Dream job

New Maybury State Park director has deep Northville roots

    Kale Leftwich feels right at home in his new position as Maybury State Park supervisor.

    Leftwich, who was named to the position following the retirement of former supervisor Traci Sincock early this year, grew up across the street from the park near Napier and Eight Mile. His family moved to the home when he was 10 years old and the nearby park became his playground with a magical forest to explore. He and his wife and children now live in a home they built on a portion of the land owned by his parents.
    A 2001 graduate of Northville High School, he said he and his teen friends spent a lot of time riding the mountain bike trails in the 944-acre park which includes woodlands, meadows, a fishing pond and walking/running, bicycling and horseback trails. After studying industrial technology management for two years at Central Michigan University and working in commercial construction for 10 years, Leftwich said he decided to follow his heart and pursue a career in park work. He began his career at Maybury in 2010 doing summer work. Three years later, he became a ranger at Seven Lakes State Park in Holly. Park rangers are commissioned park officers, who can make arrests and write tickets. In 2017, he served as head ranger at Brighton Recreation Area. While there, he was interviewed by the Rose Lake District supervisor panel and landed his dream job at Maybury.
    Leftwich is now responsible for park financials and operations and reports directly to the Rose Lake District supervisor. He works closely with Friends of Maybury, Northville Parks & Recreation and other agencies on programming, fundraising and applying for grants for park projects. Major infrastructure planning and funding for Maybury starts at the state
    “The park is wild without being intimidating,” Leftwich said. When it became a park in 1975, Maybury was at the far edge of development; now it is surrounded by neighborhoods of luxury homes.
    “This place becomes more relevant with the development around it,” Leftwich said.
    The park will mark the 50th anniversary of the facility next year and marked 801,447 annual visits in 2023.
    The park is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Leftwich said night visitors light their way and continue riding bikes, walking or running along the pathway or trails and also come to look at the night sky, which is one of the darkest places in the area for celestial viewing.