| Media
links about the event:
WZZM
TV 13
Count
d'Booty and Mary Crowe appeared on WZZM TV13’s Take Five morning show
program. Click the link below, then click on video 17
http://www.wzzm13.com/video/take_five_default.aspx
From
talklikeapirate .com
Grand Haven - Loutit District Library in
Grand Haven is planning a whole Pirate Week, Sept. 15-19, with fun and
educational programs for all ages focussing on Great Lakes pirates.
Actrivities include pirate storytime (6:30 p.m. Sept. 15; 10 a.m. Sep.t
17-18), A visit by the Brethren of the Great Lakes Pirate re-enactors
Sept. 16 and 18, and Pirate Movie Night at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 featuring
"Captain Blood."On Sept. 19, all visitors are invited to dress
and talk like their favorite pirates all day. For a complete list o'
gentleman o' fortune events call (616) 842-5560, ext. 214 or visit www.loutitlibrary.org.
From
the Grand Haven Tribune
BY MARK BROOKY mbrooky@grandhaventribune.com
Wednesday September 17 2008
A motley crew of pirates landed at Grand Haven's waterfront Tuesday
night, and hundreds of people turned out to welcome them ashore.
<Tribune Photo / Andy Loree>
A half-dozen pirate re-enactors from a group called Brethren of the
Great Lakes, led by Grand Haven native Dan Leonard as Count d'Booty,
arrived aboard Grand Haven resident Steven Platt's sailboat and docked on
the wall in front of Bicentennial Park.
After posing for photos and answering a myriad questions about pirates,
the ladies of the crew hopped aboard a horse-drawn carriage and the pirate
men followed on foot in a parade through Grand Haven to Loutit District
Library's temporary location at 1051 S. Beacon Blvd.
The event kicked off the library's nearly week-long celebration of
pirates.
Sandie Knes, the library's director, said the turnout for the pirate's
arrival exceeded her expectations.
"We knew we'd have a bunch of people, but the amount of people
that showed up for this is absolutely fantastic," she said at the
waterfront. "We are already planning for next year."
Stephanie Loss of Fruitport was one of dozens of people — kids and
adults — who showed up at the waterfront Tuesday evening dressed like
pirates. The high school student said she has enjoyed the pirate
re-enactments at several renaissance festivals.
"This isn't even my whole outfit," Loss said. "But I had
to wear something to school today, and so I didn't exactly want to go with
everything. It would have been a little cumbersome."
At the library Tuesday night, the pirates put on a presentation and
interacted with the audience.
<Tribune Photo / Andy Loree>
The library has several pirate-themed activities happening all week.
Tonight at 7, the 1935 classic movie "Captain Blood" —
starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland — will be shown. Admission
is free.
Lee Mulder will perform pirate ballads, sea chanteys and 18th-century
songs at the library for a free show at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Friday is "International Talk Like a Pirate Day," and the
library staff will be in pirate outfits to celebrate the day.
On Saturday, illustrator Tom Woodruff will be helping children learn to
draw majestic pirate ships, and a craft area will be set up for making
bandanas and other pirate paraphernalia. Woodruff will lead the drawing
class from 1-2 p.m. for students in grades 1-4, and from 2:30-3:30 p.m.
for students in fifth grade and up.
A treasure map contest is also going on at the library this week.
Instructions are available at the children's desk; or by calling 842-5560,
ext. 216. The deadline for entries is 6 p.m. Thursday and winners will be
announced Friday.
From
the Holland Sentinel
Pirates will pillage and plunder downtown Grand Haven en
route to their 7 p.m. program at the Loutit District Library, 1051 S.
Beacon Blvd., Tuesday, Sept. 16. Well sort of.
 |
Around 6 p.m. Count d’Booty, pirate lord of Lake Michigan,
and his crew from the Brethren of the Great Lakes, will sail up the
Grand Haven channel from Lake Michigan in a 37-foot, modern-day
pirate sailing rig. The vessel will dock just west of One South
Harbor Drive. The pirates will interact with the crowd before
boarding a horse-drawn carriage for the trip to the library’s
temporary location at 1051 S. Beacon Boulevard.
The 7 p.m. library program will include Grand Haven native Dan
Leonard as Count d’Booty, Merry Crowe and other Brethren as they
discuss and interact with the crowd about the Great Lakes, the
Admiralty (Maritime laws), current ship salvage operations, pirates
in Michigan, the history of piracy from the Roman Empire to the
current day, pirates in fiction, famous pirates and more.
Leonard — the Executive Director of the Michigan Pirate Festival,
a founding member of the Brethren of the Great Lakes and a member in
the International Privateers Guild — has been a professional
pirate for over eight years. |
This family-friendly event is part a week of pirate events at the
library, which is centered around International Talk Like A Pirate Day,
Sept. 19. Families are encouraged to take cameras and video recorders as
pirates will pose for pictures.
For more information, call (616) 842-5560 ext. 214 or visit www.loutitlibrary.org.
From
the Grand Rapids Press
Pirates set sail
for West Michigan
by Aaron Ogg |
The Grand Rapids Press
Monday September
15, 2008, 5:09 AM
| Watch out for pirates this week. A growing number of
the swashbucklers are hanging around West Michigan.
A ship full of pirates flying the Jolly Roger flag is planning to
land in Grand Haven on Tuesday. A Muskegon event honoring the scurvy
scoundrels recently drew more than 1,000 people.
And recently, some pirates were seen dining at the T.G.I. Fridays
at Rivertown Crossings Mall.
One of the ringleaders is a woman impersonating Capt. Jack
Sparrow a.k.a. Donna Grams, 58, of Grandville. Her likeness to
Johnny Depp's "Pirates of the Carribean" movie character
is eerie. She carries a replica of Sparrow's pistol, wears smudged
eyeliner, sports a beaded beard and smiles mischieviously with gold
teeth -- in the exact spots where Capt. Jack's gold teeth are.
"Since I was a kid, I've loved dressing up," Grams
says. "If I could be Jack all the time, I would." |
Press Photo/Katy Batdorff
Donna Grams' outfit is modeled after Capt.
Jack Sparrow, from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie
trilogy. Grams works in a dental office during the day, but in her
spare time dresses -- and speaks -- like a pirate. |
And Jack is what she'll be Friday, which is Talk Like a Pirate Day, and
the reason you might see a few more pirates parading around town,
especially in Grand Haven where the library has planned a week full of
activities, including Tuesday's ship arrival.
Grams plans to dress as Jack when she goes to her job Friday at Davis
Dental Lab in Wyoming (a job which made it a lot less costly to get those
golden crowns). She brings her Captain Jack Sparrow shtick to public
libraries, birthday parties and other nonprofit events, showing up in a
Saturn with a vanity license plate that reads "ARRRH."
She says she has watched all three "Pirates" movies at least
100 times each, and can't resist reciting the movie as it's playing. Her
dream is to be cast as an extra in a sequel.
"When I'm dead, I want to be buried in Jack," she says.
"This is the way people know me, and this is the way I want people to
remember me."
Grams' spare apartment bedroom looks like a cabin straight from Jack
Sparrow's ship, the Black Pearl. The walls are lined with "Pirates of
the Caribbean" photos, some autographed by Johnny Depp and Geoffrey
Rush. A lifesize replica of Davy Jones scowls from a corner. A nautical
map lies across the top of a dresser, near a chest full of doubloons.
Grams is part of a growing local and national subculture of pirates who
refuse to limit their antics to one day a year.
She and others get a chance to release their inner pirate at events
like the Michigan Pirate Festival in Muskegon in August, which was
attended by more than 1,000 buccaneers and adoring fans.
The celebration is organized by the Brethren of the Great Lakes, a
tight confederation of pirates hailing from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio,
Wisconsin and other locales. Each of the five Great Lakes is managed by a
"pirate lord" who oversees events in the area.
The Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, south of Flint, which wraps
up Sept. 28, has daily attendance of about 15,000, and boasts a strong
pirate presence.
National pirate numbers are difficult to obtain, said Niles resident
Dan Leonard, 41, who oversees Lake Michigan under his "Count d'Booty"
moniker.
With no single unifying organization, many groups fly under the radar,
such as a nameless Holland band of about 40. Pirates are hard to classify,
but he estimates there are are probablly 50 hardcore ones like Grams in
Michigan.
While some dress and act the part every day, others may do it simply as
a once-a-year novelty, he said.
For example, the Macatawa Bay Buccaneers, a Holland-based horde
counting about two dozen among its ranks, only officially gathers in June.
They throw a big, kid-friendly party with Caribbean cuisine, plank walking
and discussions of pirate history.
"It's a time which I hearken back to when I was a kid," says
57-year-old Holland resident Pete Grimm, a.k.a. Captain Pete Grimstone,
who works in the employee benefits insurance business. "We're a
fun-loving group of people who like to party as pirates."
With their gold teeth, beaded beards, leather boots, swords and
pistols, they're very easy to spot in a crowd. Especially at T.G.I.
Fridays, where Grams and some pirate friends dined earlier this month
dressed in full pirate regalia.
"You look just like Jack Sparrow," 20-year-old hostess Danie
Brink of Jamestown Township told Grams. "You guys look so
authentic."
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