(bright music) - Celebrating vibrant people, captivating places, and remarkable things.

This is "Living West Michigan."

(bright music) - [Voiceover] Celebrating our vibrant community together, powered by your dedicated support.

Thank you.

(vibrant music) - Do you have a love of space and science?

Well, the Air Zoo is a world-class, Smithsonian affiliated aerospace and science museum with more than 100 air and space artifacts.

Let's go imagine, explore, and discover with Caroline and Kylie at the Air Zoo.

- Most of the time when you think of a zoo, animals come to mind.

But today we are taking it to the clouds, literally.

We're here in Kalamazoo, spending time at the Air Zoo with my special friend, Caroline.

Are you ready to get started?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

Look at these clouds.

Can you touch one?

Boop.

(both chuckle) Let's go.

(warm music) - So the Air Zoo is a place where we really present the history of aircraft, but we're that and so much more.

So we delve into the future, where we're going in space, where we came from, and all of the science in between.

Getting students engaged in STEM and STEAM, kind of experiencing how science, technology, math, art, and engineering all connect together really launches them to be curious, to explore careers, that's a huge area, to see scientists that reflect themselves and to be able to step confidently into scientific fields.

So we have over 30 different education programs that we offer for school age children.

So all the way from kindergarten to 12th grade, all the way from areas of biology to physics, and of course the stars in space.

And we really want to make those accessible to all schools as well.

So we have our Science Inspiration Scholarship Fund that individuals or groups such as schools or community organizations can apply to for funding for Air Zoo education programs.

We recently did programs on Rosie the Riveter.

We did programs on our warplanes that were brought from the bottom of Lake Michigan, which is a really cool story in and of itself.

And we highlight those over in our Flight Discovery Center.

But we also have programming that we do for any sort of group that wants to explore any of those areas of history, such as women in early flight, all the way to women in current space exploration.

All right Caroline, you ready to go to space today and learn a little bit about space?

- Uh-huh.

- Do you wanna pick out a patch for your space mission?

Gonna go with this circle?

Nice.

All right.

We're gonna load up our capsule.

Can you help me load our capsule up?

Can you grab a bean?

We're gonna stick it into our space capsule.

Should we shut the door for our capsule?

Yeah, we don't want anything flying out, do we?

All right, we're gonna send our capsule way up into the air okay Caroline?

We might need to turn it up a little bit.

Let's see.

Oh.

How about that?

Can we make it come down?

Should we make it go up faster?

- Yeah!

- Yeah, I think so too.

Good job.

- Do it again.

- You wanna do it again?

All right.

We want families to be able to experience the Air Zoo.

So community access is really important to us.

So we have a couple different programs that we offer to increase accessibility to the Air Zoo.

One is Museums for All, and Museums for All is an organization that we're part of.

And it allows families who have SNAP or EBT to come to the Air Zoo for a reduced admission price.

So six members of a household can come for $2 per person, really helps everyone be able to experience the Air Zoo.

We also have a really exciting funded program called Community Access Membership, and that provides memberships for local community members who maybe can come frequently to the Air Zoo to experience everything that we have here to offer.

In the education programs specifically, so students who are coming to the Air Zoo or community organizations that we go out to 'cause we also do afterschool programs with our schools and other local nonprofits in the area.

And in the last year, we had interactions with and worked with over 20,000 students.

We're really proud to be such a part of the community and a really consistent, reliable resource for the community.

Good mission, Caroline.

(soft music) - Our next segment takes us to Belmont, located just north of Grand Rapids.

Persevering through the challenges life brings with cerebral palsy West Michigan's own Johnny Agar remains dedicated to his love of physical activity and pushing himself to new heights.

Meet Johnny and his father Jeff.

Members of Team Agar, who deliver a powerful moving message of family, faith and extraordinary courage.

- Born with cerebral palsy and facing physical limitations.

Johnny Agar is challenged daily, but adversity doesn't stand a chance as Johnny who refuses to fail chases his dream of becoming an athlete.

Who is Johnny Agar?

- I was born at three pounds, seven ounces.

The doctor's said that I wouldn't be able to sit, stand, or walk or do a lot of things that sometimes people tend to take for granted.

I had always loved sports and wheelchair sports wasn't really an option for me.

I had gotten involved with Terrence at my team Triumph.

- Johnny was one of our first captains.

And the captain is the person with a disability that rides along in a event, whether it's a triathlon or a road race.

And Johnny was helped by a team of angels or athletes that took him through that event.

- One race, Dad wanted to try to do a race with me and Team Agar as we know it was born.

- I made the mistake of saying, well, I wonder how hard a 5K could be if I did it with him.

and it was horrible 'cause I didn't train.

I trained on Tuesday for the Friday 5K, but we did that race together and he just absolutely loved it.

And we've been doing endurance races ever since.

- A lot of people with physical disabilities wouldn't have an opportunity to do something like this.

And dad, you know, he likes to say that he is my arms and legs to be able to do what I want to do.

It's a tremendous amount of sacrifice that Dad puts in to allow me to do this.

It's really special.

- [Shelley] Johnny's drive to keep pushing his limits led him to a seemingly impossible idea to walk a mile by himself.

- He has always wanted to be an athlete.

He's always looked up to his dad.

And I think that's what drove him to decide to walk the mile.

He wanted to know what it felt like to be dad.

He wanted to know what it felt like to be an athlete.

And he just came up with that idea one day.

And to us, you know, he had only ever walked 23 steps.

We immediately thought, how many steps are in a mile?

That's impossible, right?

But we never wanted to give him that attitude.

We always tried to stay positive with him and let him know that if he tried, that was all we wanted him to do.

And he just kept training and training and he finally did it.

He walked across the finish line.

People had finished the race.

He was the last one to cross the finish line.

And hundreds of people got behind him and followed him along to encourage him.

And the amount of love and encouragement and motivation that was behind him in order to enable him to cross that finish line was just an amazing thing to see.

I'm just very proud of him.

He sets his mind on something and he goes after it.

- After completing their hardest challenge yet Team Agar had no plans of slowing down as they gear up to take on another impossible challenge, an IRONMAN triathlon.

- [Johnny] My dad pulls me in a boat and then I am behind him on a bike.

We have a customized bike that is a tandem, and I sit right behind dad and then dad pushing me in a jogging stroller.

- We get invited by IRONMAN to do the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

It's called the most brutal one day endurance event on the planet.

And it is, it's really hilly, it's really windy, and it's really hot.

- This is our second time back.

We were there in 2016 and we didn't finish the race.

So it's really given us an opportunity to say, "what can we do better?

And how can we put our best foot forward?"

Sometimes we win, sometimes you learn.

- We had told Johnny his whole life, you gotta try things.

You gotta, you know, give it your best shot and you gotta be willing to fail and prepared to fail.

So we took the same attitude with the IRONMAN World Championship.

The first time we got halfway through the bike and missed the bike cutoff timing.

So we've been basically obsessed for the last six years to try to get invited back.

We keep doing other IRONMANs.

We've had wild things happen or weird things happen in different IRONMANs.

We had a flat tire for 40 miles.

We had a torrential downpour in one race.

We had 100 degree heat in another, but it all came together in IRONMAN Maryland in 2022, where we actually got through the race.

We had four minutes to spare.

Johnny walked the finish.

It was just a fantastic finish.

The crowd went crazy and that spurred IRONMAN to then invite us back to the IRONMAN World Championship this year in Kona, Hawaii.

- Hopefully we can accomplish our goal of me walking across the finish line in my walker.

- I think the biggest challenge they have is the idea of pulling that amount of weight and load and having the strength to do that.

- I'm pulling 400 pounds of weight.

A typical athlete is gonna be going 13 or 14 miles an hour up these big hills.

I'll go three to four miles an hour.

So I'm pulling double the weight of a normal person.

So it's just, it's almost insurmountable sometimes.

So you gotta have some people that really understand what it takes to pull that much weight.

- Building Jeff's body to be strong, not just to have the endurance is critical to this kind of performance.

So Johnny has to stay in a piece of equipment for almost 17 hours and it is not easy doing that.

- With me having a physical disability, it's very, very important that I'm doing something every day.

I am very, very conscious of...

I have to do my part for dad.

- Johnny's gonna work on, you know, both managing tone, improving some of his strength, because if his strength is good, then we're able to transfer him a little easier as well.

Just be able to tolerate the positions in the boat.

He's lying flat down, in the strollers, he's sitting up at a very, you know, heavy angle.

So all of those pressure points, it can impact his body very differently.

So we've gotta work on just making sure that his tone is good throughout those 17 hours.

I always tell my patients and clients that 60% of you improving, of you getting better is first the mindset.

If your mind isn't right in the right place, you are really not gonna get very far.

These guys have that nailed.

And so now it's for us to layer on the other bits and pieces to bring it all together.

- [Jeff] It's such a huge thing to look at Johnny, the stuff he's done, you never would've imagined and you'd never dreamed he'd be on the biggest sports network in the world, being an athlete and the commercials he's been in with Michael Phelps and The Rock.

Just crazy things like that.

You never would've dreamed that - Failure shouldn't be something that hinders you.

You should look at it as a challenge and not as something to be afraid of 'cause that's gonna hold you back.

And if you never try, you'll never know.

- We should not just be sitting back and accepting what society has pushed on us to either for someone like Johnny to stay in his lane, so to speak and stay in his chair, and racing is not for him.

Says who?

We can change that.

- Endurance sports, it really challenges you to just look around and say, "what am I capable of doing?

You know, I'm capable of doing so much more."

And so, even if people don't tell you, you are challenged just by what's around you.

And so I think it's beneficial for 'em to just give it a try.

- So what do I say in closing?

Go get 'em, break a leg?

Stay above the water?

- We'll take all of it.

- Okay - Shelley, we'll take all of it.

- Good luck and keep doing what you're doing.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- Many thanks to Johnny and the Agar family for sharing their incredible story.

We wanna take you now to a beautiful spot in Grand Rapids, High Tea Grand Rapids is proud to present their version of afternoon tea in an elegant setting, following the English tradition.

It makes you feel a bit like royalty.

So come and join me now for a spot of tea as I visit and explore their beautiful, welcoming space.

(instrumental music) We are so excited to be here today at High Tea with tea owner, Melissa Langley, thanks so much for joining us and allowing us into your beautiful space here.

- [Melissa] Thank you so much.

- I have always been enamored by high tea.

I love the custom.

I've done high tea across, you know, in different places.

You have brought that British experience right here in Grand Rapids.

What has it been like and has it been pretty receptive?

- With any new experience, when you come to town, you don't really know how it's going to be received.

And we've been very lucky in that people have really been open to the new experience.

They don't always understand it, but they enjoy being here and trying something new.

And I think Grand Rapids has really grown in that way.

- What made you embark upon this journey though?

I know when we had a conversation prior, you said, "I love all things British."

And so was that part of it?

- I do love all things British.

It has to do with my international background and spending a lot of time in England and Europe.

Everything in London, they're just so warm and they're so welcoming.

And I just love the tradition and history.

There's just history everywhere.

- So what do you think is so infectious about high tea?

- I think it's the experience.

It's welcoming and inviting because of what it stands for, what it is, which is very simply enjoying good food and tea and conversation and company.

And I think that that's what people miss a lot in their everyday lives.

And especially in the States, we're not very good at slowing down and taking time.

So this space really becomes an intentional space to cultivate relationships and to just slow down and enjoy those connections.

- And that's one of the things that I read as I was looking at differences of tea and the different types and that sort of thing.

But one of the key components was conversation.

The ability to sit down for a minute, like you said, and take that minute and get to know someone or revisit with family and friends.

- Yes, yes, absolutely.

If you look around, you will notice that people are in conversation.

They're not on their phones, they're not distracted, they're sitting across from someone catching up about the day or the week.

And just having that time is so valuable.

- I think it's really fun that we now in West Michigan have this to offer because I really have never been to anything like this in West Michigan.

And I think it's authentic.

The China sets to the taste of the tea, the little sandwiches, the coordination chicken, everything.

- Scones.

- The scones.

Yeah, it's fun to live a afternoon in England.

- There is a difference between high tea and afternoon tea, correct?

- Yes, absolutely.

Afternoon tea is what we have as far as the finger sandwiches and on the trays.

High tea is more of the working class dinner, traditionally afternoon tea, the sandwiches are mostly savory.

And then we have the scone, which is very important to the British tradition.

We've been told by the British community, our scone is actually quite authentic.

I am very pleased with that because that was my mission, just to make everything as authentic as possible.

- Wonderful.

And everything's made here?

- Everything is made here, yes.

The clotted cream I bring in from Deventer and then the teas I bring in from England.

But for the most part, everything is made here.

There are four or five different restaurants that I watch in England to see what their menus are doing.

So I try to keep very authentic to the experience.

(instrumental music) So take your tea strainer, put it on top here.

And then what we're gonna do, and this is a China rose petal tea.

This is kind of what I consider the signature tea for high tea.

So we'll just pour it like that and then the leaves will catch into the strainer.

I am gonna hand that to you.

- Thank you.

Beautiful.

Do a lot of people use sugar in their tea?

I mean, if they're going for the full authentic experience?

- They will put sugar in their tea.

But what they don't understand is how important it is to have like a sugar cube.

So you know that saying like one lump or two?

This is where that comes from.

- Oh.

Well, cheers.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for being here.

- I like the ambience, I like having choices of new teas that I haven't tried before.

So I like the China rose petal tea.

That was really good.

I always wanted to try a cucumber sandwich so I had that experience.

That was good.

- When you come into the door into your space, there's a beautiful collection of authentic China that you have collected over time.

How did you start that and what's the significance of that to you 'cause I know you take it very personally.

- Oh, I have a lot of pride in my China collection.

Again, it comes back to the British tradition.

It was a marker of special occasions and I really think they're beautiful.

I love the tradition of afternoon tea and tea time.

So I have, I've started collecting and I'm learning about China as I go and I'm learning about brands and I'm learning about patterns and it's just, it's a fun hobby.

So this is a passion, it's my fun, it's my passion and I love connections and relationships.

It's a combination of the two things that I love the most, which is the tradition of afternoon tea, everything British, but then also preserving relationships and maintaining those connections.

(lively instrumental music) (cups clinking) - It's time now for a special segment here on "Living West Michigan."

Each week we get to talk and learn with everyone's favorite neighborhood flower guy J Schwanke about how to make stunning arrangements that will have you living in bloom.

(bright music) J, I cannot tell you how much I love blue flowers.

- Awesome.

- That's my favorite color.

- Awesome.

That's perfect then.

Then we're in the right spot.

- We're in the right spot.

- Now, I don't know if you know this, but blue is the hardest color to locate in flowers.

It has the smallest quantity.

- I did not know that.

- So we're familiar with blue hydrangeas.

Blue delphinium is also something that's very popular.

Even the blue that comes up in our wonderful bird of paradise, that's a natural blue in there.

And complimentary colors.

- Absolutely.

- So will always cause excitement.

So typically when I make a blue arrangement, I will put it in a blue vase to help impact that color a little bit more.

- Wow.

Give it that extra punch.

- Yes.

Today I brought a brand new blue chrysanthemum.

It's from a company that is bioengineering these by placing the gene from Delphinium into these flowers.

So these are naturally colored from natural color flowers and- - But it's purposeful.

- It's purposeful to make them a blue color.

The company that does this wants to do the impossible, and so they're making blue roses, they're making blue chrysanthemums.

So exactly.

- Those are absolutely stunning.

- So we're gonna use some of these today in our arrangements as well.

- All right.

- So I have a selection for you.

I gave you this wonderful artsy vase because that seems like it's beautiful for you.

And so in mine, I'm actually using chicken wire.

So I threw some chicken wire down inside there.

Both of us need structure to start with.

So I think it's a great opportunity for you to use some delphinium like that and one of the hydrangeas to create some structure for your vase.

- All right.

- In contrast, I'm gonna use them separately over here, but I'm gonna use them all the same length and I'm still gonna go in with them in one spot.

- Okay, and I cut, I'm gonna put mine, let's see.

- Right.

Perfect.

- And we're gonna do this.

- Yep.

- Okay.

- Now grab your hydrangea.

- Okay.

- And you're gonna cut your hydrangea probably right about that long or so.

- Okay.

- And you're going to kick it right in the front.

Exactly.

- Wonderful.

- That's exactly what you're doing.

- That's beautiful.

Look at that.

- Okay, and so now you can go ahead and add your other flowers as you please, because you've created a structure.

- So this is my base?

- Correct.

- And then I just kind of fill it in after that.

- Exactly, exactly.

And so with that chicken wire, it allows me a little bit more precision with my flowers so I could like reflect the bird of paradise that we have to give them a little bit more of an angle, but chicken wire, I'm gonna tell you everybody that wants to use chicken wire and wants to make a chicken wire arrangement.

Chicken wire is not for the faint of heart.

- Did you do that yourself, make those holes?

Or does it come like that?

- Chicken wire comes like that.

It's the poultry netting that we would put in a chicken coop.

- Right, so it's already... - It's already like that.

¦ - Pulled together, yeah.

- And then what I did was I just wadded it up into a wad and put it down inside the vase.

And it's a new mechanic that a lot of people like to use because it's eco-friendly.

- Okay.

- All right.

So I love that.

And I like that the birds inside here, you know, make it look- - Yes.

- That'll be a little bit of a nod to our chicken wire that's down inside there.

Look at you, look at you go.

It's so amazing.

- I don's know if I'm doing that right, but I'm just popping 'em in and these are beautiful flowers.

- [J] Right?

- This is so fun.

- And that's the best.

Oh, see And that's the way it should be.

Turn around, turn around so everybody can see what you're doing.

- Did I do good?

- Yeah, you should add a couple of those bird of paradise 'cause a little bird told me that you used to get those when you lived- - When I lived in San Francisco, it was my favorite flower.

- Yeah, it's wonderful, - It's so beautiful.

- Yeah, it's just, you know, I think, I think the really important part is that we enjoy our flowers and that we pick flowers that have great memories for us.

- Absolutely.

- And the memories that you shared with me about those, made me feel like that's exactly what we need to have today.

So when you're arranging flowers with your friends, okay, up, up.

- Okay, move it.

Move it.

- Exactly.

I think it's amazing that when you're working with flowers or you're talking with somebody and you ask them about their first memory of flowers, it's gonna spark a story.

- Yes.

- And that's because they're so emotional.

- They absolutely are.

- And it's just the feeling that it gives you.

- Yeah.

And it does, it relates and it's kind of like mental health in a way.

I mean, it really can blossom your day, so to speak.

- Absolutely.

And there are proven research documents.

We have 'em on our website and with all these studies that were done by Dr. Havelin Jones that proved that flowers make us feel better, it's the health and wellness aspects that flowers have.

It's truly a great way to be living life in bloom.

- Beautiful.

(bright music) More content can be found on WGVUs YouTube channel or the PBS app.

Be sure to also check out wgvu.org/livingwestmichigan, where you can submit ideas for future features on the show.

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Jennifer Moss and this is "Living West Michigan."