Offbeat

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the window washing crew!

Earlier this year, we posted on an unusual window washing trend. At children hospitals across the nation it appears that independent window washing companies and contractors have been donning super hero costumes to spread a little cheer.

This past Monday, superheroes visited the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Update 5/29/13: This story has been corrected to reflect Wright’s rank as Specialist, not Sergeant. Wright misrepresented his rank during the formal event.  

Memorial Day was particularly special for an injured Iraqi war veteran from Allegan.

Hundreds huddled close at Oakwood Cemetery Monday morning. Some wept as Amy Wright finally pinned a Purple Heart on her husband’s uniform. He kneeled so his 7-year old daughter Torin could pin on the other one.

These days, services in Detroit are bare-bones—and a lot of the work that does get done is done by volunteers.

The Detroit Mower Gang is just one of the many groups tackling that work.

The group mowed grass, trimmed brush and picked up trash at parks throughout the city during their “Motown Mowdown,” a 24-hour mowing binge that also involved an overnight camp out in one park.

This is from their event announcement on Facebook:

The Irish Hills Towers are a familiar landmark along US-12 in southern Michigan.

But the nearly 90-year-old towers face a potential demolition order … unless years of decline and disrepair can be addressed.

Donna Boglarsky owned the towers for many years.  Now she’s working the save the rundown landmark.

“I know I’ve had a few people who’ve said “Have you gotten an estimate on how much the demolition will cost?’,” says Boglarsky, “That’s not even an option to look at, because that’s not in our vision at all.”