Jessie Wiegand Leaving WGRT for The Onion

WGRT radio sent its star reporter, Jessie Wiegand, to PodFest Expo in Orlando over the weekend and experienced an unexpected result. After hitting it off with The Onion’s founder, Scott Dikkers, Wiegand accepted a position as lead reporter for the satirical news company.

Dikkers spoke at PodFest and met Wiegand after his talk when she cut in line to meet him and interrupted the person in front of her. After observing her spunk and disregard for common human decency, Dikkers asked about her career.

Wiegand described her role as a dearly loved local celebrity in her hometown of Port Huron, Michigan, and Dikkers was amazed at her poise and self confidence.

“This is the kind of person we’re always looking for at The Onion,” he said. “We need people who are willing to push to the front of the line and position themselves as authority figures. I was also mesmerized by Wiegand’s midwestern accent that has just a touch of Canadian twang. She’ll be a perfect fit in our newsroom.”

WGRT station owner and president Marty Doorn said Wiegand will be missed at the radio station. “Jessie will be hard to replace. There aren’t many people who are equipped to cover the complex and deeply nuanced news stories we have in the Blue Water Area.”

Wiegand is best known for her riveting Facebook coverage of the grand opening of a downtown grocery store and her ability to correctly pronounce the name of St. Clair County health department official, Dr. Annette Mercatante.

When asked why she decided to take the leap and work with The Onion, Wiegand said, “I’ll miss my fans and the opportunities I’ve had to grow as a journalist at WGRT. Marty has given me so much freedom to explore my talent as a reporter, and it’s time for me to take those skills to the next level of professional news writing.”

Fans of Wiegand’s work at WGRT can rest assured that they won’t have to wonder who will fill her shoes for long. Most of this story has been made up or exaggerated, and Wiegand will be back to work on Tuesday after she fulfills her lifelong dream of visiting Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando.

For more information about Scott Dikkers and The Onion, Visit Scott’s website here:

https://scottdikkers.com/

Reporting for WGRT – Jessie Wiegand

Marcus Middleton Allan Piper Port Huron Memorial Day Parade

Commemorating our Fallen Heroes wsg. Marcus Middleton & Allan Piper

Marcus Middleton & Allan Piper join us to talk about Port Huron’s Memorial Day Parade and why it’s important for a community to gather on this holiday. What does it mean for our veterans and active military when we remember their fallen comrades? Listen and discover how taking a few hours out of your Memorial Day makes a difference. 

Learn more about the Memorial Day Parade in Port Huron here:

Port Huron Memorial Day Parade

Cedar Point Goes Cashless

Hitting up the ATM before taking a road trip to Cedar Point? Don’t bother. The Sandusky, Ohio amusement park has gone cashless.

There are endless ways to spend money at the park, a popular getaway for Blue Water area thrill seekers, but there are just a few ways to complete transactions: swiping or tapping a credit card or debit card or using a smart device with Apple Pay or Google Pay.

There are Cash-to-Card kiosks on site where you can convert cash into a prepaid debit card. You won’t get the unspent cash back in the form of cash, but the card can be used anywhere Visa is accepted if there’s a remaining balance.

Why go cashless? Cedar Point says, “By going cashless, we are able to conduct contact-less transactions, and it’s faster, safer and always secure.”

Cedar Point will be increasing the price of their summer passes starting May 31st. Meanwhile, the Frontier Festival is going on now at the park as part of a partnership with Prayers From Maria, an organization whose mission is to raise awareness and money to fund research to end childhood cancer.

Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland

NACW Celebrates Local Women at “She Leads Michigan” Event

Several local women were recently honored by the National Association of Career Women at the 4th Annual “She Leads Michigan” Afternoon Tea.

The event was held by State Representative Bronna Kahle and the “She Leads Michigan” team to recognize accomplishments as women of faith in the state of Michigan.

Christina Gallina-Flood, the founder of Healing Hearts Home Ministries; Crystal Mosher, the Senior Chapter Development Specialist with Woman’s Life Insurance Society; and Tracy Willard, the founder of Hunter Hospitality House, were the award recipients from the Blue Water area. Alice Rieves, the Executive Director of Mid-City Nutrition and an NACW member, was also nominated for the honor.

NACW Port Huron chapter president, Samantha Jay said, “We are so proud of Christina, Crystal, Tracy and Alice. It’s amazing that our chapter is able to be so well represented at an event such as the ‘She Leads Michigan’ event, but also not surprising at all considering the caliber of women we have in our chapter.”

Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland

Pregnancy Care Center Opening in East China

Fellowship Baptist Church in East China will be opening its new Pregnancy Care Center on Wednesday, June 1st. The Center will offer a friendly face and support for families expecting a new baby and a variety of supplies for that baby on the way.

Senior Pastor, Terry Kuhns, said that his church was looking for a way to create a service to the surrounding community in southern St. Clair County. With much of the resources concentrated in Port Huron, they thought they could bring those much-needed baby items closer to the families that might need them.

Kuhns said that those who visit the center will be able to build relationships with the staff, who can refer them to existing resources in the county, along with access to a huge supply of baby items.

The Pregnancy Care Center is open to walk-in visitors Mondays through Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to noon, and at other times by appointment. It is located at 5200 Park Drive in East China.

The center is in particular need of donations of maternity items.

Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland

$1 off Gas on June 6th in Lexington with “People Helping People” Effort

Pain at the pump has turned into People Helping People. A grassroots effort in Lexington has taken off with the end result being $1 per gallon taken off of the price of up to 25 gallons of gas at “The Party Store” Marathon gas station on Main Street in Lexington, The sale is for one day only: June 6th.

Six thousand gallons of gas are available, donated by business owners who wanted to help out. A local businessman, Tim Hering, heard someone making the difficult choice between food or gas, and the idea behind “People Helping People” was born.

Hering, who owns Lakeshore Graphics, said that he wanted to inspire people. He asked small business owners in the area to contribute $250 with a goal of $3000. So far, $6000 has been raised.

The crowd that is likely to make a trip to Lexington for the reduced gas prices will hopefully also patronize some of those same small businesses that made a donation toward the reduced-price gas, as the People Helping People initiative comes full circle.

Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland