Chris Chamberlain is the owner and Captain of the Michigan Princess, and Grand Princess Riverboats. He has grown up in the family business and has been piloting the boats for the last 12 years. He has taken on the positions as president of the company over the last 5 years following his father’s passing.

 

His primary focus is on the continued operation and improvement of the riverboat business. His most recent notable accomplishment since taking over was the development and implementation of a method to remove the Michigan Princess from operation and inspect it out of the water. This allowed him to do all necessary maintenance and put it back in service without any disassembly. This saved the company an estimated $250,000 in 2017 while reducing downtime of a key asset from three months to one week. He is currently working to grow the business beyond the two boats currently in operation. He has another boat that is currently 75% complete and is expected to be in service in the next two years in Grand Rapids. He is also working to provide Lansing with water taxies between Old Town, Downtown, and Reo Town.

 

Besides expanding with his own boats he is working with the city of Lowell, MI to guide them in the process of building a new showboat. This project is currently out for public bidding. He enjoys giving back to the community and is a member of the Lansing Rotary Club. Besides offering the Michigan Princess free of charge to the community during Be A Tourist In Your Own Town, He frequently supports local fundraisers from school athletic teams to the new splash pad in Grand Ledge. He enjoys a number of recreational hobbies including downhill skiing in the winter and swimming in the summer but he is most at home on a sailboat. As an avid sailor he frequently can be found racing on Lake St. Clair and he has even competed in the Port Huron to Mackinaw Island race.

The Michigan Princess Riverboat will be docked at Grand River Park, located at 3001 Lansing Road, Lansing.  Click here for a Google map.  You cannot access the boat dock from Moores River Drive.  Thank you,

 

From I496 East

Take Exit 3 to Waverly Road

Turn right on S. Waverly Road

Make a hard left onto Old Lansing Road

Turn right @ the end of the Road

Grand River Park is on the right.

If you have an International Project Grant Proposal, the link is below to submit your application.  The deadline is November 8th, 2019 for this fiscal year 2019-2020.  If you have questions, please don't hesitate to email:  attorney@sonnenberglaw.com.  Thank you,

 

In the Michigan Room of the Lansing Community College Downtown Campus, President Pat Hanes started the meeting at 12:27pm. The lunch was delicious, and many comments were overhead regarding the wonderful quality of the facilities. The screens were fantastic, and everyone was ready for a great speaker.

 

Bob Hoffman gave the invocation with a focus on serving and leading the future generations. The changes in the world start with us, and we can start with a focus on the blessings of new challenges ahead of us. The invocation was followed by the patriotic song. There was no flag present but Ken Beachler reminded us that we live in the U.S.A. and to think of that while we sang.

 

During the introduction of guests, we were surprised that we didn’t have anyone. Janet Lillie had a fairly easy job that day! The health of the club was good but not the health of one of Diane Sanborn’s large oak trees. Diane showed some photos of the tree and it was amazing to see how large the tree was, but there is some hope that a portion of it can be saved.

 

We were blessed by the presence of Katy Troyer who took some time to provide information on the impact of the International Grant that Rotary has made toward the Global Dental Relief group. Global Dental Relief provides dental work for people in need in other countries. Katy has been with GDR for over nine years. The Rotary grant has helped facilitate two clinics in Ciudad Vieja with services valued at $456,580. Her stories of gratitude and hope that this work provides is inspiring. Katy reminded that you don’t have to be a dentist to provide service and anyone can help.

 

President Pat Hanes presented Carmen Hall from Habitat for Humanity with her red badge. Due to some scheduling conflicts, there was no special music for the day but we were promised that it would return!

 

Chris Swope introduced the speaker, Sam Singh, who spoke to the group about the 2020 Census. Sam is the former major of East Lansing and served for 12 years in varying capacities in elected office. Sam provided a background of the census. The census was started in 1790 and is conducted every ten years. The census is part of the Constitution in Article 1, Section 2. The census is the largest mobilization of people during peace time and determines the distribution of the 435 congressional seats. Currently, Michigan is in danger of losing a congressional seat. It is calculated that each individual counted in the census contributes a value of between $1,800 to $3,000 per year in the state budget. The census will start with an invitation in March of 2020 with a final reminder in April and finish in July. The census can be done by either internet, phone, or paper questionnaire. The census is available online in 12 different languages. Some of the biggest reasons for individuals lack of participation is due to misunderstand of the purpose of the information and fear of repercussions for status or living conditions. The Be Counted Lansing 2020 initiative aims to raise awareness and improve participation to properly represent the area for budget.

 

The meeting closed with the microphone given to the room for questions. President Pat Hanes finished with the speaker’s gift of the donation to the Bio Sand Filter water project in the Dominican Republic. We were all reminded that the riverboat for this coming week’s meeting is heated!

 

Brian Taylor's email is:  brian@oddfellowscontracting.com