07/10/2024, 12:57

Good afternoon, folks,

I am writing to both update and to ask for help.

The State of Michigan is in process validating our petition. Some of you may have been contacted already if they are unable to confirm your vineyard through their records. We are almost ready go to the next phase, but we have some additional housekeeping. Unfortunately, we cannot use ANY Anonymous signatures. Losing these signatures of support could be detrimental. There are approximately 20 outstanding. Losing these could put us below the required threshold of 25% of wine grape growers in Michigan. If you are one of the anonymous supporters, you can still support anonymously by emailing Jamie Guardiola at the Office of Legal Affairs at MDARD . She will accept this as confirmation if you can prove your link to grape growing.

If you wanted help us to continue to gather more support, please contact me and I can email you a copy of the petition to gather handwritten signatures.

Thank you!
Brian Lillie