Participate - and Celebrate! - Muskegon

How can you Not love Muskegon?

So, Muskegon, there's some really, really cool stuff going on here this week. I'll start with right now: Your neighbors are participating in a grant contest - with some very interesting ideas - put on by your community foundation to create fun and exciting events in your community. The best part? You get to help decide winners of the contest. Right now. Just go to the Community Foundation for Muskegon County's Facebook page, "like" it, then click on the "Love Notes" album. Here, you can vote for projects you like by "liking" them. Vote for as many as you want - I chose several of them - or just pick one and read about the rest. They're all innovative, thoughtful ideas...

One of last year's grant-contest winners ... Movies on the Beach Muskegon.

And if you'd like to participate in an idea that's already come to fruition, uniting nature, German traditions, and Michigan-made (and German-made) food and drink, you  need not wait any longer than Saturday: That's when The Muskegon Winter Sports Complex will host its inaugural "Oktoberfest." You thought the luge was just for winter fun? Think again. Pumpkins will tumble down the track as part of the "Pumpkin Roll,"  just one of the traditional German games planned for the whole family from noon-4 p.m. Then, from 4-8 p.m., the Muskegon State Park trails will come alive with music, bonfires, and libations ... Wander the trails and visit the various food and drink stations. What better way to enjoy the beauty of fall? The colors are out in their full magnificence, and you can wonder among them in awe ... Of course, the fun doesn't stop at 8 - there will be a beer garden until midnight with live music and more German and Michigan libations and comestibles...

Just add beer, or food...

If you'd rather head to the heart of the city as night falls, the Frauenthal Center will host the annual Buster Keaton Film Festival at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7...

Whatever you're doing this week, don't forget to take in all of your surroundings: The kaleidoscope of colors, the gentle falling of the leaves, the crunch underfoot ... and go get some cider, apples, or fall donuts while you're at it! So much fun...

See ya out in the beauty, enjoying all the fruits of autumn...

--Imaginer