Downtown Detroit Partnership Announces Free Summer Events at Parks
The Downtown Detroit Partnership has announced its lineup of summer fun and free activities for families and individuals of all ages throughout the city, metro Detroit, and beyond.
Downtown Detroit’s Campus Martius Park, Cadillac Square, Capitol Park, Beacon Park, Grand Circus Park, Woodward Esplanade, and Paradise Valley Beatrice Buck Park attract more than 4.2 million visitors annually. The spaces come alive with more than 1,400 cultural experiences, programs, events, and activations throughout the summer.
CAMPUS MARTIUS PARK
This summer, residents, employees, and visitors can experience Campus Martius Park with its lush gardens, dynamic water features and comfortable seating, in addition to the following programs and events:
- Campus Kids Day
- The Beach at Campus Martius Park
- Movie Nights in the D
- City Glow Yoga
- Party in the Park, Aug. 15
CADILLAC SQUARE
Summer Markets are back at Cadillac Square, this year from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. three days a week: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays beginning June 11. Some of the participating businesses include Brownie Dr., Preva Body, Detroit Bracelet, Staten Sweets, and Detroitorant.
Celebrating its 12th season, Downtown Street Eats, will continue through October with a lineup of more than 80 food trucks rotating at Cadillac Square and the Woodward Esplanade weekdays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and during special events.
CAPITOL PARK
Citizen Yoga will help attendees find their zen with free yoga sessions Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m.
GRAND CIRCUS PARK
Detroit’s Off-Leash Dog Park. On Saturdays, Grand Circus Park plays host to a plethora of monthly themed events and activities, presented by Strategic Staffing Solutions and supported by Michigan Humane and Premier Pet Supply. An annual “Bones and Cones” ice cream social, “Wild Western Roundup,” “Tailgate Paw-ty,” and “Howl-O-Ween” are some of the fun on tap where owners can have a howling good time with their furry friends and meet other pet people.
GRAND PRIX IN THE PARKS
The Downtown Detroit Partnership and the Detroit Grand Prix are revved up to welcome visitors from around the world to enjoy racing and a multitude of festivities happening in and around Downtown Detroit Parks, including those that support Detroit’s small businesses. Events include:
- Downtown Street Eats – June 1-2
- Watch the Detroit Grand Prix Live at Campus Martius Park – June 1-2
- Small Business Straightaway – June 1-2
- Free Saturday Night Detroit Grand Prix Concert – June 1
For more details and a full schedule of events, visit here.
Pentastar Aviation in Waterford Township Expands Tech Capabilities with Starlink
Pentastar Aviation in Waterford Township now is an authorized dealer of Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency in-flight internet. With this technology, Pentastar is set to transform its in-flight experience by offering high-speed, low-latency broadband internet globally.
“We are committed to continually advancing the travel experience for our clients through state-of-the-art solutions, which has enabled us to become a trusted partner in avionics, connectivity and advisory services,” says Brad Bruce, president and CEO of Pentastar. “Starlink provides yet another way to ensure passengers and crew are seamlessly connected at all times, rising to meet the needs of travelers today.
“With Pentastar and Starlink, private aviation remains the most technologically advanced way to travel the world, allowing corporations to conduct business anywhere and entertainment to always be accessible.”
As an authorized dealer for Starlink, Pentastar’s certified technicians will manage professional installations, outfitting each aircraft with optimal hardware configurations for connectivity and offering ongoing support to use Starlink’s services benefits. Starlink provides internet speeds of up to 220 MBps for high-speed internet in flight — offering Pentastar customers with seamless video streaming, faster web browsing, real-time gaming possibilities, and efficient file sharing and downloads.
For more about Pentastar Aviation, visit pentastar.aero.
Little Caesars Celebrating 20 Years of Hot-N-Ready Pizza
This summer, Little Caesars is celebrating 20 years of its Hot-N-Ready products. To commemorate the anniversary, the Detroit-based company is giving away major prizes throughout the summer in a giveaway filled with surprises for pizza lovers nationwide.
Since its inception in 2004, Hot-N-Ready has been the go-to option for those looking for a quick, easy pizza option, offering a blend of convenience and quality. To honor this legacy, Little Caesars is kicking off the Summer of Hot-N-Ready Giveaways and Getaways with a free year of Hot-N-Ready classic pizzas to 20 winners. Customers simply need to visit their nearest participating Little Caesars location and scan the QR code on their receipt to enter the sweepstakes.
Full details and official rules can be found here. No purchase necessary.
Throughout the summer season, pizza fans can expect new prizes to be announced each month. The prizes for the month of June include:
- One year of free classic pizza including 52 pizzas for the year (Entry Period: 5/27 – 6/2)
- Flyaway package to Pepsi Rock the South 2024 including Sponsor Row festival tickets, airfare, hotel and Little Caesars merchandise (Entry Period: 6/3 – 6/9)
- Summer backyard BBQ party package including Little Caesars gift card, grill tools and Better with Pepsi grill and cooler, along with other summer fun items (Entry Period: 6/10 – 6/16)
- Hot-Takes package including a 4K camera or drone and Little Caesars merchandise for (Entry Period: 6/24 – 6/30)
For more information on Little Caesars Summer of Hot-N-Ready Giveaways & Getaways and to stay updated on the latest giveaways and promotions, visit here.
Quest Charter Academy in Taylor Boosts Learning Through Play for Students of All Ages
At Quest Charter Academy in Taylor, a partner school of National Heritage Academies (NHA) in Grand Rapids, a new initiative is underway to help get students moving.
The school’s Student Wellness Team has joined forces with Communities in Schools (CIS) to give recess and outdoor activities a boost. The goal is to bring more exercise and fun into the lives of students through play.
The initiative comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) advises children ages 5-17 to engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. Regular exercise not only reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety but also improves cognitive functions such as thinking, learning, and judgment.
After a lot of research and debate, the team decided to transform the school blacktop with permanent games. “We painted activities like Four Square, hopscotch, and football,” explained Young. “These activities provide easy ways for student to get physical exercise during recess and free time.”
Some of the games include Four Square, hopscotch, football, Color Rush, a racetrack, and Flower Jump.
Counselor Amy Thompson shared insights on the importance of daily exercise. “A surprising fact about the correlation between physical activity and mental health is the concept of ‘brain boosts’ from exercise. Research shows that engaging in physical activity can improve cognitive function and academic performance.”
Thompson recommended these tips for incorporating physical activity into your child’s life:
- Find activities they enjoy.
- Set achievable goals.
- Make physical activity a social activity by exercising with friends or family.
Terumo Cardiovascular in Ann Arbor Gets 510(k) Clearance for Monitoring System
Terumo Cardiovascular, an Ann Arbor-based developer of cardiovascular surgery technologies, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 510(k) clearance for the CDI OneView Monitoring System.
The next-generation CDI Systems platform provides visibility of key patient parameters during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, critical to perfusion safety and improving patient outcomes.
The new CDI OneView System measures or displays up to 22 key parameters, the newest of which are measured flow (Q), cardiac index (CI), regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2), oxygen extraction ratio (O2ER), Area Under the DO2 Curve (AUC), and measured arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2).
The system offers maximum configurability and flexibility in how the parameters can be viewed and prioritized to best suit clinical needs and preferences, while continuing to provide the critical information on which clinicians have come to rely.
New features and functions of Terumo’s latest patient parameter monitoring system were influenced by extensive perfusionist input from leading global cardiovascular institutions. In response to the growing needs of health care providers, the new CDI OneView System now provides real-time O2ER, CI, VO2, and DO2 information to help perfusionists maintain a safe threshold for those parameters. Independently published and reviewed clinical research indicates that maintaining optimal levels during cardiopulmonary bypass can help to reduce the incidence of acute kidney injury.
MEDC Wins 11 Telly Awards for ‘You Can in Michigan’ TV spot
A national campaign from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) is earning some acclaim – and generating buzz for the opportunities available in the Great Lakes State.
Less than a year after the MEDC launched a $20 million “You Can in Michigan” national marketing campaign to grow the state’s economy and attract and retain talent, the MEDC won 11 Telly Awards for its TV spot – four Gold Awards and seven Silver Awards.
MEDC’s regional TV spot won Gold Telly Awards for Use of Generative AI, B2C: Business-to-Consumer, Regional TV and Editing, and Silver Telly Awards for Recruitment, DEI, Art Direction, Digital Environment, 2D Animation, Visual Effects and Directing. The campaign competed against more than 12,000 award entries globally spanning six continents and all 50 states.
The TV spot is part of the largest state talent attraction campaign and effort in the United States, aimed at growing Michigan’s population and driving the state’s economy forward.
“We know that Michigan is home to the best people and opportunities, and the ‘You Can in Michigan’ campaign aims to share our great state’s story with the rest of the world,” says Hilary Doe, the state’s chief growth and marketing officer. “I am proud to see our efforts recognized as we continue the work of growing our population and attracting talent to Michigan.”
The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens to honor local, regional and cable television commercials, along with branded content, documentary, social media, immersive media and more. Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world.
Three Detroit Country Day School Students Win Awards at Regeneron Engineering Fair
Lara and Maya Hammoud, students at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, won first place in the world in cellular and molecular biology for their research on Decoding AXSL3: A Novel Biomarker for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. It is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition.
The sisters studied the potential cause of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and Bainbridge-Roper syndrome and developed a potential treatment for restoring neurotypical brain development. The sisters, currently in 10th grade, say they will keep pursuing research and expanding their knowledge of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Vikram Goddla, DCDS Class of 2024, earned fourth place for his research on Optimal Sparsification and Low-Rank Decomposition of Deep Reinforcement Learning Policies for Surgical Robot Task Automation. His research increases the efficiency of artificial intelligence networks by discovering a mathematical way to reduce the number of network parameters by almost 50 percent while maintaining high performance and outperforming the traditional network in many scenarios.
Goddla applied this innovation to autonomous robotic surgery and successfully trained an AI network to automatically perform surgical tasks like suturing and tissue cutting with nearly 100 percent accuracy to assist surgeons in these repetitive but important tasks.
This year’s competition featured 1,327 research projects from 67 countries, highlighting the incredible global talent and dedication to scientific inquiry.
Troy Traffic Jam Slated for Aug. 4 at Columbia Center
Legacy vehicles, classics, and high-end exotics will fill the 16th Annual Troy Traffic Jam from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Columbia Center on Big Beaver Road.
Troy’s premier automotive festival includes Tech Talks with leading designers, demonstrations from local robotics teams, pedal car races for the youngest car enthusiasts, and live music.
This year the Troy Traffic Jam is celebrating two notable automotive anniversaries: the GTO and the Mustang. The event is free to the public and registration to show a car is $25 in advance or $30 onsite.
All proceeds fuel education at the Troy Historic Village, a nonprofit organization enabling life-long exploration of history through field trips, workshops, talks, and other creative, experiences.
For more information, visit TroyTrafficJam.com.
