Community

On Thursday, Aug. 26, several different groups came together for a special taco bar fundraiser in order to make a donation to a local charity that helps children.

Huntington North High School senior Addy Wiley was recently named the 2020-21 Gatorade Player of the Year for girls track and field.

Wiley says that she was happy to win the designation.

“I was really amazed because a lot of other great runners I look up to have won this award and there were other great athletes in Indiana that could’ve won it this year, so it was just really an honor to be able to say that, for one year, that was something that I accomplished,” Wiley said.

As fall approaches, the American Red Cross urges eligible donors to help end the ongoing critical need for blood and kick off the season with a blood or platelet donation. The Red Cross needs donors of all blood types to give now and help ensure lifesaving transfusions are on the sidelines for those who rely on them.

The Red Cross is concerned that the rise in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant and a potentially active hurricane season may further challenge the ability to collect and meet hospital demand.

Bowen Center announced on Friday, Aug. 20, that it will again expand the hours for its free COVID-19 drive-through testing site located at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds Shrine Building in Warsaw.

The site has seen a 205 percent increase in visits over the last three weeks. The hours were expanded on Monday of this week and already the number of those seeking a test have doubled from the previous week.

The Zanesville United Bretheren Church, 3092 W. Broad St., beside Len-gerich Meats, Inc., will offer a 13-week seminar on grief beginning on Monday, Sept. 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post No. 2689 in Huntington, as well as the VFW Post No. 2689 Auxiliary, will be hosting an upcoming series of Bake-Off fundraising events for Huntington County residents to participate in.
Gloria Holzinger, the chairman of the project, says that the idea for the bake-off events began when several post members started talking about different ways that they could raise money for organizations. Wanting to come up with something unique that could involve people from all different backgrounds, the idea for a bake-off was born.

On Monday, Aug. 30, Mayor Richard Strick signed a proclamation recognizing that Tuesday, Aug. 31, is National Overdose Awareness Day and that the month of September is National Recovery Awareness Month.

Representatives from Place of Grace, which is a transitional house for women leaving jail, as well as Ground Zero Community Center, a community center on the south side of Huntington, as well as a few other community members were present for the reading of the proclamation.

The Huntington County Community Foundation (HCCF) recently presented checks to several Huntington establishments, including Love INC and the LaFontaine Arts Council (LAC).

For Love INC, a grand total of $1,869.48 in HCCF funding will be used towards Love INC’s fundraising efforts to purchase a Zoll AED2 defibrillator and to provide training for up to 20 of Love INC’s staff to become certified users, and well as training in CPR and first aid.

The Huntington County Master Gardeners will host a public forum on Wednesday, Sept. 1, at 6:30 p.m., at the Forks of the Wabash, 3011 W. Park Drive, Huntington.

Purdue Extension Master Gardener Tim Deal will lead a walk featuring trees that he has marked near the trails. Purdue Extension Master Gardener April Reed will be sharing information about Monarch butterflies and possibly releasing them.

To register for this public forum,  contact the Purdue Extension Huntington County Office by calling 358-4826.

In order to spread hope, to end the stigma associated with mental health and substance use disorders and to connect people to each other and to resources, The Mom of an Addict, Inc. is presenting Recovery Rocks Fort Wayne 2021.

This event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 11, from 3 to 8 p.m., at the Sweetwater Performance Pavilion, 5501 U.S.-30 W., Fort Wayne. This Recovery Month event is free and open to the public.

The Markle Church of Christ hosted a Parking Lot Paint Party on Saturday, Aug. 21. Featured above are (from left) Quinn Wilson, Camrynn Fulton, Vera Wolfe, Ruby Oakleaf and Lydia Wolfe standing behind their artwork.

On Wednesday, Sept. 1, the Huntington County Genealogical Society will have a combined live and virtual meeting. The topic will be “Family History and Family Stories.” A very brief kickoff presentation by Carole Hacker will be followed by an attendee show-and-tell.

On Tuesday, Aug. 24, Roanoke Elementary School students in Kriston Hosler’s kindergarten classroom had a visitor. One of Hosler’s sons, Ashton, shared his tortoise “Lola” with the class. Featured are (from left) Banks Vansickle, Roman Bowling, Mitchell Reeder, Alex Kuhns and Hudson Wiley checking out the tortoise.

The following is a Public Health Warning from Huntington County Public Health Officer Matt Pflieger dated Wednesday, Aug. 25:

We continue to be in the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19 that has taken more than 600,000 American lives. Despite safe and effective vaccines being readily available, the vaccination rate for Indiana and Huntington County lags behind the national average.

There is currently an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases in Huntington County and Indiana, which is coupled with a rapid increase in hospitalizations.

On Wednesday, Aug. 25, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana Broadband Office visited Huntington University to announce Huntington County as an official Broadband Ready Community, making it the 50th Hoosier community to receive the designation. The Broadband Ready Communities Program was created as a tool to encourage broadband development throughout Indiana.

The Broadband Ready Community certification sends a signal to the telecommunication industry that a community has taken steps to reduce barriers to broadband infrastructure investment.