Cherry Republic is excited to share one of the most meaningful practices of the year: Our month of giving. We did it last year. And the year before.
Our donations come from our 1% Off the Top program where one cent of every dollar we make is put aside for protecting and improving the quality of life in our great state. Generosity is fundamental to every religion and we hope to inspire giving to be a core value to every business as well.
Cherry Republic raises money a second way — through a refundable 1% tariff in our stores that goes to farmland preservation and strengthening Michigan’s small farm economy. This is our customers’ money and we value it immensely. A farmer’s livelihood is based on how well they give back to the land. As a society, all of our livelihoods are based on how well we support the farmers.
We hope to give over $130,000 to organizations in December.
December 31st: Buckets of Rain (Tariff) $2,000
December 30th: Michigan League of Conservation Voters (Tariff) $4,000
This donation goes to MLCV’s program dedicated to educating Grand Rapids counties on the economic benefits of farmland preservation. Their goal is to preserve the farms ringing Michigan’s second biggest city. This isn’t our first donation to our friends at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters who are working to foster better decisions on conservation issues all over Michigan.
December 29th: Leelanau Conservancy (Tariff) $7,500
December 28th: Urban Ecology Center $2,000
This donation goes to a former classmate Ken Leinbach and his organization—The Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee. His concept is great—create wild places in the city and then teach kids about nature. We hope Milwaukee’s unique urban wild spaces created by the Urban Ecology Center are spread to other cities across America.
December 27th: SEEDS (Tariff) $3,000
This is a new local donation for us. SEEDS works to provide opportunities and education to kids in need. Our donation goes toward supporting their farmland programs which are a 5 acre community garden plot at the Grand Traverse Commons, a farmer in residency program and teaching their youth corps good gardening skills.
December 26th: NW Michigan Horticultural Research (Tariff) $5,000
This donation is for our friends at the NWMHRC who conduct research and support cherry farmers across northern Michigan. Each season they help farms meet the many challenges of pests, frost, mold, bee shortages. In the past our donation has been used to help support young cherry farmers make the business and educational connections to succeed.
December 25th: Washtenaw Camp Placement Association $2000
The Washtenaw Camp Placement Association is a group that raises money to send Ann Arbor kids to camp in northern Michigan. I was a camp counselor at Camp Innisfree (Now Camps Kohanna/Leelanau) when some of these Ann Arbor kids would come to Innisfree. The camp was terrific and life changing for them and it is great to know that this important opportunity to get kids outside in a good environment is still going strong.
December 24th: MLUI (Tariff) $5000
December 23rd: Friends of Sleeping Bear $5,000
December 22nd: Tillian Farm (Tariff) $3,500
Cherry Republic continues to support the Tilian Farm Development Center in Ann Arbor. Tilian has some excellent preserved farmland with good soils and a strategic location for small crop farming. The land is offered out in one to 5 acre parcels to small farmers who share barn space, tractor usage and other amentities for a small fee. This money will go toward continuing to build this innovative farm complex that is incubating new farm businesses.
December 21st: Traverse City Health Clinic $3,000
Cherry Republic doesn’t often donate to the medical world, our focus has always been to the environment and quality of life. However, it is such an important issue in America that most people face every day. This money goes to offering opportunities to see a health practitioner in Traverse City for those that cannot afford it.
https://www.traversehealthclinic.org
December 20th: Empire Area Community Emergency Fund (Tariff) $2,200
This donation is to support this quiet local group helping needy Glen Lake families get thru tough times. This gift is made in the name of our employees; some of whom have been a part of this group from the beginning, whether as givers or receivers.
December 19th: Village Focus International $2,000
Village Focus International is the lone international organization that we support. VFI is located in Laos and works to provide schools, clean water, health clinics, and capacity, knowledge, and participation in decision making on land related issues. This capacity is for villages in the mountains of Laos that have no government services societal decision making structure at all.
December 18th: Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear $4,500
This donation goes to our friends at PHSB, who are protecting the history, culture and landscape of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We are excited to help PHSB meet their goals of telling and showing the great story of this land before the national park came to being. This money is focused on helping PHSB acquire the equipment and capacity to maintain the beautiful hay fields and former orchards in the Port Oneida Historical District in the national park.
December 17th: Circle of Blue $5,000
This important money goes to Carl Ganter, Executive Director at Circle of Blue. 
https://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/CPX/
December 16th: Michigan Environmental Council $2,500
Cherry Republic tends to spend most of it’s time and money working locally to 
December 15th: Little Traverse Conservancy $5,000
December 14th: FLOW $3,000
This donation goes to our longtime friends at FLOW who are dedicated to reducing the threats
December 13th: Glen Arbor Township $2,500
Glen Arbor township will be finishing up our master plan this summer. In most townships, this plan gets stacked on a shelf and forgotten until another 10 years comes and we do it all over again. It is our hope that this money will go toward keeping some of the concepts alive by taking the words and making drawings of what our town could look like if we follow our vision. We all see better in pictures than words and if we can see it, we can make it real.
December 12th: Institute of Sustainable Living in Art, Nature and Design (ISLAND) $8,000
Here they are helping farmers gather to learn from each other:
https://www.artmeetsearth.org/blog/island-wraps-2014-twilight-tour-series
Or they also coordinate pure teaching workshops as well
https://www.artmeetsearth.org/food-and-farming-projects
December 11th: Leelanau School $5,000
This marks the 5th year we’ve donated to our neighbors down the road. This boarding school nestled in the arms of Sleeping Bear Bay has been life changing for many high schoolers. And this school and it’s facilities and staff have been important members of our community. Cherry Republic is proud to support their work.
December 10th: Moross Greenway – $2,500
The Moross Greenway Project is a historic collaborative effort of volunteer residents of the City of Detroit and its suburban neighborhoods who have partnered to transform and landscape the eight islands between the I-94 expressway and St. John Hospital.
This donation is given on behalf of Rosann Kovalcik the owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Groose Pointe. Rosann is a long time friend and her store has sold our Cherry Republic products for nearly 15 years. We asked her why and she said it’s because Cherry Republic donates to so many great causes. We thought it would be fun surprise for her to find Cherry Republic supporting an important project that she is involved with.
December 9th: $Undisclosed to a local family in need
There is a longstanding family up here that homesteaded forever just below the Sleeping Bear Dunes. I was the same age as their kids, when the park came and bought out their farms and tore them down and brought the land back to nature. Now one of those kids is raising a family and his kids go to school with mine. But they’ve hit hard times as my former classmates wife is sick and unable to work and they are struggling with bills. It feels good and neighborly for all of us at Cherry Republic to give to a proud family who are important members of our community.
December 8th: Northern MI Small Farm Conference – $3,750
This is a terrific conference attended by a thousand small farmers in northern Michigan that 
Winona is an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, LaDuke has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. She is the author of five books
December 7th: Art’s Council of Greater Kalamazoo – $1,500
This donation is being made in the name of Nature Connection in Kalamazoo. They
December 6th: Legacy Land Conservancy – $5,000
This is the second year we are supporting this great conservancy in the Ann Arbor area. This donation goes toward supporting their annual member event and fundraiser in June. The Legacy Land Conservancy is Michigan’s oldest conservancy and works to preserve farms and green spaces in the Ann Arbor area. Check out their website for more information.
December 5th: Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy – $7,500
Today we handed a $7,500 check to our friends working hard to preserve farmland in northern Michigan. It is the biggest check that we have ever given the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and it is in recognition to the great job the staff did in shaping the Federal Farm bill for everyone in Michigan’s benefit. This check is unrestricted and will likely cover administration costs within the conservancy — like paying the salary of our good friend Brian Bourdages, the farmland Program Manager.
In the photo below Brian updates me on the Maple Bay farm, Acme Township’s successful farmland preservation millage, Joyfield Rd farmland sales and plans — so many great things happening.
December 4th: Special Days Camps – $3,000
A check of $3,000 goes to Special Days Camps based out of Ann Arbor Michigan. Special Days was suggested to Cherry Republic by Mary Jo Reilly from Haslett, Michigan. This group provides meaningful camp and outdoor experiences in the summer and winter for children with cancer and their siblings.
Mary Jo has a special place in her heart for this organization and has sent her two boys there. “It was the best thing we ever could have done!” Says Mary.
December 3rd: Sleeping Bear Dunes Heritage Trail – $10,000
Congratulations to our favorite bike trail, which is still only halfway toward completion. This check for $10,000 will go towards meeting an early pledge of $100,000 we made when this trail was just a dream.
Cherry Republic has raffled a Chevrolet Volt, we’ve auctioned items, and mostly, we’ve sent checks over the last 7 years. With this check, and with checks we’ve written in the names of our employees, we’ve donated $115,000 to this terrific trail.
December 2nd: SMOCK, Kids Food Baskets, and Boots for Kids – $1,000 each
These next donations all came from our Orchard Report readers who responded to our request for their favorite charity or nonprofit. SMOCK (a local art studio for kids), Kids Food Baskets (Grand Rapids based organization helping stop childhood hunger) and Boots for Kids (Traverse City organization making sure kids are warm this winter) will each be receiving $1,000. Each of these organizations helps children in Michigan.
December 1st: Leslie Science and Nature Center – $3,500
Our first recipient for the month is Leslie Science and Nature Center for $3,500. They educate and inspire children and adults to discover, understand, and respect their natural environment. Their grounds, trails, and raptor enclosures are open every day from sunrise to sunset, completely free of charge and are located in Ann Arbor.
This is our second year of donating to Leslie Science and Nature Center. We were given a strong recommendation from Chris Kolb from the Michigan Environmental Council. And he was right! Leslie Science and Nature Center is doing great things and run by terrific and gracious people. (We’ve never received so many thank you’s from an organization’s board before!)