What makes a ‘cool city?’
Kids discuss why Marquette County towns are great places to grow up
— and what could make them better
By Zoe Rudisill, 18, and Nick Thomas, 16, with contributions
from Chelsea Parrish, 14; Joseph Short, 13; Arenna Bennett, 13, and
Chiara Johnson, 13.
All America County, Cool City, Most Livable Community. These
are titles that have been bestowed upon 
Marquette
County or the city of Marquette in the past year. Good things are happening
in the central Upper Peninsula, but there’s always room for improvement.
8-18 Media talked with kids from around Marquette County to find out
what makes their communities good places to grow up and what needs to
be improved.
8-18 Media met with three groups of kids at “Teen Time” forums organized
by Project WEAVE of Marquette. Project WEAVE is part of Reclaiming Futures,
a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote
new opportunities and standards of care in juvenile justice. The forums
took place in Marquette, Sawyer, and Ishpeming. Each interview started
off with kids rating their towns on a scale of one to ten, with ten
being the best place for kids to grow up.
Rating their communities
At the Marquette forum, Aaron Burns, 16, of Big Bay rated his town a
nine. “It’s nice and small and everybody gets along. Most of the businesses
really look out for the youth in the community,” he said.
At the Sawyer forum, Justin Maki, of Gwinn, rated his town a six. “You
can go to hoops on weekends, play a lot of sports, just hang out at
the community center, park, stuff like that,” he said.
At the Ishpeming forum, Jane Hoevker, 14, of Ishpeming, rated her town
a seven. “There’s things to do, but not a lot of good stuff,” she said.
“There’s The Edge Art Gallery you can go to and that’s interesting.
There’s a (Salvation Army) youth group you can go to every Tuesday.”
Views on education
For the most part, kids feel they are getting a quality education.
“I’d say it’s pretty good,” said Marquette Senior High School student
Mike Campfield, 18, of Harvey. “As far as the teachers go, they seem
very enthusiastic about their jobs. You always have a few weak areas,
but that’s to be expected. School conditions are a bit cramped and it
is becoming a bit of a nuisance to the teachers and to the students.”
“There are a lot of education programs that you can go to for a good
future,” said Josh Raish, 16, of Marquette. “Every time they read announcements
in school there are programs and you can just go to the counselor and
ask if you’re interested. That helps you out a lot.”
Maki has a suggestion on how to improve teaching.
“They try teaching you a lot of stuff, but they teach in a boring way
so people don’t pay attention so if they had more fun stuff you’d probably
learn a lot but when it’s just out of the book and you takes notes,
it’s boring and no one pays attention,” he said.
Aspen Ridge Middle School in the NICE district has a resource room
that Hoevker says is useful for younger students.
“There’s a whole bunch of stuff you can do there. You can rent movies
or rent a book out or get help with your homework. It’s kind of more
for elementary, under fourth grade,” she said.
Recreational opportunities
“I think there should be more after school activities,” said middle
schooler Jana Steele, 13, of Marquette.
Campfield sees things differently. “The schools themselves don’t really
have the activities; it’s more the students who are taking the initiative,”
he said. “As far as the high school goes, there are quite a few activities
to do there. You’ve got so many different groups. There’s even an Anime
group.”
There are also activities outside of school for students. In Sawyer,
the former YMCA is now the West Branch Community Center.
“There’s a swimming pool and a gym. There’s lots of activities to do
here, and it’s better than if you’re just walking around,” said Cody
Cass of Gwinn.
In Marquette some of the recreational activities are limited.
“There is movie stuff and there’s skate parks, but that’s only in the
summertime,” Campfield said about Marquette. “Plus the skate park is
pretty small. We need it expanded more because there actually could
be an accident since it’s so compact.”
Nick Feltner, 12, of Ishpeming gives his town credit for its sports
opportunities.
“They have football leagues and softball and basketball and baseball,”
he said.
Arts and culture
One aspect where the kids had varying opinions was arts, culture, and
diversity.
“I think that we have a very rich and diverse culture,” Campfield said.
“It is unbelievable how many groups and ideas and opinions are up here.
I’d say this is a very good place for art and culture to go.”
Kids in Gwinn say there is little diversity of culture.
“Lots of people are the same culture. We pretty much celebrate the
same holidays,” Cass said.
He would like to see more arts and cultural opportunities.
“They should make a movie theater in Gwinn. We should be able to make
our own art on buildings and not get in trouble for it,” he said.
Leadership positions
Most places offer activities that involve youth in leadership roles.
For example, Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency offers
the Teen Leadership Cooperative program that promotes positive youth
development. Unfortunately, according to Hoevker, not many kids in Ishpeming
take advantage of it.
“There’s not that many kids in our community that really care,” she
said. “That’s kind of a bad thing. But if more kids did want to speak
out about something then they could,” she said.
Darren Mullinax, 15, of Westwood High School, suggests how kids could
have their voices heard.
“(If people) want to come in and tell their ideas for how to make this
town better, they should have a place for people to do that, like a
box they can drop their info in,” he said.
In Gwinn, the schools give kids opportunities to serve the community.
The elementary schools get the kids involved in cleanup by the woods
and in the parks.
Kids in Marquette say there are plenty of volunteering opportunities.
“You can volunteer at the library. The 8-18 thing, you volunteer there,”
Steele pointed out.
Substance abuse issues
Another aspect that significantly affects the way kids grow up in their
communities is the amount of substance abuse that goes on there. Hoevker
doesn’t think that underage alcohol and drug use is a big issue in Ishpeming.
“It’s not a huge problem, but there are some kids that do stuff like
that because they don’t have enough guidance to tell them that it’s
wrong,” she said.
In Gwinn, Luke Ghiardi said there are kids who use drugs or alcohol
and this can influence the younger age group.
“A lot of kids want to do it because they hang out with the older kids,
and a lot of them do it,” he said.
Cass said that being more educated about drugs would reduce the number
of kids who abuse them.
“List all the negative things about the drug,” he suggested. “So if
you had everything bad about the drug, they wouldn’t really use it.”
The kids said that, in Marquette, many people don’t realize that substance
abuse is a problem.
“I think a lot of kids these days in high school are doing drugs, and
I think people need to be more aware about it. They need to do something
to try to stop kids from doing drugs,” said Raish.
Steele feels that the root of the problem is peer pressure.
“I think the big part of people doing drugs is pressure from other
kids, from their friends, anybody. If they don’t do something and another
person doesn’t like it they start fights about it,” she said.
Raish said that in the end, kids could help reduce substance abuse
and make a positive difference in their community.
“I think that every single kid that has a problem with substance abuse
should get out and get their voices heard so places know that we have
a problem with it and they need to do something about it,” he said.
