Kid power behind push for cherries as state fruit

By JUSTINE McGUIRE
Capital News Service
LANSING — Pucker up, Michiganders. Tart cherries could be the newest state symbol. The journey to honor the tart cherry began several years ago in Wendy Gravlin’s fourth-grade class at Gallimore Elementary School in Canton. “Even fourth-graders have a voice,” she told her students before they wrote letters to state officials asking them to make tart cherries the official fruit of Michigan. While learning about state symbols, the students noticed that Michigan hadn’t designated a fruit, unlike some of its neighbors.