DELTA COUNTY, Mich. (WZMQ) – Thursday is Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on the positive things that have happened over the past year.
2025 has been a big year for the City of Gladstone. Downtown Ambassador Samantha Gaudino is grateful for local growth.
“Downtown Gladstone is experiencing an extreme momentum this year,” she said. “We have a lot of new retail businesses, which are really hard to get into the downtown and keep in the downtown. They are thriving; the businesses around them are thriving because of it.”
She says downtown events have also seen a great increase in traffic this year.
“From our Farmers Market to Downtown Day to—hopefully—the Old-Fashioned Christmas, we’re seeing just a lot more people gravitate towards Gladstone,” said Gaudino. “That’s really exciting because the people behind the scenes work really hard. Just seeing everyone come together for every single event that we’ve had this year has been really special.”
In Escanaba, the City Recreation Department is giving thanks for its partnerships, like the ones with organizations that donate to its after-school program at the Catherine Bonifas Civic Center.
“Our most recent donation that we had was from Escanaba Rotary,” said Recreation Director Kim Peterson. “They did give us funding that we can hand out food items and little games for the little kids to do between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break this year so they have a little extra to do at home.”
The program is available to local fourth- through twelfth-grade students at no cost. According to Peterson, the community’s generosity is what keeps that service going.
“It’s just a great way for the kids to come and have a supervised, safe environment, burn some energy, maybe sit down and have something to eat, do a little homework,” she said. “It is near and dear to my heart because we started this about 10 – 11 years ago, and it has just grown. Without the extra community support, this program never would exist.”
Other investments around Escanaba have come in the form of major companies setting up shop in town.
“I’m thankful for businesses and corporations like Kwik Trip and Amazon locating their businesses in Escanaba, and there are several more coming,” said Escanaba Electric Utility Director Gerald Pirkola.
For many Delta County residents, Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate the simple things in life.
“I’m thankful for having a healthy family, a great family, and a great community that we live in,” said Roger Chenier of Chenier’s Wreaths in Gladstone. “That’s what it’s about.”
“I have a new baby, so I’m thankful for my family,” said Jesse Traub, who co-owns the Canterbury Book Store in Escanaba. “Even though my three-year-old daughter and my not-yet-one-year-old daughter can sometimes be a handful, there’s a moment where I just look at them and experience this overwhelming wave of gratitude that they’re in my life. It’s perhaps trite, but it’s trite because it’s a real emotion that most of us have.”
Anyone interested in learning more about the Catherine Bonifas Civic Center after-school program can call the Escanaba Recreation Department at (906) 786-4141.
