Grand Ledge offers space for those who love the outdoors

The logo for Toads (a toad wearing climbing gear) hangs down in front of the downtown Grand Ledge restaurant. The city of Grand Ledge has several beautiful parks and natural areas for people to enjoy. For the residents of Grand Ledge who have wanted to enjoy nature without going out of the city limits, there is now a place that caters to those same residents. City highlights include the Grand River that runs through downtown, Island Park which provides people a place to walk down into the middle of the river and a vibrant climbing scene which takes advantage of numerous beautiful climbing spots. Chris Haman and his family quickly realized that for those who loved the natural parts of Grand Ledge, there was no facility for them to go and hang out.

Grand Ledge businesses see changes after COVID-19 

Most businesses across Grand Ledge experienced both ups and downs as a result of the COVID-19 and a number of them are still viable after surviving changes brought on by the pandemic. 

Pam’s Pantry

Pam’s Pantry, a gourmet food store situated in Grand Ledge, has been open for twenty years. Since they are a licensed food establishment, they were able to stay open legally. 

Pam’s Pantry was able to stay afloat during COVID-19 mainly due to the gift baskets they made, which they promoted through emails and Facebook. Regular customers also placed orders for the items they already knew they wanted. 

Like many stores, they resorted to customers doing curbside pickup orders, so there wasn’t much contact. 

Pam’s Pantry did local deliveries as well. They sent out care gift baskets filled with goods that had ‘Get Well Soon’ messages. They would drive to customers’ houses and leave them on their porches.  

Even though these gift baskets were keeping Pam’s Pantry afloat, they lost their main source of income, which came from craft shows and fundraisers for schools. 

“It was very scary.

Grand Ledge library engages, connects with community

Like many other public spaces across the country and the world, the Grand Ledge Area District Library (GLADL) was deeply affected by COVID-19, but director, Lise Mitchell, and the staff figured out ways to still stay connected and keep the community engaged.

The library’s main mission is to have a wide variety of informational, educational and recreational resources.

“We are always looking for ways to be relevant to the community,” Mitchell said.

Grand Ledge schools praise students for helping bus driver

Grand Ledge students have been recognized for quick, heroic actions on a school bus. The Grand Ledge Board of Education honored them March 14 for assisting a bus driver who had a medical emergency while driving. 

Superintendent Dr. Marcus Davenport said, “I understand that there were multiple children that assisted a bus driver that was in a medical state of need. But these two young men are the two young men that we’re going to honor at this time.” 

On Feb. 24 around 6:45 a.m., a bus driver taking students to Grand Ledge schools started to experience a medical condition and had to pull over, but was unable to tell dispatch what was wrong. One student on the bus called 911 while another alerted dispatch that something was wrong. 

“Kai Trey is a young man who assisted a bus driver who was going through a medical emergency,” Davenport said.