Retired maintenance supervisor passes away at age 61

Grand Valley State University regrets to inform its community that Dave Feenstra, a maintenance supervisor who retired from the university in 2012, passed away at the age of 61 on Dec. 10.

Feenstra first arrived at GVSU in 1994 as an assistant maintenance supervisor. After retiring in 2012, Feenstra continued to serve the university as the adjunct manager for the Sustainable Agriculture Project in addition to working on small projects for Facilities Services.

Aside from working at GVSU, Feenstra was also a farmer who managed Feenstra Brothers Farms alongside his brother, Bern. Details for Feenstra’s funeral have yet to be finalized.

Retirement reception to celebrate Pat Haynes’ 36 years of service

Grand Valley State University will hold a retirement reception for Pat Haynes, assistant dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to celebrate her 36 years of service.

Haynes joined GVSU in the summer of 1979 and was later promoted to assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in May 2004. Among other duties, Haynes is responsible for monitoring the budget within the college and individual departments.

The reception is scheduled to take place on Dec. 15 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 308 of the Padnos Hall of Science. Remarks will begin at 1:30 p.m.

For more information about Haynes, visit www.gvsu.edu/clas/pat-haynes-549.htm.

Women’s Center plans exam week relaxation activities

The Grand Valley State University Women’s Center will host a variety of activities from Tuesday, Dec. 15 to Thursday, Dec. 17 that are intended to combat the stress of finals week.

On each day, the Women’s Center will offer a free lunch in addition to stress management activities such as coloring, chair massages and even karaoke. Activities will run daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with lunch served at noon.

A full list of activities and times is available on the Facebook page “Find Your Center. Restore Yourself. Activate Your Mind.”

For more information, contact Alli Montaie, assistant director of the Women’s Center, at [email protected].

POWER general meeting

POWER, a new student organization at Grand Valley State University, will have a general meeting this week.The group was recently created to bring attention to the inequalities many women and minorities face in the workplace.

The meeting will provide attendees with information about this, highlighting gender and racial stereotypes as well as ways to stop institutional discrimination. Members work together to come up with solutions and to practice professionalism, while giving knowledge to the community.

Anyone can attend the discussion, which takes place at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17 in Kirkhof Center Room 2201. For more information about POWER, visit www.orgsync.com/128512/chapter. Contact the club president at [email protected] with any questions.

Winners of Pedometer Challenge announced

The winning team of the annual Pedometer Challenge walked more than 6.6 million steps during the challenge’s six-week period. The event is put on by the Grand Valley State University Health and Wellness department.

The first place team, named “Somewhat Faculty Laden,” consisted of Deb Rambadt from campus dining as well as Martin Burg, Joshua Stickney and Derek Thomas, all from the department of biomedical sciences. Together, the team walked 6,653,675 steps, equivalent to 3,326 miles. Burg won the prize for most individual steps with 1,850,243.

Trailing behind at second place was “Records and Registration,” with 5,724,517 steps. The team narrowly beat out its third place competitor “Bubba’s Bootstompin’ Army” that had a total of 5,449,261 steps.

To see the full list of teams who completed their challenge goals, go to www.gvsu.edu/healthwellness/pedometer-challenge-157.htm.