Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
Grosse Pointe Yacht Club to Host Great Lakes Boating Festival May 18-19
The Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe Shores will be hosting the Great Lakes Boating Festival May 18-19. The event will be free to attendees and feature boats up to 60 feet in length that can be purchased.
Product and service companies also will be exhibiting to go with music, food trucks, lawn games, cocktails, and more.
Parking is $20 at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, free with a complimentary shuttle from Ferry Elementary School, (748 Roslyn Rd.) in Grosse Pointe Woods.
In addition, on May 17, the Summer Breeze Kick-off Party will take place at the yacht club to benefit the Grosse Pointe Youth Nautical Education Foundation (GPYNEF), which awards scholarships to high school graduates that participate in sailing. Tickets to the party may be purchased on the festival website.
For more information visit greatlakesboatingfestival.com.
Experience Zuzu in Detroit Hosting Mother’s Day Benefit Tonight
Experience Zuzu (511 Woodward Ave., Ste. 100) in Detroit is hosting a charity reception —Remembrance & Resilience: A Mother’s Day Benefit _ from 7-10 p.m. this evening.
The goal of the reception, in partnership with local charitable organizations The Semaj J. Morgan Foundation and Mother’s Making a Difference, is to raise funds to provide support to those who have tragically lost children to gun violence.
Proceeds from the charity event will directly benefit the MMAD mission to assist families in coping with grief and healing from senseless violence. Donations are welcome and can be made here.
Cepton in Troy Unveils Proprietary End-to-end Lidar Simulator
California-based Cepton Inc., which has a cengter of excellence in Troy, announced the unveiling of its proprietary lidar simulation platform, StudioViz.
Developed by Cepton’s in-house software teams, StudioViz aims to streamline lidar adoption processes from productization to deployment, helping automotive OEMs expedite lidar-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) development at minimized implementation costs. StudioViz also offers a tool to facilitate a broad spectrum of cutting-edge R&D initiatives in ADAS and AV by researchers and universities.
StudioViz is designed and built to offer an array of functionalities, including:
- Virtual environment creation
- High-fidelity lidar data visualization
- Placement optimization
- Sensor fusion assessment
- Perception solution development
- Manufacturing validation and scaling
With the launch of StudioViz, Cepton plans to help automotive engineers and researchers worldwide accelerate innovation in lidar-based ADAS and AV solutions. Customers and partners interested in learning more information can sign up for Cepton’s StudioViz Early Access Program here.
Gleaners Community Food Bank Reveals Retail-like Approach to Emergency Food Services
Gleaners Community Food Bank has introduced Fresh! by Gleaners, an evolution in the approach to enhancing access to fresh, perishable foods — inspired and informed by collaborative research.
Fresh! by Gleaners brings a retail-inspired experience to emergency food services, offering an innovative approach for households facing hunger to get free, nutritious food at times and in quantities they want and need to help manage household budgets.
A launch and learn pilot, Fresh! by Gleaners, to be located on Eight Mile in Warren, is designed to ensure retail-like accessibility and experience through three service models, in a welcoming and inclusive setting, offering greater convenience for guests facing hunger.
The food market will provide an array of items guests have communicated they want and need most: fresh produce, dairy, and eggs. In addition to an in-person “shopping” option, the Fresh! by Gleaners location will offer pre-order curbside pickup and refrigerated lockers. The attached awning for curbside pick-up will also allow the opportunity for weather-protected, drive-thru mobile distributions during non-retail hours.
Culminating from more than five years of planning and concept testing, Fresh! by Gleaners was developed by a cross-functional program team and an engagement process that gathered input directly from community members — such as guests, community leaders, agency partners, local and county government, Gleaners team members and donors—to refine the process. The outcome reflects greater flexibility for frequency, timing of service and choice in companion to traditional service models.
Detroit Pistons to Host Shop313 Small Business Summit May 15
The Detroit Pistons will host a Shop313 Small Business Summit presented by Amazon at the Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center from 1-5 p.m. on May 15 for 100 local sellers, entrepreneurs, and founders as a part of its Shop313 initiative, an immersive platform developed to promote and support Detroit area small business owners and entrepreneurs. This event is closed to the public.
The afternoon seminar features various sessions with Pistons and Amazon representatives designed to strengthen partnerships and share best practices for selling, pitching and ways to support small businesses through brand marketing.
The summit also will include a fireside chat with Amazon’s Senior Community Engagement Manager Ian Conyers, Comerica Bank’s Senior Vice President and Michigan Director of Small Business Meghan Storey, Pistons Vice President of Brand and Marketing Strategy Bilal Saeed, and the founders of Take Off Luggage, Stephen and Ashlei Davis, as well as the founder of Femology, Meagan Ward, followed by a networking reception.
Wayne State University Receives NIH Grant to Combat Sight Damage from Diabetes
Fu-Shin Yu, professor of ophthalmology, visual, and anatomical sciences in the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, received an award from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health for his study aiming to reverse the adverse effects of diabetes on eyesight.
The five-year grant for $2,167,882 will benefit Yu’s research “Role of Programmed Cell Death Pathways in Bacterial Keratitis,” which will investigate biological processes that contribute to defects in immune response in the eyes of those with diabetes and identify methods to reverse them.
Yu’s research group uses mouse models of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, along with Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model pathogen. In May 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed 81 cases of a drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain across 18 states, resulting in four deaths, 14 cases of vision loss and four cases of enucleation. This underscores the urgent need to better understand the mechanisms underlying the increased susceptibility and severity of bacterial keratitis in diabetic patients.
Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give Sets $2M Donation Goal
In celebration of its 10th year, the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give is increasing its record-breaking 2023 donation goal of $1.25 million to $2 million, marking a decade of the tournament’s commitment to helping feed hungry families through the Simply Give program.
The retailer kicked off its goal by making a $500,000 donation at the Meijer LPGA Classic Media Day event at Blythefield Country Club in partnership with its dedicated sponsors.
Throughout the tournament, attendees can contribute to Simply Give to help reach this special goal by contributing at donation stations and through their on-course purchases. Since 2014, the Meijer LPGA Classic has generated over $10 million and more than 94 million meals for the retailer’s food pantry partners within its Midwest communities.
For more information on the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, visit meijerlpgaclassic.com.
Diamond Sports Group Issues Open Letter to Sports Fans and Comcast Xfinity Subscribers
Diamond Sports Group, which owns Bally Sports Detroit, has issued an open letter to sports fans and Comcast Xfinity subscribers who lost to Detroit Tigers games on Bally Sports regional networks as of May and are unable to watch their favorite teams.
Diamond Sports says in the letter that Comcast Xfinity has refused to engage with Diamond around market-based renewal terms equivalent to what Diamond agreed to with its two largest distribution partners. Comcast Xfinity has even refused to implement a short-term, risk-free extension that would have enabled fans to continue watching their teams on Bally Sports during negotiations, according to Diamond.
Diamond says it believes Comcast Xfinity’s extreme stance is hurting fans, leagues, and teams, and urges Xfinity subscribers to make their voices heard.
“Xfinity’s current proposal will immediately put Bally Sports on a tier requiring you to pay more to see your favorite teams. This matter is not an attempt to ask Xfinity for more money,” the letter reads. “In fact, we are just asking them to accept market terms, similar to what Charter Spectrum, Cox Communications, DirecTV, and DirecTV STREAM all did just last month.”
The letter and more information can be found online at SaveOurLocalTeams.com.
WindowStill in Eaton Rapids Acquires Florida’s Lifestyle Production Group
WindowStill in Eaton Rapids, south of Lansing, has purchased Lifestyle Production Group, a Miami, Fla. real estate video production.
The acquisition is expected to enhance WindowStill’s service offerings with top-tier video content and expanding its footprint in the luxury real estate market on a national, and soon to be global scale.
WindowStill has evolved from its Lansing base to provide comprehensive real estate media services across all 50 states.
LIFT in Detroit Offers Training for Transitioning Military in Florida
Perry, Fla. – LIFT, the Detroit-based, Department of Defense national manufacturing innovation institute, is partnering with Big Bend Technical College in Perry, Fla., and St. John’s River College in Jacksonville, Fla. to provide free training to transitioning service members, National Guard, Army Reserves, and their families, along with veterans and other civilians for careers in advanced manufacturing through LIFT’s Operation Next initiative.
Operation Next provides an accelerated-hybrid program that combines online education with hands-on training to earn credentials for in-demand careers in advanced manufacturing. The programs will train students in computer numeric control and welding. Each year 200,000 service members transition out of the military across the nation, and it is estimated that nearly 2 million advanced manufacturing workers will be needed to fill vacant positions in the U.S. by 2028.
The SJRC program also will have robotics and industrial technology maintenance courses.
Baker College Partners with Trinity Health-Michigan to Tackle Health Care Staffing Shortages
Baker College in Royal Oak and Trinity Health-Michigan have joined forces to provide solutions to the health care staffing shortage.
Through this alliance, scholarships with a maximum value of $20,000 are available for students enrolling in the surgical technologist (surg tech) program at Baker College. This initiative is designed to meet the pressing staffing needs in Michigan’s health care sector by promoting education in key health care fields. Additionally, the program seeks to eliminate financial barriers associated with education costs, making it more accessible for aspiring health care professionals.
This collaboration aims to enhance patient care, alleviate workforce strains, and combat burnout. The tuition assistance program. It is funded by Trinity Health-Michigan and requires students to commit to working with Trinity for a specified period following their graduation, with placement opportunities in Muskegon or Grand Rapids.
