Grayling Visitors Bureau

The AuSable Artisan Village Gallery is proud to present a showing of the photography of Anne Beckwith and Deborah Schreiner. An opening reception will be held at the Gallery at 108 Michigan Ave., Grayling MI on Friday, July 30, 5:00-7:00 p.m. There is no fee to enter the Gallery which will be open from July 30-August 12 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10:00a.m.-5:00p.m.

Anne Beckwith grew up in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan and moved to Grayling where she and her husband raised their family. While attending college for behavioral science, she also enrolled in a Kirtland Community College photography class and found she really had a passion for art as well.

She credits this journey to Joseph Donna, an Art Professor at Kirtland Community College. Although her favorite part of photography will always be in the darkroom with black and white film, she enjoys the instant gratification of digital imagery.

Anne’s work encompasses landscapes, animals and candid shots of people but also has an eye for the abstract. Senior pictures, weddings and even a small clientele in Los Angeles for actor headshots are a few of Anne’s accomplishments. In addition to her photography, she takes great pride in framing and matting in her own home.
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Deborah, daughter of Karl and Marge Schreiner, is a native of Grayling, MI.  Raised in Grayling, Deborah attended Grayling High School and later attended Kirtland Community College.  Her love of music attracted her to a job at the Grayling High and Grayling Middle schools as choir accompanist for four years.

Though music is near and dear to Deborah’s heart, one of her biggest passions is photography.  Choosing to pursue photography as her career, she moved to Grand Rapids, MI and began working as office manager and assistant photographer for McConomy Photography.  Having been able to learn and grow in this art, Deborah is excited to have the chance to share her work with The AuSable Artisan Village Gallery and her hometown.

Deborah resides in Grand Rapids with her husband Matthew and they are expecting their first child in December.  In addition to her photography and music, Deborah has also self-published three novels and is currently working on her fourth.

For more information, please contact the Chamber of Commerce at (989)348-2921.

The AuSable Artisan Village Gallery is proud to present a showing of the photography of Jeff Gaydash and the sculpture of Lon Gauthier. An opening reception will be held at the Gallery at 108 Michigan Ave., Grayling MI on Friday, July 16, 5:00-7:00 p.m. There is no fee to enter the Gallery which will be open from July 17-29 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10:00a.m.-5:00p.m.

Jeff Gaydash has a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in photography from The College For Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. He was a partner in a commercial photographic and digital imaging studio for 6 years and is now a web developer at Wunderman Team Detroit building websites for Ford Motor Company. Jeff has recently made a conscious decision to focus more seriously on his love of fine-art black and white image making. Jeff lives in Troy, Michigan with his wife Michelle and three daughters.

Lon Gauthier’s body of work focuses primarily on mixed media sculpture that merge industrial aesthetics with the organic forms of nature. Using found objects, fabricated metal and castable materials, Gauthier’s work is an attempt to tear down the walls between nature and what is deemed “Man Made” exposing the infinite layers of connections between all things, organic and inorganic.

Gauthier left art school at the University of Montana, that houses some of his early bronzes in their permanent collection, to move to Detroit and start a working studio. While in Detroit, Lon showed his two and three dimensional work at the Majestic Café, Detroit Contemporary, Tangent Gallery and Johansen Charles Gallery. Before leaving Detroit in 2004, Gauthier was co-curator of the show “Ordinary Things”, a group show with working artists from Detroit, and Graduate students from Cranbrook, turning the mundane objects of the everyday into objects of higher meaning.

Currently Lon has work displayed at the Twisted Fish Gallery in Elk Rapids and The Inside Out Gallery in Traverse City. When not making art, Gauthier owns and operates “4 Mile Welding LLC” in Grayling Michigan, making one of a kind architectural elements and performing repair work for the community.

For more information, please contact the Chamber of Commerce at (989)348-2921.

The 63rd Anniversary 2010 Weyerhaeuser AuSable River International Canoe Marathon begins with sprints for starting positions on Thursday, July 22nd and ends with the Avita Water Black Bear Bicycle Tour on Sunday, July 25th.

This week long festival includes fun filled events such as Kid’s Day, Arts & Crafts show with over 100 vendors, and the Classic Car Show of Grayling. Other festivities include the AuSable River Festival Parade, 10k Fun Run & Walk, Food Court, Michigan Museum of Military Transport exhibit and the world-renowned Icehouse Quilt Shop’s Quilt Show on Friday & Saturday. Many local businesses will be participating all week with individual activities such as an Ice Cream Social, Community Coffee Break, Book Sale and a Chicken BBQ. Changes will be noted here as they become available.

The Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon is the richest canoe race in North America. The $50,000 purse will be up for grabs by expert paddlers from around the world. The racecourse runs almost the entire length of the AuSable River, 120 miles. Paddlers begin by running LeMans style on Saturday, July 24th at 9:00 p.m. to The Old AuSable Fly Shop with thousands of shouting spectators watching on. On Sunday morning, the Avita Water Black Bear Bicycle Tour will depart for Oscoda to catch the paddlers at the end of their overnight adventure. The race ends Sunday, July 25th in Oscoda, MI on the shores of Lake Huron.

Saturday, July 17^th
- Sprints for C-2 Race at 8:00am in the City Park
- Spike’s Challenge C-1 Race at 6:00pm at Borcher’s Canoe Livery

Sunday, July 18^th
- Spike’s Challenge Race 9:00am at Old AuSable (use to be Ray’s Canoe Livery)

Tuesday, July 20^th
- KID’S DAY at the Grayling City Park from 10:00am to 2:00pm
- Chicken BBQ, Ice Cream Social at the Grayling Senior Center

Wednesday, July 21^st
- HUP Race at 5:30pm at the Grayling City Park (Hurry Up & Paddle…or sink race)

Thursday, July 22^nd
- Marathon Coffee Break 9:00am to 11:00am at the Citizens Bank
- Basic Communications & Kirtland College Time Trials for starting position for the Weyerhaeuser AuSable River International Canoe Marathon at 3:00pm – 9:00pm at Penrod’s Canoe Livery.
- Business Relay Races 4:30pm – 7:00pm, starts at Penrod’s and goes to Old AuSable
- AuSable River C-1 Express Race at 7:15pm at Penrod’s and goes to Burton’s Landing
- Arts & Crafts SET UP in the City Park from 12:00pm – 8:00pm

Friday, July 23^rd
- Borcher’s Annual Kids Race, the Casey Challenge, at 10:00am at Borcher’s Canoe Livery
- Grayling Eagles Pre-Marathon Steak & BBQ dinner w/ entertainment (dinner from 5:00 – 8:00pm / entertainment from 5:00pm – close) at the Eagles Club
- Arts & Crafts Show at the Grayling City Park 10:00am – 8:00pm
- Annual “Quilt Sitters” Quilt Show at 10:00am – 5:00pm at the Icehouse Quilt Shop
- Grayling Eagles Club Beer Tent at the Eagles Club from 11:00am – 2:00am
- Camp Grayling Conservation Club BBQ Social at the Old AuSable Fly Shop at Noon – 9:00pm
- Basic Communications & Kirtland College Time Trials for starting position for the Weyerhaeuser AuSable River International Canoe Marathon at 2:00pm – 5:45pm at Penrod’s Canoe Livery.
- Special Olympic’s Canoe Races at 4:30pm at Penrod’s Canoe Livery
- Paddler’s Dinner at AuSable Valley Inn (formerly Ramada Inn) – doors open at 6:00pm dinner is at 6:30pm.

Saturday, July 24^th
- Grayling Recreational Authority’s Annual 10K & 1 Mile Fun Run in town at the Middle School
* Registration at 7:30am – 8:30am, Race starts at 9:00am
- Classic Car Show on Michigan Avenue at 8:00am – 3:00pm
- Michelson Memorial UMC Youth Pancake Breakfast at 8:00am – 10:00am
- Arts & Crafts Show at the Grayling City Park at 9:00am – 6:00pm
- Food Court on Michigan Avenue from 9:00am – 6:00pm
- Annual “Quilt Sitters” Quilt Show 10:00am – 5:00pm at the Icehouse Quilt Shop
- Grayling Eagles Horse Shoe Tournament at 10:00am at the Grayling Eagles Club
- Eagles’ Annual Roast (hot dogs & hamburgers) with entertainment & $1,000 Raffle Drawing at 6:00pm at the Eagles Club.
- Grayling Eagles Club Beer Tent at the Eagles Club from 11:00am – 2:00am
- Grayling Rotary’s Annual Chicken BBQ at the American Legion at 12:00pm – 4:00pm
- Michelson Memorial United Methodist Church’s Ice Cream Social at 12:00pm – 4:00pm
- Camp Grayling Conservation Club BBQ Social at The Old AuSable Fly Shop at 12:00pm – 9:00pm
- AuSable River Festival Parade, starts at 3:00pm
- Paddler’s Pre-Race briefing at the Middle School fenced in playground on Spruce Street
- Paddler’s Mass at St. Mary’s Parish at 4:30pm
- Pre-Race Program at Old AuSable Fly Shop at 6:00pm
- Posting of the Colors at Old AuSable Fly Shop at 7:00pm
- Start of the Weyerhaeuser AuSable River International Canoe Marathon Race at 9:00pm (Grayling to Oscoda)

Sunday, July 25^th
- End of Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Int’l Canoe Marathon (ends on the shores of Lake Huron in Oscoda)
- Ride the Bear/Avita Water Black Bear Bicycle Tour beginning at 8:00am on Michigan Ave in Grayling and ending in Oscoda (100 mile ride).