What's Happening @Antho Vineyard?

​What's happening with 'Antho', Kate and Adam's vineyard?
The Parents: Rob, LeeAnn, Alan and Chris invite you ALL
to an "INFO HOUR" About Antho Vineyard...... and what's going on this summer.
Join us at the BI Community Center, 4pm, Sunday May 1 to learn more.
Any questions, call: 231-330-0968
Dear Beaver Island friends of Kate Leese and Adam Kendall,
Please join us for a quick hour of updates and information. 
as we discuss the season ahead and what it will take to keep Kate & Adam's
vineyard dream alive in 2022.
We're considerably OLDER than Kate & Adam and will need help a few times this spring. The 'Info Hour' will have an overview of what type of work plus sign-up sheets to keep volunteer jobs and times organized. Attending the meeting, does not mean you are signing up! It's an update of the goals for the deer fence project May 2 & 3; and the trellis installation May 27 & 28, plus a personal invitation to our 'Thank You Barbeque' 4pm, Sunday, May 29, at the Gregg Fellowship Center.
We are just presenting the projects at hand. If any of them interest you, there will be time slots to pick from. No one has to commit to a whole day! Maybe just a couple hours.
If you can't spend time, maybe you have some of the tools we could borrow?
That's why we need to coordinate efforts May 1st at 4pm in the Community Center. We will hand out our summer calendar and contact info. 
If any of the times work for you, we'd love to have you join us. If not, just come to say Hi!
SAVE THE DATES!!
MAY 1ST-2ND-3RD
MAY 27-29
READ THE FULL STORY IN THE APRIL ISSUE OF THE NORTHERNISLANDER:  AVAILABLE ON NEWSTANDS AT MCDONOUGH'S MARKET,  ISLAND ENERGIES, POWERS HARDWARE, HARBOUR BODEGA, COMMUNITY CENTER, ISLAND AIRWAYS, FRESH AIR AVIATION...OR SUBSCRIBE NOW!

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Memorial to kate & Adam

​For Beaver Island, there are fond memories of the Kate and Adam that visited our island and started building their dream.  We never knew the Kate and Adam that were before,  we only knew of the blessings bestowed upon us when they arrived. We knew an industrious, always moving couple, always with Frank and Baker,  on the run, on the move,  always on a project.
Until they were relaxing, smiling, welcoming each moment with each person, and savoring it, so many times with their families in tow. Kate said,  “we cannot wait until we bring our entire family to the island. All twenty or so, family and friends.”  
And like so many other things that Kate and Adam told;  this came true. Their dream of buying the farm, living happily on this island, and  Antho Wine Farm came true. They shared so many dreams, mixed with island wishes before we lost them.
We can only imagine the dreams that came before, the voyages they shared, the imaginings they envisioned and made real before we met them. We heard them, from their loving families. We watched Kate and her sister Amanda on Ted X and heard the passion of their stories interspersed with their laughter and disarming charms. We began to follow their journey on social media, but most of all, we delighted in their here and now they showed us and brought to every table they set or sat at.
We may not have known that Kate had a master’s degree in Disaster Management and a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology. We knew she was planting a million grapes for us to drink with them at the vineyard, and she showed us what that would be like before the first grape was ever pressed.
Kate rarely spoke of her career as co-founder and Managing Partner in Kinetics Consulting. Kate never talked at length about developing All -Hazards Emergency Plans and preparedness programs for the nation’s public power systems. We did not know she charted a path forward from Hurricanes Irma and Maria that engaged mutual aid response partners, utilities, private contractors, territorial government bodies and federal agencies. We only know in retrospect that she engaged a broad spectrum of residents and business owners and officials as friends, acquaintances and what seemed like a partnership for Beaver Island.
We may not have known Adam was an attorney, or a scuba diver, or even Kate’s partner in emergency management systems that worked with small utility companies throughout the world building a name for themselves at helping utilities to better plan for and respond to natural disasters. Some of us had not a clue they designed and facilitated multiple cyber and physical security exercises with American Public Power Association, Utility Joint Action agencies and dozens of utility executives or supported incident management at US Department of Agriculture headquarters during the 2015 avian influenza outbreak. Or that both Adam and Kate were highly skilled speakers, motivators, and doers.
At the end,  there was no strategy, systems, or emergency management preparedness to stop an airplane going down in crazy winds at a tiny airport and taking two, perfectly united souls filled with energy and love,  for their family,  for each other,  the island, and for the world.  ​One consolation  has come,  directly from Kate and Adam’s dreams and visions.  Those who knew Kate and Adam as friends…as welcoming, loving, steadfast and kind,  unassuming, diligent, cheerful, and fun,  really, very, simple folks…every person they had touched in some way on the island,  came forward immediately to save the vineyard.
Kate and Adam brought all together somehow,  they prepared US for the emergency disaster that took them from us,  and brought us together to save their dream.  The weather had changed,  the grape vines were exposed,  the crop was in danger. Men, women, equipment, shovels, dirt, all tools needed to “Save the Vineyard”  arrived within days. The grapes were covered and saved,  while the community grieved and bore a great loss.
It seems like forever since we lost them,  and yet it seems only a moment ago that we had them.
Now,  in Spring, when the vines will survive and sprout,  Antho Wine Farm will spring to life again.
Kate and Adam’s parents and family will return to the island in May for a gathering at the Community Center to greet and gather volunteers and tools to continue work at the vineyard. (announcement at right.)  Below,  beautiful reminisce about Kate and Adam from another source that wishes to remain anonymous…
 

​Below,  beautiful reminisce about Kate and Adam from another source that wishes to remain anonymous…
Who's under that hat? Well, if it's a clean, white front on her ballcap, meet a very hungry, tired, 35-year-old Kate Leese just finished writing an Emergency Management plan for some large utility company, with her husband Adam Kendall, legal counsel for their consulting firm, (but she won't tell you that). She just smiles and calls it her 'dinner hat', takes the focus off her dusty clothes, like any farmer late in the day. If it's a sweat-stained brow on a dirty old cap, you're meeting an incredibly determined, hopeful, hard-working Kate Leese, probably pulling juniper with the tractor or muscling renovation projects on their 100-year-old house. Either way, there is a lot more to Kate Renee Leese, than she ever lets on.
Since moving to Beaver Island almost 2 years ago, Kate and Adam worked two lives: one as consultants and a second as new landowners starting a vineyard.
Islanders only saw the 'ball cap' Kate and Adam, but they were founding partners of Kinetics Consulting LLC, a very productive Emergency Management firm, completely invested in creating lifesaving plans which fire chiefs, gas and electric engineers, city managers and first responders use to coordinate what to do if there is a gas explosion, or any type of disaster, for that matter.
Striving to bring order out of chaos they were arguably the best in the country.
Initially, Kate was hired as Public Safety Director, then upgraded to Emergency Management Coordinator by Consumers Energy, the largest utility in Michigan; she then became Managing Director of Utility Practice for Witt O'Brien's in Washington DC (James Lee Witt was head of FEMA during the Clinton administration).
Kate met Adam Kendall during that time (2015), it was said to be, "Like putting a match to the fire". With his brilliant lawyer mind, vast array of life skills, mechanics, wood working, farming, cooking and an insatiable quest for high adventure, Adam was her perfect match. They finished  remodel-
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-ing the house (a mid-century mod') she was living in, just as Kate found an old airstream that stole her heart and brought wheels to her dreams. Of course, it needed complete renovation that they conquered in the driveway of Adam's parents' home in Jackson, Michigan; with Rob and LeeAnn Kendall's help, finished in record time and lit out towards the west, fixing the rest on the road!
Kate started an Instagram handle with their motto, "Life Without Waiting", (should've made it a ball cap!) and they lived it! When asked why they would sell a house they just finished, Kate said, "I don't want to wait till I'm too old to enjoy an airstream!" She never wanted to waste a minute or miss an adventure. People fell in love with her travel posts every day, @LifeWithoutWaiting currently has more than 10,000 followers and her family plans to publish a book of them. Her longer entries she called #KatesWanderingThoughts and that hashtag still finds her writings today. Here is an example of how engaging her inspirations are:
"Don't wish for a life that's too comfortable. Don't pray for Internet that always works. Don't forget how good the sun feels and the air tastes long before it's been conditioned for your mood or convenience. Don't design a life around coffee from plastic pouches and miss the smell of expresso mixed with flame and fresh air. Don't replace the water heater that requires you to go outside and face the sun before you face the day. Don't try to settle cravings with meals you didn't smell cooking or bread you didn't see rising. Food can nourish far beyond sustenance if you'll actually let it.
Don't praise houses with separate spaces and spend hours in the dark looking for connection. Don't count the things you could be doing when you can't count the days you've spent on sweet nothings. Don't hang curtains to let you sleep a little longer when every fiber in your body wants to rise and fall with the sun. Don't miss the deep awakening that comes from looking at vast sights in exchange for falling asleep to tiny pictures on closely held screens.
Don't waste a day hurrying when you could enjoy a day lingering. And most of all, Don’t wait for
 
​Every box to be checked in a life you don't want, before you decide to feel alive.
Be happy, do well, have things, travel far, but don't wish for a life that's too comfortable."
The Friday before their fatal plane crash last November, Kate wrote, "...little things never rise to the top of our priority list. Vineyards to plant, a hundred-year-old house to restore, farmland to reclaim, and a company to run. We don't talk about the other company much, but it is what keeps our wheels turning and our problem solving sharp. Just this fall we published an emergency plan that will help move utility crews from thousands of organizations around the country to assist those in need following disasters, providing mutual aid to get the power back on faster when any one electric utility's resources are overwhelmed..."
You wouldn't know by that ball cap, she has a master’s degree in Public Health, and in Business Administration and bachelor’s degree in science biotechnology. Her first year in college she went on a mission trip to South Africa where she met Nelson Mandela, but this trip to one, small, under-supplied hospital, just wasn't big enough for Kate. She realized the only way to really help people, was to help the whole people-group. That was the goal achieved by her years presenting solutions to experts, and through Kate and Adam's work on Kinetics. She spoke at numerous prestigious events, National Hurricane Conference, and NPR during the Chicago snow storm, Storm Preparedness Workshop for the US Virgin Islands, Society of American Military Engineers Symposium and more.
Kate was granted the Business and Industry Preparedness Award for work at Georgetown University by the International Association of Emergency Managers in 2009.  As a team Kate and Adam were granted an Appreciation of Dedicated Service to the US Virgin Island Recovery after Hurricanes Irma & Marina by the Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority in 2018. She carried that gold medallion in her briefcase till the day she died. Yes, there were a LOT of things cut short that day... Did you know there was no “baby bonnet”?  Kate didn't want to bring more children into this world where there were so many that needed parents? She ONLY wanted to adopt.
Kate's young life was just as full and determined.
Under a cowgirl hat, she was a fearless and courageous barrel horse rider, whose giant half-thoroughbred horse bucked her off once every spring, but she still got on and worked him all summer. In 2017 her hat was a 'thinking cap', where Kate and her sister, Amanda Leese, started a consulting business called 'Leese Sisters' with a goal to inspire and coach people to live up to their potential. You can watch their Ted Talk on YouTube.com about "Being Under-Estimated" One of the main punch lines is, "They will only underestimate me ONCE". (She learned that the hard way from wrangling that stubborn horse!)
Kate wanted "All the things" for everyone!
One time, they invited the whole family to Christmas dinner at their funky little  home with a turquoise kitchen and a suspended stovepipe fireplace that hung from the top of the A-frame to the center of the living room like in a George Jetson cartoon, where they had to "quick deliver" a homemade lasagna dinner for 40 to church before cooking up homemade pasta, scallops, and an array of gourmet delicacies. She and Adam started shopping locally and volunteering for important positions as soon as they arrived on the island. They served on the Health Department Board, organized Island Clean-Up, joined the BIA to support high-tech internet, made Beaver Island one of  Elon Musk's first Star Link sites and several other projects.  It was a great year for them! Unforgettable,  full of potential and promise and Life Without Waiting.  But let's consider Kate without a hat, on her wedding day, her long brunette hair flowing down to her bare shoulder and Adam kissing her in a movie you can watch on repeat because you love it so much. They were so in love. So full of life. They wanted to inspire EVERYONE to live a life without waiting. Wear any hat you want! Remember her fun phrase?
                       "Let's Go People!'
 

 

Kate Leese; "this is the signature shot of her barrel race era, - this barrel stood back up because of that last fingernail effort."  Chris Leese