter C. Wiley and Aaron R. Parach, music is their passion. The Saugatuck Middle School students recently used
their talents to raise money for the preservation of a stretch of sand dunes along Lake Michigan known as the Denison property.
The city of Saugatuck is seeking to buy the land owned by the estate of shipbuilder Frank and Gertrude Denison to
preserve it from development.
"We'd hate to see it get developed," Aaron said. "A whole bunch of dune area land would be destroyed
-- that would be horrible."
Peter agrees. "It would be terrible, really a pity" if the shoreline was lost to private concerns and development.
"It's really a neat area, very unique. It's one of the things that makes Saugatuck a special town," he said.
One warm and windy Sunday in September, the boys laid claim to the sidewalk in front of the Tiki Hut at Butler and
Hoffman streets in Saugatuck Peter with his guitar and trombone, Aaron with his alto sax.
They played their hearts out.
Passers-by slowly but surely dropped money into a small plastic tub under a hand-made sign that read, "Save the
Dunes."
When the boys ended their free-form jazz concert, they had raised $22.33.
Peter, who's just a few days shy of his 13th birthday, wrote a short note and stuffed it into an envelope along with
the cash.
His mom drove him to the house of Dawn Schumann, chairwoman of the Save Our Shoreline coalition.
Seeing the loose coins and dollar bills bunched in the envelope, and reading Peter's short note, Schumann began to
cry.
"She hugged me too," said Peter, an eighth-grader.
He had written, "The money is intended for buying the Denison property. Unfortunately, it isn't much, but I hope
it helps."
Aaron, 12, is in the seventh-grade. Asked how long he and Peter have been good friends, he said, "Since birth."
Peter laughs, "It's been a long time."
The boys have formed their own band, just the two of them, and they play rock, punk and "White Stripes-ish rock,"
said Peter.
They also enjoy a little blues and jazz from time to time. Aaron and Peter are members of the middle school band as
well.
Peter, who plays nine musical instruments, is the son of Christopher and Anne Wiley of Saugatuck. He has one sister,
Jane, who's 9.
Aaron, who also plays piano and drums, is the son of Eddie Parach and Vicky Rosenberg of Saugatuck. He has an older
brother, Gabe, 20, and a sister, Ilana, 9.
Some credit should go to Christina Lewis, seventh-eighth-grade language arts teacher at Saugatuck.
Peter, as part of his English class, will get class credit for the fund-raising concert.
Lewis came up with the idea of having her students do community service work to get them involved in their hometown
and to take an active role in its state and fate.
The projects can be of a minor nature, such as raking the leaves in a neighbor's yard, or donating old clothes to
a church.
A pair of girls in Lewis' class spent hours baking items, held a bake sale, and turned the proceeds over to the humane
society.
"One of the main reasons I have the kids do this is because so many people have negative views of teen-agers,"
Lewis said. "I think it's great they are out in the community doing these good deeds, even though it is for school credit.
"It is a big deal to have them doing this, and I hope people stop and recognize it and acknowledge it."
For more information on the campaign to save the Denison property visit www.saugatucksos.org.
|
