Navy SEAL comes to Muskegon Heights Boxing Club

by Zinta Aistars for the Muskegon Tribune
October 12, 2013

Remi Adeleke (Courtesy of Remi Adeleke) 

He was a tough kid living in the Bronx.

 

Remi Adeleke was born in Nigeria, but moved with his mother and brother to live in New York City after his Nigerian father passed away when he was about 5 years old. The Bronx, known for some of the meanest streets of New York City, was where Adeleke learned to run favors for drug dealers. He was a kid making big money, but he was a kid out of control.

 

Today, Remi Adeleke teaches people how to change. He teaches a wide range of people, from executives running large corporations to young kids looking for direction, the skills and discipline taught to Navy SEALs (United States Sea, Air, Land Team). He is a co-founder and chief operating officer of the Acumen Performance Group Intl, LLC (APG). Adeleke’s own transformation didn’t come fast, and it didn’t come easy.

 

“I was trying to fill a void when I was a kid in the Bronx,” says Adeleke. “I didn’t know what I was looking for back then, but it was a subconscious need for a father figure. I fell into hip hop. The rappers, they were my father figure for the day, my role models. I wanted to be like them, I wanted to act like them.”

 

By age 19, Adeleke says, he was selling drugs. The young Adeleke had more money than he knew how to handle.

 

“I delivered blow-up phones for dealers,” Adeleke says. “Blow-up phones are phones that can’t be tracked, used to make drug deals for a while and then they get cut off. It was great money. A dealer wanted a whole bunch of phones, but the phones got cut off at 20 days instead of 60.”

 

The angry dealer threatened Adeleke and his mother, putting his family in jeopardy. It was a wake-up call for Adeleke.

 

“I look back on that, how I got through that unscathed while my friends got caught, and I realize my Father was looking out for me,” says Adeleke, who has since become a deeply religious man. Having escaped the wrath of the dealer, he wanted to try a different direction in life and felt what he says was a calling to join the military.

 

“I hated anyone in uniform,” says Adeleke. “The New York cops were very corrupt, so I associated uniforms with corruption, yet I felt a calling to join the military and be a man in a uniform.”

 

Adeleke says he walked into the Army recruitment office, but no one was there. He walked into a Navy recruitment office next.

 

“During the sign-up process, they found out there were warrants out against me for some minor infractions,” Adeleke recalls. “I had to go to court to clear those up, but it was June 2002, not long after 9/11, and when the justice heard I wanted to join the military, my record was wiped clean.”

 

The way was cleared for Adeleke to become a Navy SEAL, except that he had to first ...

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE (WITH VIDEO) AT MUSKEGON TRIBUNE.

Cottage on the Hill: Featured on The Owner-Builder Network

by Zinta Aistars

Cottage on the Hill at Z Acres

The Owner-Builder Network, a network of DIY (do-it-yourself) people based in Australia, has featured Cottage on the Hill, my own little writer's retreat at Z Acres, with many, many photos on their website and on their Facebook page. Visit and enjoy!

What could this odd-shaped and many-windowed little house in the woods have possibly housed? I stood in the woods on the top of the hill with my real estate agent, gazing in befuddlement—and increasingly also in delighted awe—at the little structure that reminded me a little of a Dr. Seuss house, a little of a Tim Burton mad creation.

It certainly wasn’t the main house. Standing in those snowy woods in December 2011, I was on this 10-acre farm, with deeds dating back to 1832, in southwest Michigan, to see the farmhouse and the land that were up for sale. This little cottage was, well, a bonus. My real estate agent was as intrigued as I. We’d already toured the farmhouse, and we’d already walked the grounds, the tool shed, the barn. Now, this. READ THE COMPLETE BLOG WITH PHOTOS AT OBN.

Reinventing the Library

by Zinta Aistars
Published in ENCORE Magazine
October 2013


The days of card catalogs may be long gone, but libraries are still critical components of the community. Zinta Aistars tells you how they are adapting to meet changing times, while remaining 'the front porch of the world.'

When Marsha Meyer first entered a library as a child, she saw "the yellow pools of light on the tables between the book shelves, and I knew I had dropped into heaven."

Meyer, program and events coordinator and reference librarian at Portage District Library on 300 Library Lane in Portage, fell in love with the idea of living in a library. Decades later, she's still hanging around libraries, even when she's not working. And Meyer has been working at Portage District Library (PDL) since 1980.

That kind of love for one's work seems to be the common thread among librarians throughout southwest Michigan. Drop in on any library, big or small or in-between, in the greater Kalamazoo area and beyond, and you'll find a librarian ready to gush about working in the libraries of today.

The library of today, however, has changed a great deal from the library of years ago. With the wave of constantly advancing technology, digitalization of books and other materials, and a library patron used to instant and easy access to information, the modern library has changed its role in the community.

"We're the front porch the world is now missing," says Meyer. "The entire concept of a public library is brilliant … is vital. If you had free libraries everywhere, you would give everyone access to the world!"

It's how that access happens, Lawrence Kapture, head of adult services at Portage District Library, that is changing. "The trend now is that the library is no longer providing information as much as we are facilitating information."

Laura Wright, head of youth services at PDL, adds: "We are a conduit, a community presence that is no longer defined by the building we are in."

World access begins on the front porch, librarians agree, and that means libraries now are increasingly becoming community centers. Check on the needs of the community, and the library in its center responds.

At PDL, Christy Klien is a newly minted director, taking her new position in January 2013, although she has worked at the library since 1996. One of her first tasks was to gather her staff of librarians and take the pulse of the Portage community.

"We finalized our three-year strategic plan for the library this spring," Klien says. "We looked at where our focus should be, at the services we offer, our age population, and we determined our priorities. We took an especially hard look at our younger population."

Many patrons come in to use computers, Klien found, and the demand for e-books was on a fast climb. But that wasn't all she found. Patrons were coming to the library for a wide range of services, and they were also coming in for the variety of events the library was offering. Literacy was a growing concern in schools as test scores dropped. These were all needs to which PDL wanted to respond.

"PDL is the first library in the state to have a dedicated room for preschoolers," Klien says. "We want to help children to read at their grade level, and we can help them understand the concept of reading early. Working with Portage schools is an important part of our strategic plan."

Wright, head of youth services, adds: "We build around the needs of the community. We want to establish meaningful services that reach people. School readiness is a large part of that."

"Everything in the library has a reason for being here," Klien finishes.

The same approach is being applied to adult services. Head of adult services Kapture says, "We also found that we needed to make changes as the local economy changed. When the economy suffered or area organizations downsized, people came to the library looking for employment resources, get resume critiques, or to learn about starting small businesses. New retirees came in wanting to learn about retirement investments."

Once the front door opens, the library staff reports, all eighteen of the computers on the main floor of the library are quickly in use, while other patrons come in with their own laptops to access free wireless connections. Laptops are circulated internally, and a dozen computers are dedicated to teens.

With the advent of the Internet, it might seem that the circulation of books might drop in popularity. Not so, said the PDL librarians—and their report of climbing circulation numbers for both print and non-print materials is mirrored in nearly all libraries in the area.

"Non-traditional materials are on the rise," says Klien. "Adults are very interested in ..."

READ THE COMPLETE COVER STORY IN ENCORE MAGAZINE. Or pick up an issue on newsstands throughout southwest Michigan.