Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • A4

4A WWW.FREEP.COM MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2017 METRO 313-222-6600 MUSIC TO THEIR EARS: Albion College is using the largest donation in its 182-year history on a new music building. The university says that construction on the new building could begin as early as fall 2018. Alums Richard and Marilyn Vitek made the undisclosed donation, which covers half of the anticipated costs for the project. Albion College President Mauri Ditzler said the Richard and Marilyn Vitek Center for Musical Arts will create a new experience for students for years in the future.

Associated Press They did residents ofMarine City set an unofficial Guinness World Record on Saturday for the most people simultaneously carving pumpkins. They were helped by a few hundred folks who showed up at the last minute many of them from the Grosse Pointes who read about their mis- sion in my column Thursday in the Detroit Free Press. The feat is unofficial; the town must await confirmation from the folks at Guinness, who will review videos as well as written records from 24 official observers. But Marine City has already be- gun celebrating not just the record, but the influx of new visitors to the town on the St. Clair River, about 50 miles northeast of Detroit.

Marine City is doing it: It is becoming a tourist destina- tion. had so many walk-up people, it was Erika DeLange, executive director of the Marine City Area Chamber of Commerce, said late Saturday. had 1,064 people, and the record was 1,060. have to tell you we had so many people from Grosse Pointe who came up and said, have never been here before, and we read Ro- article, and it was so amazing, we had to come here. And this was the best The world-record attempt came a week after I spent a sunny Saturday learning how a town fearing its own mortal- ity decided to become a tour- ist destination.

in the day, you could shoot a cannon down the street and not hit anything. It was a ghost DeLange told me last week. That has changed. Last year, the town set an unofficial world record for the longest string of popcorn, which it stretched across the St. Clair River from Marine City to Sombra, Ontario.

This year, 1,064 people carved pumpkins, which were then lit and turned into a show that people could stroll through for donations toward Dave Vandenbossche, mayor of Marine City, also owns Vandenbossche Farms in China Township. JUNFU FREE PRESS Pumpkin-carving record? Marine City gets it done ROCHELLE RILEY See RILEY, Page 6A Stefan DeClerck was a promising student, a terrific athlete, a loving son. The 17-year-old student from California was popular with his classmates and teach- ers at Cranbrook Schools, an elite private college prep school in Bloomfield Hills. He was looking forward to study- ing computer science at the University of Michigan. His future seemed bright.

None of that saved him from overdosing on illegal drugs last spring. DeClerck was found de- ceased in his dormitory room in June, the same day he planned to attend prom. The Oakland County Medical Ex- report, released in September, indicates the cause of death was an over- dose of synthetic opioids. is a problem that af- fects all ages, all classes and all professions from blue col- lar to white Bloomfield Hills Public Safety Director Noel Clason said about the growing opioid crisis in Amer- ica. people in jail solve it.

We need pro- grams that offer education, re- covery and In the Bloomfield Hills po- lice report, officers were called to the private school June 7 on reports of an unre- sponsive male. A Cranbrook instructor had gone to dorm room earlier that morning to check on him af- ter he failed to show for a final exam. She found him lying in his bed, his skin cold to the touch, with no detectable pulse. The report describes photo- graphs taken at the dormitory room: prescription pill bottles and an Altoids canister con- taining suspicious drug para- phernalia. They also took a photograph of a Fitbit watch on the young left wrist.

Clay Matthews, director of communications for Cran- brook Schools, released the following statement: en- tire Cranbrook Schools com- munity was deeply saddened by the loss of one of our own last spring, and the recent con- clusion of the investigation is a heartbreaking re- Synthetic drugs blamed for Cranbrook death in dorm room By Jay Grossman hometownlife.com Stefan DeClerck See OVERDOSE, Page 6A Boxing legend Tommy voice filled with sadness on Sunday afternoon as he surveyed the ruins of the old Kronk boxing gym, where he and dozens of oth- er notable Detroit boxers trained from the 1970s into the 2000s. The world-renowned gym had been situated in the basement of the city of De- Kronk Recreation Center, which had been abandoned for a decade and was largely destroyed in a fire Saturday night. The Detroit Fire Department called the blaze suspicious and said an in- vestigation is under way. just sad to see that people value this place like we said Hearns, 58, the smell of charred debris still lin- gering in the air. this building brought for me was a chance at life.

I got a chance to become somebody out of this building right here. see it like this is pitiful really Hearns was among several current and former Detroit-area professional boxers who ventured out Sunday to see what remained of the original Kronk gym. The get-together had the atmos- phere of a wake. heard, but I had to see it with my own said Tarick Salmaci, 45, of Dearborn, who began boxing at Kronk in 1986 and also went on to fight as a profes- sional. Firefighters responded to an emer- gency call at 9:25 p.m.

Saturday, arriving at the empty recreational building at McGraw and Junction on west side. The fire had already spread to the sec- CAREERS STARTED AT CENTER HEARNS ON KRONK GYM FIRE: REALLY Tommy (Hitman) Hearns, who won titles in five weight classes after starting at the Kronk Gym, came to see the charred ruins. JC Fabled training site is gutted by what authorities call suspicious blaze The Kronk Gym is in charred ruins Sunday following a fire the previous night in Detroit. see it like this is pitiful really said Hearns. J.C.

FREE PRESS See KRONK, Page 10A By Allie Gross and JC Reindl Detroit Free Press What was promised to be a large-scale patriotic rally of people protesting professional football players taking a knee during the national anthem was, in reality, not much. Eight men in various itera- tions of red-white-and-blue garb stood outside of Ford Field on Sunday morning car- rying American flags and signs asking football fans to please for am out here for love and patriotism for my said Joe Miriani, 57, a retired UAW autoworker from Ann Arbor, who sported a decked- out cowboy hat. The protest before Sun- game against the Caroli- na Panthers, was organized by Brian Pannebecker, a Donald Trump supporter and leader of Michigan Freedom to Work. The plan was shared on Face- book and reported on by the news media, including the Free Press. On game day, however, the hype was far bigger than the reality.

The protesters observ- ed by a Free Press reporter stood along Brush Street in front of Gate of the stadium, asking people to stand for the anthem, but not overtly get- ting into face. The national debate over athletes taking a knee during the national anthem heated up last month when President Donald Trump at a Sept. 22 ral- ly in Alabama called on NFL owners to fire anyone who en- gaged in the silent protest against police brutality and racism. The speech conflated the act of taking a knee with a lack of patriotism, and that weekend social media was afire on the subject as Trump continued to tweet about NFL players and what he saw as their disrespect of the flag. Many players and team owners thumbed their noses at Trump the following Sunday by either taking a knee during the anthem or locking arms in solidarity.

In Detroit, eight Li- ons plays kneeled while team owner Martha Ford linked arms with the players during the anthem. After the game, she announced that she would donate money to justice-mind- ed organizations of the ath- letes choosing, if they would stand, instead of kneeling, dur- ing the anthem. None of the Lions players took a knee during game, but in Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence left the Indianapolis Colts game after several players from the San Francisco 49ers chose to kneel during the national anthem. left Colts game because and I will not dignify any event that dis- respects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Pence wrote in a tweet. Some of the fans entering Patriotic rally fizzles with few protesters By Allie Gross Detroit Free Press Kevin Grand of Armada Township carries an American flag as he walks through the crowd outside Ford Field on Sunday.

KIMBERLY P. See FIELD, Page 9A.