Would you like to do something special for families in need this Christmas? You can partner with us to provide toys for children in Kent County. The Post is participating in the Toys for Tots program again this holiday season, as a drop off site for toys. 

Toys for Tots is a volunteer organization whose goal is to collect new, unwrapped toys for kids 0-16, and distribute them to children who would not otherwise receive a gift during the holiday season. Toys for teens are always especially needed.

The program runs now through December 16. Just bring a new, unwrapped toy to our office at 36 E. Maple Street in Cedar Springs, Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you can’t make that time, call us to make other arrangements.

Other businesses in Cedar Springs with boxes include Family Farm & Home, 4175 17 Mile Rd; Wireless Zone, 4021 17 Mile Rd; and Choice One Bank, 4170 17 Mile Rd.

Together we can make this Christmas special for many children!

It’s that time of year again, when kids can’t wait to mail their letters to Santa! To help parents out, the Cedar Springs Post has set up a special North Pole drop box. Every year dozens of kids use our special box for express delivery to the North Pole, and we make sure Santa reads each and every one! So, if you’d like to send a letter to Santa, and maybe get it printed in the newspaper, just drop off your letter in the bright red box labeled “Santa Mail” outside our office at 36 E. Maple Street, or mail your letter to: Letters to Santa, c/o the Cedar Springs Post, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. 

Hurry, all letters must be in Santa’s Mail box by Monday, December 17th to reach him in time for Christmas.

With the assistance and expertise of travel agent Lori Visser, Ken and TJ Norris traveled to Peru in mid-March and took along the Post. They made stops in the beautiful Miraflores neighborhood of Lima, the Inca “Navel of the World” city of Cusco, and the Sacred Valley in the Andes. The high point (in scenic view if not altitude) was, of course, the famous Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, but for their 24th anniversary the Cedar Springs pair also visited several other nearly-as-impressive ruins. The woman shown with The Post and the llama were at the Urubamba ruins.

Thank you, Ken and TJ, for taking us with you to Peru!

Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!

By Post editor, Judy Reed

What were you doing, in July, 29 years ago, when the Cedar Springs Post was born? Some of the headlines for July 1988 included:

• USSR launches Phobos II for Martian orbit
• Sting performs first rainforest concert
• Florence Joyner runs 100m in 10.49 seconds for world record
• 4 billion tv viewers watch Nelson Mandela’s 70^th birthday tribute
• Michael Dukakis selected as Democratic presidential candidate
• Pedro Delgado wins Tour de France
• Gorbachev pushes plan to elect president and parliament in March
• Cedar board sets millage election to recover earlier budget cuts

Many people that have grown up here (at least those under 30) don’t remember what it was like not to have their own hometown newspaper. The previous newspaper, The Cedar Springs Clipper, served the area well for over 100 years. Once it closed, the area relied on out-of-town newspapers for several years to publish only bits and pieces of Cedar Springs news, much like area newspapers do today. Then on July 28, 1988, Roger and Alice Allen, founders of the Rockford Squire, rented out an office from Sipple TV, on 36 E. Maple Street in Cedar Springs, and started the great little newspaper you still have today—The Cedar Springs Post.

Roger’s daughter, Lois, took over operation of the paper, with her mother Alice, in 1989, and she’s still holding the paper to a strong standard today. The introductory issue of the Post pledged that “the community will once again receive the concentrated attention of its own local newspaper. The newspaper will be dedicated entirely to Cedar Springs and to the Cedar Springs area, and should prove to be the stimulus that the district needs to reach its highest potential.” Those are lofty words, but a promise that we still strive to fulfill today. We try to deliver the news you can use each week. In addition to the regular “hard” news such as accidents and fires, where else will you find what size catfish Johnny caught, who won the spelling bee, what the women’s club did last week, and who was arrested for drunken driving? Nowhere! Because the other papers don’t care but we do. This newspaper is about you and for you. And it will continue to be as long as we’re here.

Many people don’t realize that we wouldn’t know much about the history of our area if weren’t for the local newspapers. The Clipper told us about the early days of our town and the surrounding townships. And we can find most issues on microfiche at the Cedar Springs Historical Museum. That’s 100 years of history! The Post carries on that heritage by having a year’s worth of Post newspapers bound in a book each year. We then give that book to the Museum so that future generations can look back on the history we are living today.

Our readers tell us they love the paper. We continue to print 5,000 copies each week with the bulk delivered to newsstands and businesses, and they are gone within days. We wish we were able to cover even more of your local news and print more copies; but as advertising evolves, our revenues have declined, and so has our budget and our staff. The paper is free to our readers, but printing the paper is not free. We have overhead such as payroll, taxes, equipment, and supplies, along with the cost of just getting the paper printed. The Post is supported 100 percent by local businesses advertising on our pages. We sincerely appreciate those businesses that choose to advertise with us because they know that the newspaper and the information it supplies is important to this community.

Besides our printed paper, you can also visit our website at www.cedarspringspost.com to read some of our news stories, or you can download our e-edition from our website, which is an exact replica of our printed paper, as a pdf. You can also like our facebook page for breaking news and/or updates.

Thank you for letting us into your home each week, and we look forward to our 30^th year of serving you.

The Post traveled to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in June, with Amy Johnson and Grant Gould, of Cedar Springs, for a destination wedding! Grant and Amy became Mr. and Mrs. Grant Gould on June 20, 2017 on Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana. They stopped to take a photo on the beach with the Post during their wedding reception, where they celebrated with 40 of their close family members and friends. The Post they are holding in the photo had their engagement inside.
While in the Dominican Republic, the couple went out on the ocean in a boat and went snorkeling, swam with sharks, swam with stingrays, and got kissed by a sea lion on the cheek! “Punta Cana was absolutely beautiful,” said Amy.
Congratulations to the happy couple, and thank you for letting us be a part of it!
Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!

Dave and Jan Malmo, of Howard City, toured Italy, Greece and Turkey in October. They saw all the highlights of those amazing countries including the 700-year-old Leaning Tower of Pisa. “It actually is the bell tower of the nearby cathedral, Il Duomo, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site,” they said. “It leans because it was built on soft ground and the tilt is now more than 5 meters off.” They also visited Ephesus, Turkey where the book of Ephesians (from the Bible) was written; visited the “house” the Apostle John built for Mary to live out her life; and the cave where John was inspired by God to write Revelations. Those were the highlights for the Malmos as well as the Sistine Chapel. “It was amazing!” they said.

Are you traveling during the holidays? Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!

Leslie Anne Wood, of Oakfield Township, took the Post along with her on a summer trip to Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. This picture was taken August 14 at Iceland’s natural hot springs, affectionately known as the Blue Lagoon. It was a nine-day adventure offered by a local Michigan-based travel company.

Thanks, Leslie, for taking us with you!

Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!

New residents, Kaye and her son, Sam Nimphie, of Solon Township, traveled with the Post to Boston, Massachusetts to visit her son (and Sam’s brother) Ben, July 23-29.

They spent three days touring downtown Boston and visiting many historical sights, including Paul Revere’s house.

Thanks so much Kaye and Sam, for taking us with you!

Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!

The Steinebach recently traveled across Europe on vacation and took the Post with them. They visited cities and sites in Italy, Germany and France, including Michaelangelo Park in Florence, Italy; the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy; the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany; and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Travelng with the Post was Curt and Carol Steinebach, their daughter Christina Dean, and their son Cayden Steinebach.

Cayden is an incoming 7th grader at Cedar Springs Middle School. Christina is a 2013 graduate from Cedar Springs.

The family had a lot of fun visiting sites in Europe as well as researching ancestral roots in Germany.

Thanks so much to the Steinebach family for taking us with you!

The Cedar Springs Post traveled to California with the Thornton family, where they celebrated the marriage of Tommy Thornton (2004 Cedar Springs grad) to Inge Hergenrather. The couple resides in San Clemente, California, where Tommy is an Orange County Sheriff Deputy and USMC Reservist, and Inge is an events manager.

Joining in the fun were Tommy’s parents, Tom and Sara; brothers Austin (2007 CSHS grad), and Judson (2010 CSHS grad); nephew Carson; and Cedar Springs High School friends Brandon Bauer and Mike Bigney (both 2004 grads).

The couple was married in the same church as Tom and Sara—South Shores Church, Laguna Niguel, California.

Thanks so much for taking us with you, and best of luck to the happy couple!

Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? A large ice cream cone falling from the sky? No—it definitely looks like a tornado above the Post. Warm windy weather brought rain, lightning, and thunder to Cedar Springs Wednesday evening, and mother nature dropped this little gem from the sky. “I can’t believe it,” said one onlooker. “The last time we saw one of those here was in the 1970s. It must be something special to bring it this far.”
The tornado did a funny little dance as it lit on the roof, then began changing colors. “It’s like a disco ball!” someone shouted, as it turned green, then red, then pink.
We’ve heard of storms dropping frogs from the sky, but what happened next, still amazes us. The tornado hovered over the front lawn and shot pink flamingoes into our yard! “We’ve never seen anything like it,” said local weatherman Ollie Williams. Ollie had predicted earlier in the day that “It’s gon’ rain.”
Once it dropped the pink flamingoes, the tornado dissipated, leaving no trace of its presence except the flamingoes. “I guess we’ve been flocked!” said publisher Lois Allen.
We hope to have it cleaned up by April Fools Day!

Rose Hankins, who has lived in Cedar Springs for over 50 years, took the Post on a trip recently to New York City.  Rose can be seen the photos with her two granddaughters Rebekah and Rin achel in New York City at the Statue of Liberty and Good Morning America. “Rose was adamant about making sure the Post was in her pictures,” wrote Rachel.

Thanks so much, Rose, for taking us with you!

Are you going on vacation? Take the Post with you and snap some photos. Then send them to us with some info to news@cedarspringspost.com or mail them to Post travels, PO Box 370, Cedar Springs, MI 49319. We will be looking for yours!