Karin Flint has been named a “Community Champion” by Traverse City Tourism. A native of Harbor Springs, Flint lived for 42 years in Bloomfield Hills, where she spent seven years running the Detroit-Motor City Horse Show, before deciding to move north and work on a new Traverse City event called Horse Shows by the Bay.

In 2007, she bought an 84-acre piece of property on Bates Road. The horse park served as headquarters for Horse Shows by the Bay, which brought an estimated 9,000 visitors and $12 million in spending to the Traverse City area each year over the next seven years.

This past year, the horse park become home to a new event: the four-week Great Lakes Equestrian Festival, which brought 1,200 horses, 900 riders and hundreds of spectators and staff to the area during July. The 2016 festival is being expanded to seven weeks, a July 6-31 series and another Aug. 10-28.

“Karin has demonstrated great vision and an incredible commitment to developing a fantastic equestrian facility at Flintfields,” says Brad Van Dommelen, president and CEO of Traverse City Tourism. “We are very pleased to present her with our Community Champion award for 2015 and are very excited about the future of Flintfields.”

Traverse City Tourism launched the Community Champions program in 2006 to promote new convention and meeting business by recognizing local men and women who have worked with the organization to bring meetings, conventions and other events to Traverse City. Flint received the honor during the organization's annual meeting at the Great Wolf Lodge.