GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — The typical peak of individuals in Michigan is a bit greater this week — and the rationale why isn’t any tall story.
Greater than 100 of a number of the tallest folks on the earth are visiting for the annual Tall Golf equipment Worldwide conference. On Wednesday, they headed out to Grand Haven, Michigan, to see the sights.
“After I inform folks about it, particularly folks which can be shorter, they’re like, ‘Hey, what are you doing for the Fourth?’ I am like, ‘Effectively, I will the Tall Membership conference.’ They’re like, ‘What? There is a Tall Membership?’ Ellen Bayer chuckled.
Ellen Bayer speaks with Information 8’s Brittany Flowers whereas visiting Grand Haven with The Tall Golf equipment Worldwide conference on July 2, 2025.
She jokes that she stands 5-foot-22 — or simply below 6-foot-10. The conference marks one of many solely weeks out of the yr that she will see eye-to-eye with these round her.
“For men to join the Tall Club, they have to be 6-foot-2 and women, 5-foot-10,” Bayer defined. “It’s just a lot of fun. You just get to know people year after year. We’re like a family.”
“Usually (people) think we’re a basketball team,” laughed Norma Forrest.
The 6-foot-1 Canadian attended her first conference in 1989 and has solely missed two since then.
“I was in a drug store and somebody really tall walked up to me and said, ‘You’re tall. Join the club!’ And I did, and it’s been amazing. I joined in 1986, and since then, I’ve had the chance to travel across Canada, across the states and to Europe and to meet people from all those places,” Forrest stated.
Many within the membership have made lifelong pals.
“I love coming here, and I’ve made a lot of friends, and we’re one just big, happy family,” stated Dai Reynolds, who traveled all the way in which from Nice Britain.
Hundreds of tall folks from all around the world have Kae Sumner Einfelt to thank for the connections. In 1938, Einfelt was coloring for Walt Disney Studios, creating drawings for Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” At 6-foot-4, she ultimately grew bored with being teased, so she put an advert within the newspaper to start out a tall folks’s membership.
“The Los Angeles club was the original club. There have been as many as 50 or 60 clubs across the U.S. and Canada. We’re about 33 right now,” TCI’s 6-foot-7 president Bob Huggett stated.
He added that there are about 900 folks within the membership at the moment, however the numbers was a lot greater.
“People aren’t participating in clubs and stuff anymore as much as they used to,” Huggett defined.
Nonetheless, the people who find themselves a part of it say it is top-of-the-line choices they’ve made.
“As you’re part of this club and you start coming to these conventions, you become family. So these are almost family reunions,” Huggett stated.
Pat Radloff met her husband within the membership. She’s 5-foot-10, and he was 6-foot-6.
“My husband and I actually went on our honeymoon to a Tall Club convention in Vail, Colorado,” Radloff recalled.
After his loss of life, she continued to attend the conventions, even suggesting they bring about it to Grand Rapids this yr, the place she lives.
“You have a dream and make it happen. I knew there were great places to come, Grand Haven being one of them. We planned mainly family-owned, Michigan-themed places to go: Great Lakes Glow Golf, Grand Lady riverboat, The Score with the beach theme there,” Radloff stated.
The Tall Golf equipment Worldwide conference visits Grand Haven on July 2, 2025.
However planning it’s a tall order.
“We consider bus clearances, bus bathrooms, steps to places,” co-organizer Sue Morrison stated. “One of the great things about Embassy Suites, if there’s any tall people watching, Embassy Suites’ showers are at 7-foot-4 in the bathroom.”
Meaning even the tallest particular person within the group can stand tall.
“I’m 7-foot-2. I’ve shrunk from 7-foot-4. I’m 64 years old,” Dave Rasmussen instructed Nexstar’s WOOD.
Rasmussen cannot go many locations with out folks noticing his extraordinarily tall stature.
“If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked me, I’d be a millionaire today,” he laughed.
As a lot enjoyable because the group has collectively, it is also a possibility to share concepts about issues folks of common peak most likely by no means take into consideration.
“Clothing — we share notes on that. Also cars. Going to the theater, chairs. Ergonomics of chairs and stuff and flights and traveling … planes are terrible. We compare notes on all these things and try to make the most of it,” Rasmussen stated.
TCI is at all times accepting new members. Yow will discover extra info on its web site.
