2003 Keep the arts alive in the U.P. by joining the Bonifas Arts Center A message from our campaign chairs, Linda Hirvonen & Michael Allkins In our traditional roles as college president and as economic development director, we see the impact education makes on the quality of life in the Upper Peninsula. We see that life in rural America requires a practical education that opens the doors to specific jobs. But we also see that an exceptional quality of life helps us keep and attract good workers in the UP; it is indeed one of the best things the UP has to offer. The quality and variety of the arts and arts education that we enjoy here has a tremendous impact on the quality of life of our area. That's why we have volunteered to be co-chairs of the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center's annual fund-raising campaign. People in this region have a unique vision that embraces the world of small towns, massive forests, great lakes, and glittering night skies. It's a small-town world that also produces musicians, artists, and thespians . . . and sees to it that there's a genuine home for the arts among us where children can work alongside adults, and where the talents of our neighbors are on display. That home is the Bonifas Fine Arts Center, and more than 18,000 times last year, somebody took a class, attended an exhibit, watched a play, listened to an author, or worked in the pottery shop. The list of activities is massive, and they provide one of the distinctive features of this region: a small-town life with an exceptional artistic life. There are lots of pieces to the fabric of the Upper Peninsula, and lively artistic institutions rank alongside education and economic growth in creating livable communities. Perhaps that's why all of us support "our" art center. After all, we "own" the Bonifas, and our ownership requires that we tend the flame of this little gem on the shore of Lake Michigan. We ask you to think about the things that make life in the Upper Peninsula so different from the rest of the nation, and then we ask you to tend that flame by contributing to the Bonifas's Annual Campaign. Our lives deserve it and our future depends upon it.