Destination: Home

Residents, visitors come to 'tour' Lansing, experience all city has to offer

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Thanks to low-cost transportation and additional sponsors, thousands of families went exploring on Saturday, laughing and enjoying themselves in the sunshine. The families weren’t at Cedar Point or anywhere out of state. They were right in their hometown.

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town is an event that has taken place in Lansing for 14 consecutive summers and encourages residents to visit more than 50 participating attractions in downtown Lansing and on MSU’s campus between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Ruth Lemmen, a resident of Lansing, said she wanted to try something new by going to the event.

“This is a good opportunity to see some things I normally don’t see,” Lemmen said.

For $1, participants were able to purchase a passport that was an expenses-paid ticket into locations such as Impression 5 Science Center, 200 Museum Drive in Lansing, and Potter Park Zoo, 1300 S. Pennsylvania Ave., in Lansing, as well as campus locations like the MSU Museum and Dairy Store, said Tracy Padot, vice president of marketing with the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“They’re the folks that want to promote business, service, and help raise a sense of community pride,” Padot said.

The event, which generally sees more visitors in Lansing in the morning and on campus in the afternoon, was publicized heavily on radio and TV as well as in newspapers, and had up to 12,000-15,000 participants, Padot said.

Brandie Putnam, a member of the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau, worked at the event for her seventh year on Saturday and said organizers ran low on passports because of the level of interested participants.

“When we left Impression 5 Science Center at (1 p.m.) they’d had 1,500 visitors,” Putnam said.

“This is what happens when you get a little sunshine and some people who would like to learn a little about their hometown.”

There were a few more participating sponsors than usual this year, Putnam said, such as Accident Fund Insurance Company of America and General Motors Corp.

For each dollar a sponsor donates, they received a passport that they could either donate back to the community or give to staff and employees.

Volunteers also rode the Capital Area Transportation Authority more diligently than previous years, helping participants find the right route and attraction locations. For 50 cents, participants were able to ride CATA as many times as they wanted to reach participating attractions.

“We’re excited, particularly because of high gas prices and construction, folks can just grab CATA for the day and avoid other hassles,” Padot said.

Sally Holliday, manager of the Book Burrow, located in the basement of the Capital Area District Library, 401 S. Capitol Ave. in Lansing, said the main thing she hears from visitors during the event is they were not aware that Book Burrow, a 26-row used bookstore, even existed.

“Lansing has a lot more cultural opportunities than people realize,” Holliday said. “People tend to sneer at Lansing a lot, but I think there’s a lot going on here that people aren’t aware of.”

Andrea Anderson, a Lansing resident who participated in the event with her husband and two children, had already been to Impression 5 Science Center, the Lansing City Market and the Lansing Fire Department by 1 p.m.

The event showed Anderson and her family places she did not even know existed, she said.

“We went to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum today, and we never would have gone there otherwise,” Anderson said. “We had no idea it was even there.”

Mary Coder, an MSU English senior, volunteered at the MSU Museum Saturday and said volunteers were especially busy because of the event, which brought in almost 300 visitors by 3 p.m. The event helped residents learn about places they might not otherwise have been aware of, she said.

“When you’re planning to go somewhere, you plan it out and do research, but when you live somewhere maybe you don’t know these things,” Coder said. “It opens up places you don’t always get to go.”

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