Community

On Tuesday, Dec. 7, the Huntington County Community Foundation (HCCF) awarded a $2,000 grant to Community Harvest Food Bank. The grant was sponsored by the Donald and Nancy McDaniel Community Fund and the Culp CPA Group Community Fund. Community Harvest Food Bank sponsors the Farm Wagons that come to Huntington County twice a week and helps other Huntington non-profit agencies obtain food for their clients.

Huntington University (HU) has announced that the keynote speaker for the 2022 Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation will be Laurel Bunker.

The 2022 MLK Convocation will take place on Monday, Jan. 17, at 11:30 a.m., in Zurcher Auditorium inside the Merillat Centre for the Arts on HU’s home campus in Huntington. Bunker’s message will focus on Psalm 133:1 and “The Symphony of Unity.”

The service is free and open to the public. It will also be available via livestream at huntington.edu/MLK2022.

On Wednesday, Jan. 5, Eileen McMillan (fifth from left) marked the opening of her State Farm Insurance office with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Also present at the ceremony were (from left) Charlie Chapman, Damon Kuhlenbeck, Derek Alan, Trish Marks, Erin Mongosa, Brock Zehr, Ralph Mongosa, Bob Caley, Steve Godfroy and Mayor Richard Strick.

The Huntington County Soil and Water Conservation District will host its monthly meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m.

For location of the meeting, contact the District Office at 356-6816 ext. 3. The meeting is open to the public.

Over the course of approximately 50 weeks, a local group of volunteers (featured above) worked to complete a boardwalk at the Forks of the Wabash, which extends over one of the trails and makes it more accessible for people. The boardwalk is over 1,000 feet long and approximately 1,500 man-hours were spent to build it. Volunteers stated that the Huntington County Commissioners helped pay for lumber through a grant and that local businesses such as Juergens Hardware and Builders Mart helped with the cost of supplies.

Attendees may look forward to a Winter Olympics theme at Science Central’s next Disability Days session, set for Saturday, Jan. 22, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Disability Days is Science Central’s program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Sessions are free to attend for those individuals, along with their caretakers, thanks to funding from AWS Foundation. This program was formerly known as “Special Abilities Days.”

On Monday, Dec. 6, the Huntington County Community Foundation awarded a $3,500 grant to Place of Grace. The grant was sponsored by the Gina & Scott Canady Community Fund, the John & Midge Decker Community Fund, the Steve and Vicky Eisenhut Community Fund and the David & Susan Brewer Family (John, Anne and Michael) Fund. The grant will support purchasing curriculum and programming supplies for residential recovery programming and additional training for Place of Grace staff members.

The President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Northern Indiana Marjorie Stephens officially retired on Saturday, Jan. 1.

Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating a potential scam where unsuspecting Hoosiers are being duped when booking campsites.

The public’s assistance is being sought in the investigation where a third party fraudulently advertises and rents campsites to Hoosiers, who then upon arrival, find the site they paid for is not available.

Instances of this scam could date back as far as July 2021.
If individuals have utilized a third party on social media for reserving a site for this upcoming year, they may be victims of this scam.

The Huntington County Emergency Plan for Hazardous Materials Incidents may be reviewed during regular business hours at the office of Emergency Management (EMA), 20 Victory Noll Drive, Huntington.

All information filed by covered SARA Title III Facilities in Huntington County may be reviewed during regular business hours at the office of the Emergency

Huntington University (HU) has announced that the university has received a grant from AWS Foundation in the amount of $160,000. This grant will support a pilot program that will explore options for students in the Achieving Balance in Life through Education (ABLE) Program to participate in various levels of residence life at HU.

A presidential proclamation, which was signed by President Joe Biden on Dec. 30, 2021, marks January 2022 as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The act of declaring January to be National Human Trafficking Prevention Month has been in place since 2010, and each year, different organizations share resources and raise money and awareness to help those affected by this crime.

The first paragraph of the proclamation reads:

The Huntington Parks & Recreation Department have planned two events for parents and their children.

The first event will be the Greatest Showman Daddy-Daughter Dance 2022. The dates and times are as follows:

• Friday, Feb. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m.
• Saturday, Feb. 12, from 5 to 7 p.m.
• Sunday, Feb. 13, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Doors will be open 30 minutes prior to the start of the event for pictures.

The second event will be a Mother-Son Extravaganza called “A Magical Night” which will take place on Saturday, March 5, from 5 to 7 p.m.

On Tuesday, Dec. 28, the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced it has awarded $204,000 to 102 creative entrepreneurs to fund arts projects around the state through the agency’s On-Ramp Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator program.  

Each funded project will support the pursuit of a clearly defined business goal that also supports the entrepreneur’s community.

Preschool-age children and their adults are invited to Salamonie Preschool’s “S is for Snow” on Wednesday, Jan. 19, to play in the snow and learn how it is made.

Children ages 2 to 5 and their adults are welcome to attend the class from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Salamonie Interpretive Center located in Lost Bridge West State Recreation Area, Andrews.

Each program is designed to enhance the preschooler’s basic education, including music, crafts, social interaction and time outdoors, always with a nature-related theme.