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Owners of the Eastown landmark and favorite breakfast spot Wolfgang's Restaurant have partnered with D.A. Blodgett – St. Johns, putting their time and skills into honoring Grand Rapids area foster families.

The 34-year-old eatery recently rolled out its signature fare for more than 150 area foster families for a dinner held at the restaurant. The meal, provided to the families for free, celebrated National Foster Care Awareness Month. It was a token of Matt and Stacy Wolfgang's appreciation for the families in the community willing to open their homes to children in need.

In December the restaurant held a benefit dinner for D.A. Blodgett – St. Johns, but this time around, the Wolfgangs decided to give back to the families themselves.

"We just want to take care of the foster families who take care of foster children," Matt Wolfgang said. "For our family, we enjoy doing things like this."
Matt said his wife wishes she could adopt all the kids in the world. Holding the dinner was the next best thing they could do to help those families that are helping children in need.

"I used to look in the newspaper for foster care kids up for adoption and went online and researched them," Stacy Wolfgang said. "We can't really take in foster care kids but we try to do whatever (Blodgett) needs to help them in other ways."

The event happened thanks to the generosity of the restaurant's staff, who donated their time to cook, serve and bus tables.

"It's not just my husband and myself," she said. "It's all the people who work for us that make this possible."

— Elijah Brumback, MiBiz

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It was faith and family that inspired John Loeks, president of Celebration Cinemas, to put his business connections to use for children in the West African nation of Sierra Leone.

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KALAMAZOO, MI, April 23, 2012 – James (Jim) McIntyre will be responsible for all business development in the southwest Michigan and mid-Michigan market for the Economic Development Foundation.  He brings over 30 years of commercial and real estate lending experience as well as economic development experience to EDF. He holds a BBA and MBA from Western Michigan University.

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For a relatively small company, Founders Bank & Trust does a lot for the community. Every year the bank selects a handful of charities to highlight and offers ways for employees to get involved.

“We always pick something local. We want our people to really connect with the community and make it easy to donate their time and other things,” said Founders Bank President and CEO Laurie Beard. She noted that coming out of tough times, it’s important to give back.

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DETROIT, MI (10 April 2012) – The law firm of Miller Canfield announces that Steven F. Stapleton has joined the firm as senior counsel in the Litigation and Trial Group in the Grand Rapids, Mich. office. He will continue his 18-year practice with a focus on commercial, real estate, municipal and employment litigation. He has served as a city attorney and has represented numerous West Michigan communities.

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Peggy Murphy is a theater lover. With a daughter active in theater at DePaul University, going to the theater to watch her daughter or just to enjoy another show has been a longstanding affair for Murphy. So when a colleague approached her about serving on the board of the Civic Theater in Grand Rapids, she could scarcely think of a reason not to.