Recognized by
Michigan 4-H Youth Development

With support from
Michigan 4-H Foundation

Last updated: June 11, 2008

Co-founder/co-operator,
Great Lakes Packing Company and Cherry Ke, Inc.

“I met the woman of my dreams in a 4-H activity, the International Farm Youth Exchange, and married her. I traveled and met people who were good teachers, positive role models and effective mentors. 4-H introduced me to Michigan State University, where I got the best education I could have ever imagined.”

A promoter of world peace, Norman Veliquette grew up on a dairy farm and was a member of Antrim County’s A-K 4-H Club. During his last year in 4-H, he was an International Four-H Youth Exchange (IFYE) delegate to Brazil where he lived for seven months. He has hosted several international exchange students and is fluent in Portuguese. Veliquette served in the U.S. Navy, but after a career-ending injury in Navy football, attended MSU for a degree in agricultural economics. He then received his master’s degree in economic development.

Veliquette was the Michigan Farm Bureau regional representative and fruit market specialist for four years and during which formed a fruit-growing and processing operation with his brothers. He served as president of the Lowell area Jaycees and organized a Jaycee Chapter among the inmates of the Ionia Reformatory. Veliquette and his wife, Marjory, co-founded Great Lakes Packing Company and Cherry Ke, Inc. in 1972, and later Cherry Bay Orchards in Suttons Bay. And in 1990, he co-founded Cherrco, Inc., an international marketing coop for cherries. Veliquette’s service includes Michigan Agricultural Commission past chairman, 20 years on the Elk Rapids Board of Education and member of the Elk Rapids Rotary Club since 1983. To benefit Rotary International and its worldwide program to eradicate polio, Veliquette has walked on his hands a total of over 100 miles internationally. He has also authored a three-book series, Fulfilling Our Promise, about the international efforts of volunteers to eradicate polio. He has performed 25 years of stand-up comedy routines in the Elk Rapids Rotary Show; and organized and conducted Lead-ER-Ship, a local youth program. Additionally, he helped secure equipment for Peterman Auditorium and the Virtual Classroom at Elk Rapids High School and has served 30 years as church lector.